Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links

Subject: Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 11:06 AM

I know that many of us have our own websites--some commercially oriented, some purely personal, some a combination. I assume that most who do have a site would like as much traffic as possible. After all, the idea of a website is for communication with those who have similar interests.

I am suggesting, through this thread, a conscious reciprocal link posting of links on our respective sites.

For instance, I'll list my URL here, (and with a link) and ask that you consider including it on your site's links page, if you have one. I will check out any URLs others enter in this thread, with a view to including them in mine.

I am not saying that I will make a link to every site named here, but I'll look at each of them with a prejudged favorable view, and it is likely that most such URLs will end up on my links page. I'd appreciate others considering my site for inclusion in yours.

My URL is http://daveosings.50megs.com      Note there's no WWW there.

Here it is as a link: DAVEOSINGS

What's your reaction to this idea? Will you add your URL and/or link?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 11:13 AM

A Mudcatter Webring might be simpler in the long run.

~S~

Subject: RE: Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links
From: treewind
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 11:50 AM

A Mudcat page with them all on it would be a better idea.
If we were asked to supply a URL (assuming we wanted to) when we joined, it could then be added automatically to that page. Of course anyone can include a link in their mudcat profile entry.

I don't believe in links pages very much. The whole point of hypertext is to put links in context, not to shove them on a page of their own, unless there's a good reason for an "index" type of page where the links have something in common.

Still, I might yet put a links to friends or links to mudcatters page up, so if I do I'll include Dave O's, especially as he thought of it, and any other offerings posted here.

Here's mine anyway: http://www.treewind.co.uk

One advantage of having lots of links to your site it that it increases your Gooogle ranking. Or at least it used to - I'm not sure what the current state is, after some abuse occurred...

Anahata

Subject: RE: Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links
From: GEST
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 12:18 PM

Reciprocal links is not such a good idea. I have many Web pages, one of which was created almost entirely of links to other people's pages - over 400 when it was originally published in 1999. This one page has caused more work for me than any other page I have. Broken links is the primary reason. At least once a week I perform a link check and usually end up deleting links which no longer exist or have moved. Maintenance is just too time-consuming.

As a result, when taking over Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador from Frank White two years ago, I decided not to place links on the site other than those that were grandfathered from Frank's original.

This decision bugged some folks who felt they should have a link on the site if asked permission to add lyrics to one of their songs. After explaining why I no longer make links, I rarely hear back from them again. For some reason, they feel offended, or cheated.

Nonetheless, my decision stands. Folks can post to my Forum and promote their music or Web sites, but that is completely different from a links page. People change their Web hosts or their URLs much more often than many realize.

I have a few unpublished pages with hundreds of links to sites such as the Mudcat, Contemplator, etc., but these are fairly static sites and no one uses those links but me. No one can complain to me about broken links on them either. :-)

Subject: RE: Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 12:22 PM

Susan, please explain "a Mudcatter webring". I've heard the term, but that's all.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links
From: GEST
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 12:28 PM

Dave ~ One of my pages is included in about a dozen related Web rings. Take a look here to get an idea of how they work. They, too, can be troublesome, especially when a ring goes down and the page will not properly load. :-)

Subject: RE: Proposal: Reciprocal Mudcatter web links
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 12:36 PM

I understand that at the last update of the Google search engine its webcrawlers (the software that trawls through the internet indexing pages for subsequent retrieval) have been given new algorithms that detect and "punish" reciprocal linking, especially where it occurs in dedicsted "links pages" or in any case out of context.

So if you have too many links on your website simply listed out of context you could end up getting "blacklisted" by Google...

By all means however, links can and should be added in context.