Category: Site News

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July was a busy month with lots of new features and changes.

 

 

Stumblizer –  In July I cobbled together a random website finder, sorta like the old StumbleUpon.  This has turned out to be surprisingly popular.  There must be a lot of bored people out there.  I keep adding a few new websites to the Stumblizer index when I find something that fits with the theme.

 

Directory Stumble – This is another random site finder like Stumblizer (above) only filled with different types of directories.  It would appear that not everyone is as enamored of directories as I am since it gets almost no use. *sigh*  It was an experiment and just never took off.  But it is unique.  Still, I’ll keep it up because, you never know, somebody, someday, might enjoy it.

 

Retroweb Ring –  Our new webring has gotten steady interest and I invite you to join.

 

Webmaster Page –  I added a page listing various free things and guides we have for webmasters.

 

Changed Weblogs Category –  Weblogs was always the category for personal blogs so it made sense to move it from under Internet to being under Personal Pages.  Like this: Personal Pages > Weblogs.

 

Made a button – W00t.  I made a button for Indieseek.  You can see it on our Link to Us page.  It’s not fancy but it’s a button.  I used Sadgrl’s Button Maker and the excellent Online Converter to convert the image from png to gif.

 

 

Added a bunch of directories.

 

We got listed in – Smooth Sailings Listings , List-Me and Link Lane Listings.  These directories may be small but are well established and have already sent traffic.

 

Turned off Comments on individual Link Listings – only one or two people have ever left comments besides me since we started in 2018 so best to turn them off.

 

That’s the roundup for July.

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I made a Thing!

Actually I made two things.

Two site randomizers to entertain you and help you discover things on the Web.  And … Adventure!

  1. Stumblizer – this is my cobbled together version of the long gone StumbleUpon.  It is a site randomizer so you click the link and you get a random website.  It’s for entertainment.  These are not quick one-shot sight gags, there is stuff there, if you have a curious mind the sites could turn into rabbit holes to explore.
  2. Directory Stumble – This was my test bed and proof of concept.  This is for hard core web surfing. Like the name implies, every directory in Directory Stumble is a web links treasure box, with hundreds of links, that can act as a starting point for further web surfing adventure.  Just follow those hyperlinks.

 

I know there are a lot of stumble type sites on the Web already and all of them have a nicer UI than mine.  But maybe there is room for my two stumble-thingies as well.

There is no advertising, they are about having fun with hyperlinks, surfing, exploring odd corners of the Web at random and also discovery which is what Indieseek.xyz Directory is all about.  Also, unlike the original StumbleUpon, this is just a randomizer, it does not try to tailor recommendations for you personally. It just gives you, a. random. site.

I hope you enjoy them.


Also posted on IndieNews

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June 2022 was a busy month here at Indieseek.xyz.  I cranked out 16 new posts on the blog which ties my record.  This includes two website promotion guides one for static websites and another for personal blogs.

 

New Webring

I started the Retroweb Ring, a new webring for non-commercial, personal pages like static HTML sites, but also personal blogs and directories that list them.  You are invited to apply if you meet the criteria.

Webrings are undergoing a revival and there is high demand to both start a webring but also join a well managed ring.

 

Guestbook

I installed a new guestbook.  I’m taking a cue from the old Web and many personal homepages, and giving people a chance to give feedback or just be neighborly and say “Hi”.  Please sign.

 

New Listings

Lots of new listings in the directory both submitted and found.

 

Did you know we have a separate RSS feed that shows only new directory listings?  Just the new link goodness.

 

Site Promotion

I submitted the site for inclusion in several directories.  I won’t name which ones because that wouldn’t be fair to them.  I’m not sure we will be accepted but I guess I’ll find out in time.

 

 

Housekeeping

Things get broken on a website.  After a few years of constant updates to both the directory script and the blog script certain pages quit working or got scrambled or the menu got messed up.  Anyway I spent some time fixing things and clearing some dead wood out of the directory.  It always pains me when an old time website finally goes dark.  It’s sad, just sad.  But still more to do because it never ends.

 

More to come in July!  Stay tuned.

 

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I am the crawler for the web directory.  I found and added 9 sites today, 13 yesterday, about 9 the day before…

 

I can see why these newfangled search engines might catch on.

