Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with site and web

Can I save a timestamped version of a website to use in court?

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:43:49 -0800

Is there a way to capture a website at a certain point in time so that it's admissible in court? I may be about to be involved in litigation soon and there's information on a site which will be very important and I'd like to use it as evidence, but I'm worried it might move or change.

stay awhile

dacoit — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:04:18 -0800

My website's stats app says that visitors stay for an average of five minutes and ten seconds. I know that this is pretty decent ... but does it put us in the 70% percentile? The 90% percentile? Is there anywhere you know of where I can go to find lots of comparative statistics for duration of visits to sites?

Web site design/mtce help - special circumstances

x46 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:28:06 -0800

Oh so many questions about building a web site: do I need software to help me or a person? what to pay? how to maintain? special circumstances make the decision complicated. I'm an old programmer, emphasis on the old, who used to use what they called 3rd generation languages, eg., APL, to write the kind of mainframe systems geared to naive users; those systems died when pcs became cheap enough for everyone to have and I went on to being the liaison between network/mainframe techies and customers as I could speak techie and customer. Should be no prob, eh? Well, I had a severe prescription drug reaction that caused all kind of probs like not being able to read or write. Think small stroke only it wasn't. Took me a couple of years to be able to comprehend what I was reading. Simple math is all I can do now and then I have to check myself. I can design web pages, but the ability to figure out how pages link together is beyond me. You don't know what frustration is until you can do something this simple any more. I took early retirement after a couple of years(arrgh) and am stuck at home. If I don't do something with a bit of challenge, I may go dance naked under the moon and that wouldn't be pretty.

I want to sell copies of the antique needlework and doll patterns I collect. Yes, this sounds silly, but there's a whole other life out there where grown men and women collect dolls and do needlework. I tried a few years ago to hire someone. I gave them mockups of the pages I'd designed, addrs of two sites that I liked the looks of as further examples, and as complete a set of specs as possible. I got back a couple of sample web site pages that IBM would have been proud of, all corporate blue and silver and hard edges with no sense of what the product/service was I wanted to offer.

Question (finally): I can design the pages. I can't do links. I need to update when something new comes along or something just isn't paying it's keep. I need to collect money. Then there's the automated money tracking/bill paying. I need recommendations for package that will build the darned thing the way I want (have a distinct dislike of software that won't do as it's told) and that I can maintain if there's one that I can use given the circumstances. I need a real person to validate it, test it, buy the name for it, recommend a host. This won't be big volume, but it needs to work well and I need to look after it. I'd ask DH, but he's strictly mainframe automation and doesn't have a clue about this type of stuff. Any ideas? I have a horror of ending with with someone who thinks I'm a sweet old doll and will give me whatever, not what I need.

What are some examples of "classic" webiste design?

SouthCNorthNY — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:56:15 -0800

What are some examples of "classic" webiste design? I'm looking for examples of layouts that haven't changed much over the years (because they were good, not because they were lazy.) I'm looking for things like google.com, not timecube.com

Free app to create Flash slideshow - is it possible?

nomad73 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:12:25 -0800

How can I create an extremely simple flash slideshow of still photographs that I can embed on my web site ... for free? I'd like to have a looping slideshow of still images that dissolve into each other on my home page. I don't want there to be any navigation buttons over the image, no thumbnails, etc. I've tried Slideshowzilla but I'd rather not drop $50 for a robust app when i just need one single simple bit of it. I know nothing about Flash and next to nothing about HTML. Are there any free/open source apps out there that fit this bill?

1) web-site idea, 2) ??? 3) The Awesome

indiebass — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:52:23 -0800

Can the hive help me get a web site started? I have very specific ideas, but I'm a dinosaur when it comes to everything about the insides of websites. Back in the day when I set up a website, it was the late 90's and everything had to be coded by hand and ftp'ed to someplace. I realise we are in the 21st century and there are much easier ways to go about things.

I already have a domain purchased. What I want to make is a site that is very similar to the old Pajiba setup: graphic banner across the top, assorted goodies in one or two side columns (probably just links in one, at this point) and a main area in between. The idea behind the site is that I'll be reviewing things, but they won't necessarily be new things. That is, whatever my netflix might be, an album I listened to... things like that. So in the middle I'd like to have a photo, a title and one sentence, where you can click on the title and it takes you to a separate page that is cataloged as http:www.mydomain.com/review_title.html (or whatever) and looks like the front page, except the middle bit is just the extended article.

