I feel like I should know the answers to these questions, but it's been so long since I did web design for these servers that I've kind of forgotten. :oops: Anyway, I've just redone my entire site from scratch, and before I start uploading, I wanted to check on a couple of things.
1. Am I remembering correctly that I can disable Autokeen and just use the space as "normal" webspace (thus having to manually create and update each new archive page)?
1a. If I do this, will my comic show up on rotations (pogs, newshack, etc)?
2. In a massive brainfart, I failed to add the advertisement tag to my pages. On which pages is it specifically required, and will the system add it in if Autokeen is disabled? (I'm hoping to save myself some work.)
3. In a second massive brainfart, I also forgot to add the "hosted by" bit at the end of the page to anything but the index. On which pages is this required?
I think I'm remembering all the questions I had. Thanks guys!
Site building questions
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Moonshadow
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Socialized medicine
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bandwagon jumping
Hey! I actually have some of the answers for you (a rarity for me)!. For 2 and 3. I don't know much about autokeen but i do know that you are technically required to have the adds and the "hosted by" bit on every single page. If you're asking about loopholes...someone else will have to speak to that.
Which is actually what I'm hoping for.
See, I'm in a similar situation. I haven't screwed with my site design in over a year. I've been updating and such, but my site is simple, does what I want, and gives me little trouble (unless i do something like, say, forget a period in a file tag. That was a fun week). But I'm looking to take on a few side projects , and i figure i should probably update my archive page...ever...so I'm putting my web design hat back on.
Unfortunetly, in the past year I changed computers. I figure tonight will pretty much be devoted to reinstalling dreamweaver, and doing the little things like convert my archive to a big calender, but I figured while this convenient thread was here, and while the computer downloads the exe file, I'd throw out a few of the questions I hadnt been able to find answers to in my re-read of the gear
1. I need an opening page that isnt a comic, whihc links to the other various comics
2. im adding a second, spin off comic. is it possible to have this and still have the benefit of automaticly updating calendars and such things for both comics? am i going to need to somehow create two index pages? will this work? If it is i expect its not going to be a simple ***-*** tag.
3. I've been trying to get my comic into the keenbox rotation for YEARS. by this i mean i tried for a week two years ago and gave up. I have an image which i thought was the right size. any suggestions?
sorry to moonshadow for bandwagon jumping. it just seemed to make more sense to join an existing, and related thread, then to start my own. Also, hope my advice was helpful.
Which is actually what I'm hoping for.
See, I'm in a similar situation. I haven't screwed with my site design in over a year. I've been updating and such, but my site is simple, does what I want, and gives me little trouble (unless i do something like, say, forget a period in a file tag. That was a fun week). But I'm looking to take on a few side projects , and i figure i should probably update my archive page...ever...so I'm putting my web design hat back on.
Unfortunetly, in the past year I changed computers. I figure tonight will pretty much be devoted to reinstalling dreamweaver, and doing the little things like convert my archive to a big calender, but I figured while this convenient thread was here, and while the computer downloads the exe file, I'd throw out a few of the questions I hadnt been able to find answers to in my re-read of the gear
1. I need an opening page that isnt a comic, whihc links to the other various comics
2. im adding a second, spin off comic. is it possible to have this and still have the benefit of automaticly updating calendars and such things for both comics? am i going to need to somehow create two index pages? will this work? If it is i expect its not going to be a simple ***-*** tag.
3. I've been trying to get my comic into the keenbox rotation for YEARS. by this i mean i tried for a week two years ago and gave up. I have an image which i thought was the right size. any suggestions?
sorry to moonshadow for bandwagon jumping. it just seemed to make more sense to join an existing, and related thread, then to start my own. Also, hope my advice was helpful.
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Dr Neo Lao
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@ moonshadow:
1 - Yes - in Siteadmin you have the option to disable autokeen and do all your updates manually. However, since the server migration the permissions have been re-set to what they should be, so you may find that you are unable to put files directly into the public_html folder.
1a - No, as far as I know your pog and newsbox would go inactive since (as far as the server can tell) you haven't been updating. However, that's from what I know. There are to ways that the server can tell if you've updated - when was the last time your comic was parsed by AutoKeen OR the creation date of your index.html file. I don't know which the server uses...
2 - The Advertisement is required on each and every single page, including pages that do not display a comic. That includes archive pages, about pages and so on. The server will add it if it does not find it, but only if the file passes through Autokeen. So if you add your files manually, it won't do it (and you may find your account suspended / deleted for failing to carry the ads).