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A few months ago I submitted this blog and my personal blog for listing in the Blogarama Blog Directory.  I used the free listing option, then the whole pandemic hit and I forgot all about it.

Sure enough, a few months after submission I was notified that both blogs had been listed!  That was kind of neat since “free submit” many times translates to “no luck”, but an editor did look at my blogs and did accept both into the Blogarama directory.

The other news is that I actually get real referral traffic from Blogarama.  People are using that directory and are visiting blogs from it.  The traffic is not huge but it is there.

You should check out Blogarama as a place to find blogs and/or if you have a blog, a place to get it listed.

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Today, this site joined Hotline Webring.

Hotline is a new style webring so you don’t have to do a lot of registration to join.  In fact, this is one of the easiest webrings to join – you only have to do 2.5 simple steps and it just works.  The webring code is straight HTML which you create, just follow the instructions.  This is nice because the ring code does not take up much space.  I have no idea how it’s coded but that hardly matters because it just works.

There is no subject theme for the webring but it mostly appears to be made up of personal blogs, websites and some cool retro Web 1.0 type sites.  You will find a list of all sites in the ring at the link above, so you get an idea of who you are hanging out with.

It’s young, it’s fresh, it’s got a pink background.  Why wouldn’t you check it out?

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I’ve been slacking on these weekly updates so this might incorporate more than a weeks worth of Indieseek goodness.

New Links List – I’ve been adding a steady stream of links just about every week.  There is some interesting stuff here.

Selected Recent Posts:

Till next weekish have a good time. 🙂

 

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It’s been a busy Late Autumn but we managed to make a few changes and improvements to the directory in late 2019.

  1. 800 listings.  Yeah we hit 800 with all sorts of new listings added.  More to come.  I’ve been removing dead listings (dead wood) as I find them, and there has been some.  800 links isn’t a lot in the big scheme of things but then we are not trying to be big or pretty: just useful, real and sometimes entertaining.
  2. Added climate change category.  This has not generated a lot of interest yet, but heck it’s an important topic and a handy place to find over 30 useful sites on the topic – all in a bunch.
  3. Changed the way search works on the directory.  I think this works much better because it makes it easier to find a category that matches you subject faster.
  4. Added highlighting to search results. So now your search keyword(s) are highlighted in yellow.
  5. Started a new discussion forum about directories and discovery.
  6. Instructions on Adding Indieseek to Vivaldi (should work for Opera and maybe Chrome).
  7. Reminder: We Have Fresh RSS Feeds. for your feed reader.  You can keep track of new listings this way.
  8. Oh and added a couple of new quotes to the Quote Collection.

Thank you to all who have used the Indieseek.xyz directory over our first year.  And additional thanks to all who have added their websites.  Feel free to tell your friends.

Have a Happy New Year!

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The main directory page and every category in Indieweb.xyz creates a unique RSS feed.  So if you want to know when new Listings are added to Indieweb.xyz go to the directory main page and scroll to the bottom footer to find a link to the RSS feed.

Likewise, every category and sub-category in creates a RSS feed so if you only want to know when new listings are added to your favorite topic just go to that category footer to find a link to the category RSS feed.  (ie.  If you want to monitor new listings in the “Role Playing Games” category simply go to that cat and find the feed at the bottom. Repeat for other categories. Simple.)  Makes a nice discovery tool.

Blog Only: Of course the blog has it’s own RSS feed just for blog articles and should not be confused with the directory.

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I changed how the default search function works here on the Indieseek.xyz directory.  Previously, when you searched, you got a list of listings only.  I’ve changed the default to “Search All”  which gives you a tabbed search result: Listings, Categories, Comments.  The tabs are at the top of the search results page.

Listings is the default tab you see right away, but the Categories tab is the important one because if you find a category that matches your search query you are more likely to to find all the sites listed for that subject.  (Example: try searching for “directory software”, “webrings” or “indieweb” and click on the Categories tab and you will see what I mean.)

Hopefully this will give you a better experience when searching the directory.  Please let me know in the comments below.

The best way to use a directory is to find the category that matches your subject.  Using the Category tab offers a shortcut to digging deeper into the directory.

Just like before, if you don’t find what you want you always have the option of continuing your search on one of six other privacy or Indieweb search engines or directories at the bottom of the search results.

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