Because there are times when reliable, affordable (read Free) web conferencing would make everyone’s lives easier, I thought you might appreciate this new and highly regarded Open Source offering- it is called DimDim.  DimDim may be found at: http://dimdim.com.

I am registered as: rabideau on the DimDim site.

We will be exploring utilizing this technology for transitioning ideas etc. to our client base.

For those of you who have been kind enough to spend time on our site, we thank you AND we are pleased to say that we have made a significant breakthrough in our site’s performance.

The long and short of the issue is Plugins. Plugins can act as a significant drag on your site’s performance. We have noticed load times on this site approaching 11+ seconds (wayyyy to slow!). Now the load times are running at about 4.5 seconds (we think that’s much better!). In order to solve this load dilemma we have been using a set of free tools from Pingdom.

Areas of problems we noticed in our debug process included:

• misplaced and missing image directories in the tarski theme (we now have three directories of our little gif images… because of the errant calls within the theme internal calls)
• broken image links (yes we were part of the problem too…)
• numerous poor (read slooowwwwww) plugins; these are all removed

Additionally we have learned to remove any unused (not active) plugin. Inactive plugins can still act as a performance hit. And lastly, I scrubbed our DB. Numerous plugins had left a trail of unused tables and rows in our DB– the worst culprits were a forum plugin and an audit trail plugin.

Again, thank you to everyone for sticking with us. We appreciate your patience and hope you will find our little lessons-learned useful.

WordPressHelp (WPH) is very pleased to announce that we have implemented the newest release of TreeMagic-Banyan thereby aggregating the web’s most important WordPress information all in one location!!!

In our continuing efforts to make WordPress easier to use, WPH now affords WP developers & users the opportunity to double-click on any text word on this site and gain “instant” access to related WP resource information from:

• WordPress
• Lorelle
• Automattic
• WordPress Themes
• WordPressHelp
• AmbientWebs and
• TreeMagic

Users may access the information from these sites either individually (via the drop-down menu which appears when you double-click on a term) or in a collective, intelligently, pre-processed and correlated fashion (via the WP Banyan Portal). This Web 3 functionality allows users access information ‘on-the spot’ and then return to the source for continued reading and information gathering.

If you have additional sites you wish for us to incorporate in our WP Banyan Portal and TM-Banyan Search function, please use our Contact page to let us know.

Most of these pointers are courtesy of: http://mywebresource.com

• .htaccess Generator
• .htaccess URL Rewrite
• Adsense Calculator
• AdSense Preview
• Advanced Meta-Tags Generator
• Advanced Syntax Highlighting
• Alexa Rank Comparison
• Alexa Traffic Rank
• Backlink Checker
• Base64 Encoding / Decoding
• Broken Link Checker
• Check Server Headers
• Class C Checker
• Code to Text Ratio
• CPM Advertising ROI Calculator
• CSS Coder
• CSS Navigation Menu Generator
• Datetime format converter
• DHTML Tooltip
• Dig Utility
• DNS Utility
• Domain Age
• Domain Look-up
• Domain Lookup Tool
• Domain Typo Generator
• Domain Whois
• Dropdown menu
• Fetch Header
• Fetch HTML content
• Floating Layer
• Future PageRank
• Google Banned Checker
• Google Dance Tool
• Google Datacenter Search
• Google PageRank Prediction
• Google Suggest Scraper Tool
• Google vs Yahoo Search Results
• Graphical Search Engine Comparison
• HTML Encoder
• HTML Entities Encode / Decode
• HTML Optimizer
• HTML to PHP Converter
• HTTP Headers
• Indexed pages
• Internet Explorer Scrollbar Color
• IP Convert
• IP Location
• Keyword Cloud
• Keyword Density
• Keyword Density Checker
• Keyword Difficulty Check
• Keyword Optimizer
• Keyword Suggestion
• Keyword Suggestions for Google
• Keyword Suggestions for Overture
• Keyword Typo Generator
• Link Extractor
• Link Popularity
• Link Popularity
• Link Price Calculator
• List Cleaner
• md5 Encrypt
• META Analyzer
• Meta Tag Generator
• Meta-tags Extractor
• Meta-tags Generator
• Multi-Rank Checker
• Multiple Data Center Google Search
• Multiple Datacenter Keyword Position Check
• Multiple Datacenter Link Popularity Check
• Page Comparison
• Page Size Lookup
• PageRank Checker
• PageRank Lookup
• PageRank Search
• Password Encryption Utility
• Password Strength Checker
• Ping Test
• Ping Utility
• Pop-Up window generator
• Rank Checker
• Regular Expression Match
• Regular Expression Pattern Extractor
• Reverse IP/Look-up
• Robots.txt Generator
• ROI Calculator
• Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker
• Search Engine Keyword Position
• Search Engine Position
• Search Listings Preview
• Server Status
• Site Link Analyzer
• Source Code Viewer
• Spider Simulator
• Spider View
• URL Encoding
• URL Rewriting
• Visual PageRank
• Website Pattern Extractor
• Website Speed Test
• Whois - Domain Search
• Your Browser Details

