bethohio3

Thanks, Raul. I will use a more complicated system if I have to, but all I really want is to be able to organize content as one might a forum, and not even as many levels deep, but I want the articles to be approved in order to avoid the "me, too" and "what she said" that you get in a forum. Which more complicated tools will do this? If phpnuke supports two level topics, I haven't figured out how yet :-( Of course, their documentation is so bad that I'd like to strangle whoever wrote it. --Beth

I want to create a site to manage content submitted by a community (that makes me unique, right? :-) But, I don't need or want many features. I've installed phpnuke, but am having trouble figuring out the distinction between topics, sections, blocks, modules, articles, news... (and yes, I've read the manual :-) What I want is relatively simple (oh yeah, and I want free/cheap, since it's for a non-profit): I want to create a tree-structure of topics--two levels deep is sufficient: Management Roles & Responsibilities Schedule Approval proess Announcements Hospitality Meals Snacks Beverages Shopping Food Safety etc. There would be about 10-15 "top-level" topics and each one would have 5-20 subtopics under it. Each topic and subtopic would have a paragraph or so "describing" it. Ideally, the structure would always be available, and people could submit articles (to be approved, possibly) for a specific subtopic. I would also want to be able to attach files (such as PDFs) to a specific subtopic. Although I wouldn't mind having a forum, polls, calendar, etc., I don't really need them. I'm searching websites, content management sites such as cmsmatrix, but have not yet identified something that seems to do what I want--most seem to have one-level topics and are much more complicated than I'm hoping to find. My thanks for any advice anyone can offer. --Beth

Hi! Welcome to Total Choice! Tracy suggested the possibility of publishing your FrontPage web using FTP--I'd like to *strongly* advise against that. I use FrontPage 2002--I have sites here, which support FP extensions. I also have a site elsewhere, that does not support FP extensions, but I still develop the site in FP. FrontPage publishes pages *besides* the ones you create--it creates its buttons, its banners, its navigation bars, its shared borders. If you try to publish a FP web yourself, using FTP, you are very likely to miss some files that FTP automatically creates. I also don't know what happens with those features that require FP extension support on the server, if you don't use FP's publishing feature. And finally, FP compares your web to the web on the server, and only publishes pages you've changed (it tracks dates modified). If you publish via FTP, you'll have to do this yourself--and trust me--you'll miss some :-(. Many people will bash FrontPage, and it is far from a perfect web development environment, but it isn't bad for what it's made for--but circumventing its publishing feature will likely bring you *major* grief, and cause you to have to delete your whole web on the server and start over. --Beth p.s. The site that isn't here *would* be here if I controlled the site. I don't--I just create it.

Is an alt tag going to have the same results for search engines as text itself? --Beth

Most ISPs block people from using their connection to send email via another outgoing mail server. This is what leezard was talking about. When you setup your TCH mail account on your mail client (Outlook, Pegasus, Eudora, whatever), you need to specify two different mail servers. I use Outlook as my mail client and Ameritech as my ISP. So, for my incoming mail server, I specify my own domain: mail.bweiss.com For my outgoing mail server at home, I specify Ameritech's SMTP mail server: (something like smtp.ameritech.yahoo.net, I think) I also have to specify that my outgoing server requires authentication and fill in my username and password. That way, every time I send email, my ISP can authenticate my login and verify that I have the right to use their outgoing mail server. This can be a bit more complicated to set up than using "mail.bweiss.com" for both incoming and outgoing mail. However, it cuts down on spam, and pretty much all reputable ISPs are going to require that you authenticate before sending email. (You can have your mail client software remember your password, though, so you only have to do it once.) --Beth TCH Rocks

I do use mailman, but my lists are small and *completely* opt-in and easy for people to permanently remove themselves. (Although noone does--the 'umbrella' mailing list has its roots in a Usenet newsgroup and we've been together for more than 12 years) BUT, having said that--I think Surefile has a good take on it--if you send out emails that people complain about as spam, TCH is going to pull your account. Period. I get lots of opt-in email--but it isn't spam. If you're going to use mailing lists at TCH, you need to make sure that the email you send out fits into that category. One definition from spam is "bulk email from a stranger". "(To clarify the terms, "bulk" means a mass mailing, even if the individual messages are different, and a stranger is somebody you've never initiated personal interaction with.) " (A Spam Definition Page) As for numbers of email sent, that'll have to wait for a guru to answer. There are bandwidth limits, of course (as any reputable company has)--but nothing will get noticed as much as complaints from receivers of email or people on the same ISP who are blocked because email from that ISP has been reported as spam. --Beth