Further complicating things, is that I wanted to set up the website with free hosting, if possible, and if I actually start generating traffic outside my immediate circle of friends then I'd think about buying some space/bandwidth.

So how do I even start? I know you can use a unique domain name with, like, blogger - which is free - but do they let you structure the workings of it like I want to? (the title-link deal to pages behind the page) I feel confident that I would be able to make the page look like I want it to, it's more the workings and the hostings that I am unsure about.

I've put off asking this question out of embarrassment for a couple weeks, because of the n00b-ishness, and I've really tried to navigate it on my own, but put in "free web hosting" into the google and it's like the internet punches you in the face. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

How to fix a website and make it compatible in firefox AND IE?

bigcheesegump — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:09:18 -0800

I need some help with a CSS/HTML issue as well as an Internet Explorer issue. I created an online portfolio and have been trying to update the design to make it more user-friendly and more aesthetically pleasing. However, I have run into a few road blocks.

This is the new design that I would like to implement. If you are using Firefox, you should see it as I see it. However, if you are using IE, it is a mess. What can I do to stop this? From brief research, it looks like it is an issue using the position:absolute style tag in my css file. Is there a way to make that design work for both IE and Firefox.

Second, if you navigate to this page you will notice a pdf file that is truncated in height. I cannot for the life of me figure out what is causing this. (The other pdfs on the web site are not configured correctly and I am aware of this)

Any help in figuring out these problems would be appreciated. Thanks!

Google Archive Search

cainiarb — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 11:02:32 -0800

Is there a way to search Google for what a URL Web page looked like on a certain date? I have been told that there is a way to search Google for what a Web page looked like on a certain date. If someone edits a page later then the historical data of what it looked like on a certain date would exist in some archive file. I have been to the Way Back Machine Internet Archive and that's not getting me what I need. Does anyone know what the Google site is that does it?

Spiffy PHP file upload script?

kryptondog — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:21:19 -0800

I'm in need of a spiffy PHP file upload script. For great justice. The print shop I work at is in the process of moving away from our current (dinky, suffocatingly restrictive) web host. I was charged with the task of finding a new host, creating a new site design, getting everything transferred, etc. I'm still in media res but things are moving pretty smoothly.

One of the most important parts of our old site was our file transfer system that allowed customers to upload their art to us. The old script was garbage and I'd very much like to offer our customers something nicer. I could probably call upon my fading PHP-fu to cobble something together, but before I resort to that I thought I'd ask the Hive Mind if it knew of (or better yet) had any experience with a PHP-based file upload script that would satisfy me needs. Here's what I had in mind:

- It's gotta be account-based, not just a pool of files. I'd prefer it if people could sign up for an account themselves, but it's fine if it can only be done by an administrator.
- On that subject, a decent user and administration control panel.
- It'd be nice if it used AJAX to refresh the FTP connection to the site while the file uploads. Our old file uploader had a nasty habit of timing out in the middle of customers sending huge files, which is (needless to say) pretty bad. Also, some kind of progress bar (possibly with "time remaining") would be a huge plus for our more impatient customers.
- Multiple file upload inputs on one page would be awesome.
- Email notifications of some kind would also be awesome.
- Our ultimate goal is to make the file uploader part of a group of services that we offer our customers online, so it would be highly beneficial if the script was made in such a way that it could easily (and legally) be extended upon.
- Free would be nice, but we'd have no problem paying for a quality product.

I know that it's easy to just sit on my butt and make a wish list of features that I want for this thing, but maybe you've come across something that comes close to matching what I need. I'm aware that there's a lot of services similar to what I need that host the data on their servers, but I really need this to be self-contained on my companies website (however, if you've had positive experiences with one of the aforementioned services please share that too). Thanks in advance.

Why does my web site show up for everyone but me?

bflora — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:56:28 -0800

I've got a web site that shows up just fine for everyone except me. I get a big fat "page not found" when I navigate to it even though it works fine in proxy browsers, I've used ipconfig/flushdns and cleared my browser cache. I'm sure it's a DNS issue of some sort, but have no idea what else to do. Help?