CSS: Style Sheet Guidelines

Web applications should always adhere to W3C standards and validate correctly. Numerous excellent CSS style Guides are available that discuss the how-tos of achieving these objectives, below are a few:

References:

• Miha Hribar
• Interface / CSS Coding Guidelines
• NYPL Style Guide

Tutorial:

• Style Master CSS Tutorial

Over the years we have come across numerous useful websites; sites that communicate useful information on web development, standards implementation and more. A few are listed here (we’ll update this list as time goes on…)

Standards

The following sites provide detailed information on web standards. Please remember that all of sites should adhere to applicable web standards! Use these sites to ensure your code complies with the relevant standards.

• 508 - accessibility compliance standards
• CSS Standards
• HTML Standards
• Semantic Web Best Practices
• RDF and SPARQL Standards
• Web Ontology Language (OWL)
• w3c
• Web Standards Group
• The Web Standards Project
• XML Core Working Group

Tools

• Dynamic Drive- Scripts and add-ons
• Cleanup your CSS
• CSS Menus & More (Stu Nichols)
• CSS Page Layouts
• Morgue File- Free Open Source photos
• Rounded Box Generator
• Spiffy Corners- generate nice css boxes
• Stock Xchange- Free Open Source photos
• WebSite Audit
• WebSite Grader

Tutorials

• Ajax Tutorials
• CSS Listmania
• Fix IE Bugs- Explorer Exposed
• w3schools Tutorials (html, css, and more)
• Web Style Guide
• W3c compliant Site Listings

Goals

Establish an overall goal for your web site. Who will your audience be? What information do you want to convey to this audience?

Targets

Which of the following will your audience be using?

• Web browsers (FireFox, Netscape, Internet Explorer, AOL, Opera, lynx)
• browser versions (2.0+ 4.0+, 5.0+, 6.0+, 7.0)
• platforms (Windows, MAC, UNIX, Linux)
• screen resolution - The most popular screen resolutions at this time is 1024 x 768.

Design your site so that it meets the specifications of the target (s) chosen. See www.thecounter.com/stats to see current statistics regarding the most frequently used browser versions, monitor resolutions and operating systems.

The most important part of your web site is the actual text content. Use the following tips regarding content:

1. Site Navigation Scheme - Using index cards or smaller pieces of paper, write down all the items that you want included in your web site (Brainstorm here!). Now separate them into Categories, understanding that one index card may end up in more than one category. When you have something that makes sense, you have just created one navigational scheme!
   • If you need more than one level of hierarchy, create additional piles. Ensure that those items which you know your audience will want to get to are not too far down in the navigational scheme. Will your audience have to click more than two times to get to the item? If so, consider using a Quick List on higher levels of your site which will get your audience quickly to these popular items.
   • Repeat the above process until you come up with one or more navigational schemes for your site. Now decide how you want to ” label ” each of the Categories so that it is brief and yet descriptive for your audience.
2. Static vs Dynamic - Determine which elements of your web site will be relatively static in nature, and which elements are dynamic, requiring frequent updates. You may decide in this step NOT to include something on the web site, if you will not be able to maintain it.
3. Page Size - For large documents, decide whether you will break it into separate web pages, making each page printable on its own.
   • Your alternative is to make one large document with a table of contents or index at the top with target links to specific areas of the document.
4. Page Identity - Make each page in a group of web pages understandable on its own. This means that you will need to title each page consistently. If your site has several layers of content, consider the usage of footprints on your pages. (Ex.Home & gt; & gt; ITS & gt; & gt; Documents).
5. Print vs Web - Content that typically needs to be revised when converting printed media to the web include:
   • contact points (email addresses in addition to mail addresses, room numbers and telephone numbers)
   • if you include a phone number, use complete phone numbers with area codes
   • when referring to a date, spell out the month. While the US uses month / day / year, the rest of the world uses day / month / year
   • for forms to be placed online, you will need to rewrite the instructions. For example, remove / reword sentences such as ” Complete back side of this form. “
6. Link descriptions - Part of your documents will contain links to other information. These links should alert the user to what they will see if they select the link; in other words they should be brief and yet descriptive. In some cases, it is also appropriate to describe the ” where ” in the link. For example, if a link will take the user to another web site, convey that information in the link text. Avoid terminology like ” click here ” or ” press the right arrow “; browser methods of choosing links vary.
   • provide ” return to ” statements on pages of your web site to help users get back on track.
7. Stale content - Tell users, in words, how often a page is updated.
8. Original content -
   • Make the content of your home page original. Do not duplicate documents that appear elsewhere on the Internet. Instead, link to them
   • Be aware of copyright regulations that apply to existing Web sites.
9. In development - Avoid under Construction pages. If you intend to eventually include an additional page or section on your web site, you may say so on a completed page of your web site, but do not put up a page which only states Under Construction.
10. Spelling errors - Spell check and proofread your pages as you would any other publication.

Special Tips

Be aware of the pitfalls of character sets . (Here comes a pound sign £ what did you get?) Currency signs are a real danger. It might be safer to write the currency in full. It is not just the signs that fail in some way; even those that do display may be misinterpreted. Let ‘ s say you are in the USA and write $25.00 without qualification. How much does that look like to a browser in Australia, Canada, or Hong Kong? If the local $ is worth more than the US$ then you risk someone dismissing a product as overpriced. If the local $ is less, your strangely eager customer may suddenly turn sour when she or he thinks you have been deliberately misleading.

• ISO 8859-1 Character Set Overview
• If you specify a background color or image, but don ‘ t specify text and link colors, the user ‘ s text and link colors will be used against your background. In some cases, there won ‘ t be contrast between the user ‘ s text and link colors and your background color or image, so your text and links will disappear. The rule of thumb is that if you set one color, then you need to set them all .

Suggested alpha Standards

1. alpha Review is final internal review of a website for the purpose of internal quality inspection
2. all local coding is completed and local developer reviews are completed
3. the developer believes that the product will meet call client requirements and will pass management examination and sign-off
4. alpha sites still run on development servers and have not been published to the internet

alpha Readiness Checklist

Please note that all the below criteria, in the checklist, must be met before considering the site as being ready for alpha Review.

Checklist for main page of web site

Does the page have the following?

1. a name of index.html or equivalent (ie. home.php for WordPress) ? By naming your main home page index.html, users will be able to access your site without supplying a filename at the end of the address.
2. a title which contains the name of your web site followed by “, CompanyName LLC “. For example: CompanyName LLC
3. the CompanyName brands used correctly!
4. the full name of the person to contact regarding your web site .
5. an email link behind the name of the contact person with an ” @ mail.com ” email address. For example, in the link Sue Jones, the code ” mailto: sjones @ mail.com ” is stored behind the Sue Jones link. If you need an alias for your email contact, contact: webmaster @ CompanyName.com.
6. META Tags to identify your web site to search engines. We recommend that you use the author, keyword and description META Tags

Checklist for each page of web site

1. tables

Use sparingly and with caution! Avoid table use in documents whenever possible.
Table use in CSS or base html should be prohibited!

2. animated images

Design an animated image so that it stops animating after a few seconds and doesn ‘ t loop continuously. Images that flicker (with a repetitive strobe) should be designed so that the frame rate is not faster than two frames per second. This is especially important for larger flickering images or images which flicker between highly contrasting colors.

To check a web page for accessibility issues, use a tool like the free tool named A-Prompt Toolkit.

Checklist for your entire web site

1. Have you changed all link references to www.CompanyName.com?
2. Remember any copied links must be reachable.