Beth's home page A site of family pictures, my writing on various pregnancy, labor, and parenting topics, and the beginnings of some web advice. Rank Evaluation (please) Thanks! --Beth

For a total of 3 sites, I might consider buying 3 accounts--which is $12, instead of the $19.99 for a reseller account. On the other hand, once I bought a reseller account, I seemed to find more domains that I needed to host! --Beth

Shortly after I signed up with TCH, I had an email that I sent to a friend bounced by SPAM Cop--it turned out that my IP address (through TCH) had been identified as sending spam. I noticed the TCH guru via Yahoo! Messenger, and sent him the headers of the emails that had bounced. The next day, I noticed in getmyhosting.com that someone had complained about his account having been terminated for spamming, but the guy claimed he *wasn't* spamming. TCH replied that he'd sent 45,000 emails in one day, and that was spam, and they don't tolerate spammers. And that was that. I don't think that there's any real way that TCH can prevent someone from spamming the first time--but they don't let them do it *twice*. --beth

I bought my son a domain name last night, and set it up. When I went to turn on SPAM Assassin, I saw the configuration interface--way to go! What a great addition to CPanel! I set it to turn on the rewriting of subject names. When I set up Outlook for him later today (can't do it now because he's playing Galactic Star Wars on his computer), I'll be able to filter out the **SPAM** email into its own folder. He can let me know if anything gets inappropriately redirected. By the way, if anyone else is considering getting a domain name for one of their children, I have informed him that he has 3 email addresses: jordan@domain.com webforms@domain.com junkmail@domain.com He is to give the first address only to friends and family. The second address is for businesses he wants to hear from again. The third is for businesses he doesn't want to hear from again but require a "real" email address. --Beth

There are two parts to transferring a domain to TCH that take time. The first is "setting up the account". That is generally done in under 12 hours. (It's often much faster than that, but a lot depends on when you do it!) The second is propagating the change across the internet--which starts after you enter the change to your DNS entries on your registrar (i.e. such as godaddy.com or networksolutions.com). That can take 12-48 hours, rarely longer. It is *not* a function of your hosting company, and there is nothing a hosting company can do to speed up this process. Once you buy an account and TCH sets it up, you will be provided with the information you need to to access your control panel, including an IP address (in the form xxx.xx.xxx.xx/~user) which you can use to FTP your content to the TCH server. When the domain name propagates, your site will be available via your domain name as well as the IP/~usr address. TCH does not publish their clients' information--and if they did, many of their clients would be enraged at the violation of their privacy. However, many of us have our domain names in our .sig files, and people have asked for web reviews in another area of this forum. You can always visit those sites to get an idea of speed. I've used MySQL with PHP and have had no issues with speed. However, that area of my website is restricted, so I can't let you try it out. Hope this helps. --Beth

I don't use one yet, because MT balked when I tried to set it up, and then I got busy with other things and didn't get back to it. I have no loyalty at the moment, and if TCH had one that magically installed from the Control Panel, I'd just use it and be happy for a while, until I had reason to be dissatisfied (if ever). --Beth

I hate WROX books. And WROX is also going out of business and not supporting their books. I have Professional PHP Programming. I emailed them to get the code listings, and received return email that they weren't supporting anything anymore as they were no longer going to be in business. --Beth

Let's see what I can do here: There is definitely no question that: Lianna Rocks! But then, Head Guru sends me funny IMs in the middle of the night and answers my help desk tickets promptly, so: Bill Rocks! Matman is new here, but he's sharp, so I guess:Matman Rocks! It made sense that HG hired Jim, since he was doing tech support anyway, so Jim Rocks! dsdemmin is always piping in with explanations of site placement on search engines, which I didn't understand at all before, so there's no doubt that dsdemmin Rocks! kweilbacher recognizes my genius :-) and adds my informative posts to the support/help page, so certainly kweilbacher Rocks! Sorry, Lianna, I obviously can count higher than 1! --Beth

You were sleeping, Bill. The other gurus have banded together to ensure that all fun stuff happens during the 3 hours of sleep you permit yourself every day. It has been very difficult for them, since your sleep schedule is not only minimal, but also unscheduled. However, since they are so incredibly competent, they are managing to make it work out even though they can't predict when those 3 hours are going to be. --Beth