Which framework to use to build a Community website for my family?

mountainfrog — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:24:55 -0800

Looking for community building tool to create a family website. I have family all across the US and would like to create a website where each family member could create their own profile, make posts, share photos. Like a MySpace or Facebook but something more private and to a degree less complex. Something that is just for invited users, something that is easy to use for non-technical users and something that I can host and administer. Open source solutions would be preferred. I have used wordpress, drupal, and joomla but each requires tweaking and modules, and lots of research to setup. Just wondering if there are any prepackages solutions or easier to use modules for WP, drupal, or joomla. Thanks.

What to do about a spoofed web site that isn't obviously fraudulent?

unsigned — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:13:01 -0800

I just found out our web site is being spoofed. The site is outdated (we've made major changes since this was copied) but they've gone so far as to create a similar logo with a similar name as our organization (and the URL is also similar). At first I thought I'd find evidence of credit card phishing when I clicked on the donate links, but surprisingly, they still go to our real donation page (outside vendor) or to a 404. The only thing I can really see that might be the benefit is some links on the homepage that link to outside sites (ad revenue? search rankings?) and possibly e-mail harvesting if anyone actually clicks on the mailto links. Also, some of the links on the homepage are just anchor links. Is that worth a spoofed site? Is there something else that might be going on? And most importantly, what can we do about it knowing that all the domain registration info for the site is bogus (aside from the person's name, all the contact info is our own).

Website, what are you made of?

unexpected — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:59:31 -0800

[What's that website filter] What's the website that let's you plug in a URL, and then it tells you what software the site is using? (Ex: site is using Wordpress, Javascript, PHP, RoR, etc.)? Arg. I know this is going to get answered in 3 seconds, and I've seen it before, I just can't seem to find it. anywhere.

Help me remember this Free Custom Ringtone site!

Maia — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:32:39 -0800

What is the name of the website that allows you to upload mp3's to its site, converts them to ringtone format, and then text messages them to your phone for free (after a delay) or immediately (for a donation)?

Why Log-in?

orlin — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:28:24 -0800

Why do most web-sites you want to check-out require you to "sign-in" with a user name and password to access there comments or free videos etc.. Is it a way to spam you or is there really any real use to the site owner?

How do I legitimately hijack website content?

jedicus — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:25:07 -0800

HTML/Javascript: I need to "hijack" website content so that it appears to be hosted by a different domain (with the full knowledge and cooperation of all parties). My boss maintains a website at, let's say, boss.example.com. He has an affiliation with another organization with a nicer domain name, let's say, fancyexample.com

He would like to allow users of fancyexample.com to go to fancyexample.com/boss and see all of his boss.example.com content as though it were hosted on fancyexample.com. So if a user went to fancyexample.com/boss/homepage.html they would see that in the address bar but the content would be pulled from boss.example.com/homepage.html

Ultimately, I want to write a small shell page to place on fancyexample.com that "hijacks" the boss.example.com content in as seamless a way as possible. I believe that this can be done very simple using javascript and a frame but I don't have much web programming experience.

Again, don't worry, my boss, boss.example.com, and fancyexample.com all know about this and approve completely.

Good examples of organizational web presence?

olinerd — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:03:56 -0800

What are some good examples of an offline organization (business, university, nonprofit, etc) that has built itself an established dynamic web presence? Asking for two friends!

The context: there is a university website which could use a redesign. Currently, it is (and has been) an excellent PR piece -- pictures from campus, similar text to the mailed literature, blurbs about various faculty and students. More recent updates to the site have added limited "dynamic" content: a blog from an admission officer, a blog from students, and so on. However, this has basically made it a dynamic brochure -- it doesn't really capture what all actually goes on at the school in a genuine way.

My friends are trying to demonstrate to the PR people at the school what a real dynamic web presence looks like, but most of the examples we're familiar with are new media sites. Can you suggest any sites they could show university PR people to demonstrate what's possible? Examples of non-web organizations that have built a really good web presence would be ideal. We'd also appreciate any pointers to particular aspects you think work well.

Thanks!

Protecting mah bandwidth

calhound — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:12:11 -0800

Website admin question: I want to put up a website with about 10000+ charts. I don't mind people copying images, but how can I protect against a site sucker barging in, scooping them up, and killing my bandwidth? I wish I could generate a bunch of static HTML pages with simple IMG tags, but I'm guessing this isn't possible. What might PHP have to offer for protecting my content from site suckers?