3 - Likewise, the "hosted by" message is also required on each and every page same as the ads. These two are how you "pay" for your CG account, so they are required.
Though seriously - updating manually is a pretty big load of work - I can't think of too many reasons for wanting to not take advantage of AutoKeen since it's there anyway. You can get some pretty big free hosting packages from a variety of different hosts which you would let you use your own updating software if the CG version doesn't do what you need.
@ socialized medicine:
Yeah, there are some loopholes that will let you have a "page" without the ad / hosted message. For example, if you have a basic html page called "blog.html" that only shows up inside an iFrame (is not linked anywhere on it's own) then you wouldn't put an ad or hosted message on it since it would only be displayed on a page that already has those, and you don't need to have it twice.
1 - There have been a number of people wanting this. However, it is disabled on AutoKeen. The only way to (currently) do this is to not have the ***todays_comics*** keentag on the index template and always have your comics one update behind.
This is far from optimal since the second-last page will point to the index, but the index will point back at the third-last page, and the latest update won't show until the following update. This option will not be coming back anytime soon...
2 - Sort of - you can do it one of two ways.
Method One: have both comic stories running on the one comic site. You would alternate updates or have one run on the weekday updates and the other on weekends. No Pink Ponies was doing this for a while with the side-comic Tigrine running on Sundays (with the comic Mon-Fri) for about three months.
Method Two: The more 'sensible' approach would be to simply create a new comic account for the spin-off comic and cross-link them.
Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but it just boils down to what will be easier for you.
1 - Yes - in Siteadmin you have the option to disable autokeen and do all your updates manually. However, since the server migration the permissions have been re-set to what they should be, so you may find that you are unable to put files directly into the public_html folder.
1a - No, as far as I know your pog and newsbox would go inactive since (as far as the server can tell) you haven't been updating. However, that's from what I know. There are to ways that the server can tell if you've updated - when was the last time your comic was parsed by AutoKeen OR the creation date of your index.html file. I don't know which the server uses...
2 - The Advertisement is required on each and every single page, including pages that do not display a comic. That includes archive pages, about pages and so on. The server will add it if it does not find it, but only if the file passes through Autokeen. So if you add your files manually, it won't do it (and you may find your account suspended / deleted for failing to carry the ads).
3 - Likewise, the "hosted by" message is also required on each and every page same as the ads. These two are how you "pay" for your CG account, so they are required.
Though seriously - updating manually is a pretty big load of work - I can't think of too many reasons for wanting to not take advantage of AutoKeen since it's there anyway. You can get some pretty big free hosting packages from a variety of different hosts which you would let you use your own updating software if the CG version doesn't do what you need.
@ socialized medicine:
Yeah, there are some loopholes that will let you have a "page" without the ad / hosted message. For example, if you have a basic html page called "blog.html" that only shows up inside an iFrame (is not linked anywhere on it's own) then you wouldn't put an ad or hosted message on it since it would only be displayed on a page that already has those, and you don't need to have it twice.
1 - There have been a number of people wanting this. However, it is disabled on AutoKeen. The only way to (currently) do this is to not have the ***todays_comics*** keentag on the index template and always have your comics one update behind.
This is far from optimal since the second-last page will point to the index, but the index will point back at the third-last page, and the latest update won't show until the following update. This option will not be coming back anytime soon...
2 - Sort of - you can do it one of two ways.
Method One: have both comic stories running on the one comic site. You would alternate updates or have one run on the weekday updates and the other on weekends. No Pink Ponies was doing this for a while with the side-comic Tigrine running on Sundays (with the comic Mon-Fri) for about three months.
Method Two: The more 'sensible' approach would be to simply create a new comic account for the spin-off comic and cross-link them.
Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but it just boils down to what will be easier for you.
Huh? If don't you have a KeenSpot comic, then you have zero chance. If you mean either the CG Pog or the CG Newbox, then instructions how can be found in the tutorials page in the CGWiki (link in my sig). If you mean something else, then can you please elaborate?...been trying to get my comic into the keenbox rotation...
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Socialized medicine
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keenoops
ah, yeah, the cg newsbox. right. my bad. The directions haven't seemed to work for me. In the past when I did it everything would seem to go fine and then I would never, ever see the comic in the rotation. I understand that there are a lot of comics in rotation, but i mean not ever.
In all likelihood it was some dumb minor screw up on my part, but i made sure the image was the right size and it didn't seem that there was more to it then that. In any case, I'm prolly not going to try again till after I finish remodeling. just wanted to know if you knew of any common error type things that don't involve file size or pixel width and height.
as for the others.