Deamweaver "Site Definition" question

orlin — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:25:52 -0800

Help, Help !! If anyone has experience with Dreamweaver and setting up the “Site Definition” settings; either basic or advanced mode for “Remote Info” I desperately need your advice and it would be very much appreciated. Runbox is my web host and I use “cPannel” to manage my web files. I can’t figure out what settings to use for “FTP access”. What would my “FTP host” be and what should I put in there this field? To be honest, I’m not quite sure what a FTP is although to use Dreamweaver’s functions, I need to set this up and have not been successful. Next question; Am I correct in saying the “Host Directory” would be in the “public_html” folder in cPannel that all my web page files are located? Any advice would be appreciated. I’ve tried multiple times and days to set this up, but I must be doing something wrong. Thank you in advance for your cooperation…Orlin

Hey, watch this!

JParker — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:57:36 -0800

Is there a way to monitor internal (i.e. behind the firewall) web pages for changes? I’m looking for a piece of software that works like WatchThatPage, but running from my PC (which is on the corporate LAN via VPN) instead of as an external service. This would be a nifty utility if it exists. I use information aggregation services (like MileageManager to track my frequent flyer miles) but they require me to put in my username and password for each site, and I’m not comfortable doing that with, for example, financial info (or risking getting fired for putting my corporate login info out on third party provider). I have cookies enabled so I can login to lots of sites automatically and such a service, running from my own PC, ought to enable me to access such sites (and check for changes to specific web pages) as well, something WatchThatPage can't do.

How would one economically drive up traffic for a new web site?

titans13 — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:33:56 -0800

How would one economically drive up traffic for a new web site? Just this week, I launched a web site for a service business. We want to generate nationwide traffic. Meta tags are in place, all is pretty good.

I have started an Adwords campaign with a $300/month budget, and paid the $300 annual Yahoo fee to get listed in their directory. I have already received two solicitations from companies that claim to be able to bump up traffic.

What are the best, most economical ways to do this myself?

Help understand a Flash site

bright77blue — Wed, 03 May 2006 12:12:16 -0800

How does one make a site like this one ... ? http://www.playgroundsfestival.nl/playgrounds.asp What I mean is how does one make the huge background, and add the elements onto it? Point to a tutorial helpful. Thank you,

Personal finance web sites?

jdroth — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:00:15 -0800

Please recommend some good personal-finance related web sites. I'm looking for sites with good information on all aspects of personal finance and responsible money use. Most of what I've found is focused on investing, though, and on macroeconomics. I'm not interested in the Big Picture. I want sites that focus on the Small Pictures: dealing with debt, saving for the future, finding bargains, etc. Think Your Money or Your Life, but in web form. Big sites, little sites, weblogs, print magazines — I don't care, so long as it's focused on personal finance. Bonus points for sites with RSS feeds. This is all in preparation to constructing a personal-finance web site of my own, one built around sensible attitudes toward money. As a secondary question, I'd love to know what sort of content people would like to see from a personal finance site. Financial calculators? Book reviews? Hints and tips on saving money? What would make a personal finance site useful to you?

Create a site based around your family tree

parma — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:52:28 -0800

Say you want to create a site based around your family tree. Members may want to log in to upload pictures, view tree structure, etc. I found mefi threads here and here - but those cover more about tracking your geneology on public databases or compiling it on a local machine, neither of which are what I need.

I can, of course, make the tree myself and upload it as an image - that still leaves the community / uploading pictures part. (I'd rather not use a message board.) Any ideas?

Web Page Form Handling

SparkyPine — Mon, 09 May 2005 08:57:40 -0800

I want to be able to provide a form with a "submit" button on a web page. I host my own web servers with two websites. I want to be able to add custom form (the content of which could change regularly) and have that data sent to me, email or whatever. For some reason, this seems like a big mysterious concept that only people with PERL or JAVA or whatever coding language du jour are capable of. Is there a simpler way to achieve this for someone who does not know coding? I am running these servers on Win2k Server with the built in IIS.

Either a 3rd party program that will do it for me or a website/tutorial on how to cook something up would be great!