1: wouldn't it be possible to create a different page with the "today's comic" on it? then have that one link to the dialy page and such? the daily page woudl always link to the index, but the index could just link to this other ghost index?
2: method two does sound more reasonable. I woudl totally be all about doing it that way...if i could get option 1 to work, so people would actually know about it.
In all likelihood it was some dumb minor screw up on my part, but i made sure the image was the right size and it didn't seem that there was more to it then that. In any case, I'm prolly not going to try again till after I finish remodeling. just wanted to know if you knew of any common error type things that don't involve file size or pixel width and height.
as for the others.
1: wouldn't it be possible to create a different page with the "today's comic" on it? then have that one link to the dialy page and such? the daily page woudl always link to the index, but the index could just link to this other ghost index?
2: method two does sound more reasonable. I woudl totally be all about doing it that way...if i could get option 1 to work, so people would actually know about it.
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Dr Neo Lao
- Cartoon Hero
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- Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:21 am
- Location: Australia
In siteadmin, under "Advanced Options" there is one that says If not index.html, which is the default? This one was for doing exactly what you want - having something else as the default page. This option was disabled some time ago because too many people would break their comic and then the admins would have to go in and fix things...
At the moment, when someone enters your basic url, they wil always go to comicname.comicgenesis.com/index.html - there is nothing that you can do about that.
The keentag ***todays_comics*** is the same tag that you put on the index template and the daily template. Read up a bit more in the Wiki on just how the server works to get a better idea. (It'd take too long to explain it here.)
If you create a new "main page" that is the one that you advertise and link to (such as comicname.comicgenesis.com/main.html) then that will work fine, except that most people will very quickly end up linking to your basic url anyway.
If you don't put a comic on the index, then that will let you use the index in the way that you describe, but you'll still have the problem with last comic not being shown.
Though having thought about it, it may be worth a try. So long as you keep a buffer of at least one comic, then the "latest" comic on the second-last page will be the actual comic that you want displayed as the latest. Just make sure that you use the ***previous_day*** tag on the index template.
At the moment, when someone enters your basic url, they wil always go to comicname.comicgenesis.com/index.html - there is nothing that you can do about that.
The keentag ***todays_comics*** is the same tag that you put on the index template and the daily template. Read up a bit more in the Wiki on just how the server works to get a better idea. (It'd take too long to explain it here.)
If you create a new "main page" that is the one that you advertise and link to (such as comicname.comicgenesis.com/main.html) then that will work fine, except that most people will very quickly end up linking to your basic url anyway.
If you don't put a comic on the index, then that will let you use the index in the way that you describe, but you'll still have the problem with last comic not being shown.
Though having thought about it, it may be worth a try. So long as you keep a buffer of at least one comic, then the "latest" comic on the second-last page will be the actual comic that you want displayed as the latest. Just make sure that you use the ***previous_day*** tag on the index template.
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Moonshadow
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- Location: Somewhere north
Okay, thank you, both of you. I guess I will be running through and fixing things, which is fine, I just wanted to know BEFORE I started uploading, because it's less of a pain to fix it now.
As far as the pain of updating manually, I do know it's going to be worse than doing things automatically, but something I've heard more than once (and not just directed at me, though it has been) is that with a story that's not daily-strip style, it's nice to NOT have the main page show you the most recent update; this is basically a workaround for me that's different from the various autokeen tricks that are being suggested for S.M. (I also have a "secondary" strip, in my occasional gag comics, so this serves to do a workaround for the "two comics on one page" problem too.) I'll just be creating my own "dailytemplate" that is already coded to hold a prenamed image, so all I have to do is drop that page and the finished image into the web space. I don't think it'll drive me too much more nuts than the old way of doing things. :lol:
As far as the pain of updating manually, I do know it's going to be worse than doing things automatically, but something I've heard more than once (and not just directed at me, though it has been) is that with a story that's not daily-strip style, it's nice to NOT have the main page show you the most recent update; this is basically a workaround for me that's different from the various autokeen tricks that are being suggested for S.M. (I also have a "secondary" strip, in my occasional gag comics, so this serves to do a workaround for the "two comics on one page" problem too.) I'll just be creating my own "dailytemplate" that is already coded to hold a prenamed image, so all I have to do is drop that page and the finished image into the web space. I don't think it'll drive me too much more nuts than the old way of doing things. :lol: