Thoughts and suggestions for our project website

[Guest]

Hi everybody,

Recently, I've finished a small website for a project by our group of
developers. The basic idea for the project is to attract, harvest and
analyze spam, but that's not why I'm here (well partly it is, hence the
email address). Anyway...

I'd appreciate it very much if anyone who's interested would take a look at
my website, and post their comments and/or suggestions to improve the site.

At the moment, there isn't a lot of content yet, since the project has only
just started.

Thanks for your time,

Ivana ([email protected])

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Ivana Lottaspam

Hi everybody,

Recently, I've finished a small website for a project by our group of
developers. The basic idea for the project is to attract, harvest and
analyze spam, but that's not why I'm here (well partly it is, hence
the email address). Anyway...

I'd appreciate it very much if anyone who's interested would take a
look at my website, and post their comments and/or suggestions to
improve the site.

At the moment, there isn't a lot of content yet, since the project has
only just started.

Thanks for your time,

Ivana ([email protected])

1. Stop using pixels for font sizes. Set the body font size at 100%,
and adjust for various elements, eg. heading elements, legalese, etc.
The size you have now is too small.
2. Validate your markup, you have some errors.
3. Bump the navigation colors up, especially on hover. The contrast is
not enough and may be difficult for some people to see.

 

[dorayme]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Ivana Lottaspam


1. Stop using pixels for font sizes. Set the body font size at 100%,
and adjust for various elements, eg. heading elements, legalese, etc.
The size you have now is too small.
2. Validate your markup, you have some errors.
3. Bump the navigation colors up, especially on hover. The contrast is
not enough and may be difficult for some people to see.

Where are you seeing this guy's website?

 

[BessieBee]

I'd appreciate it very much if anyone who's interested would take a look at
my website, and post their comments and/or suggestions to improve the site.

Ivana ([email protected])

I left your email intact, hope it helps!

Rather bland looking site and font is way too small.

Am I the only one on this planet that finds "Ads by Google" highly
annoying?

LeslieB

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed dorayme

Where are you seeing this guy's website?

It's in the signature, and got removed when I replied
[http://haus.scienceontheweb.net/], I found it difficult to find the URL
as well.

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

The basic idea for the project is to attract, harvest and
analyze spam,

Using the word "spam" within your email address may keep you off the
harvesters list. I've read where they spit out address that "look fake".

(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
and so forth. Your "lottaspam" might qualify as well. I think your
project is doomed.

About your web site? Can't read it; no contrast, font too small, etc.

 

[dorayme]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed dorayme

Where are you seeing this guy's website?

It's in the signature, and got removed when I replied
[http://haus.scienceontheweb.net/], I found it difficult to find the URL
as well.

Got it now. I agree with what you say.

It is disconcerting to hover and have the same background as the
"current" when you hover over a contiguous link. Contrast very
poor in the footer. In fact, I was admiring the nice clean look,
why not have *no different background* to the footer. It needs no
particular eye-catching attention mechanism. It is a footer and
at the bottom, people with foot fetishes always look there.


(PS. Please give me some time. Had a cat scan on my right foot on
Fri, will try to find time to get it online for you all).

 

[rf]

Hi everybody,

Recently, I've finished a small website for a project by our group of
developers. The basic idea for the project is to attract, harvest and
analyze spam, but that's not why I'm here (well partly it is, hence the
email address). Anyway...

http://haus.scienceontheweb.net/

<quote>
After waiting for a whole week for our first spam message to arrive, we give
up. Either alt.test is not actively harvested, or it just wasn't harvested
this particular week.
</quote>

You are aware that messages to the test groups expire very quickly, about 10
minutes or so. A harverster would have to be on the job continuously to
notice your post.

Not a valid test.

 

[Disco Octopus]

Using the word "spam" within your email address may keep you off the
harvesters list. I've read where they spit out address that "look fake".

(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
and so forth. Your "lottaspam" might qualify as well. I think your
project is doomed.

About your web site? Can't read it; no contrast, font too small, etc.

I agree with bts. Certainly spambots that would be clever enough
identify a valid useful email address would also be clever enough to
identify an invalid address, and one such invalid address would
contain the word 'spam'.

Perhaps change it to something more non-key-word or person-oriented
such as 'ralpmalph@' instead of 'lottaspam@'.

I certainly don't think your project is doomed though (as long as you
change your email). Although, then again, those big vendors of the
anti spam software would have at least some kind of head start with
similar thought processes.

I hope that you get some good data and make good use of it.... for all
our benefit.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

<quote>
After waiting for a whole week for our first spam message to arrive, we give
up. Either alt.test is not actively harvested, or it just wasn't harvested
this particular week.
</quote>

You are aware that messages to the test groups expire very quickly, about 10
minutes or so. A harverster would have to be on the job continuously to
notice your post.

Depends on the server. Right now posts available in alt.test (and not
crossposted to any non-test groups) at news.individual.net, my primary
feed, go back at least two months.

<q one example>

Newsgroups: alt.test
Subject: Testing only 12/15/07:18:00:02
Date: 15 Dec 2007 10:00:03 GMT

</q>

Here's one only to .test groups that's from June of last year:

<q>

Newsgroups: biz.test,alt.test,ch.test
Subject: michael lalonde cyberstalker
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:45:11 -0700

</q>

I'm not saying it's a good place to harvest. But your "about 10 minutes
or so" claim isn't broadly applicable.

 

[rf]

Depends on the server. Right now posts available in alt.test (and not
crossposted to any non-test groups) at news.individual.net, my primary
feed, go back at least two months.

Really?

I am only going on *my* server (bigpond). One has to be quick to actually
see the test.

I'm not saying it's a good place to harvest. But your "about 10 minutes
or so" claim isn't broadly applicable.

I stand Corrected.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Really?

I showed you examples, now snipped.

I am only going on *my* server (bigpond). One has to be quick to actually
see the test.

Bummer. I'm used to, when I go into alt.test to do something and sort by
poster to see my stuff, having weeks or months of my old tests still
there.

I have several news servers (and several news clients) set up.

I checked Earthlink, too.

<q>

Newsgroups: alt.test
Subject: Testing only 01/14/08:12:00:02
Date: 14 Jan 2008 04:00:02 GMT

</q>

They're keeping about a month's worth in alt.test.

Last one. NOTE: I've done these last two checks as much for my own
curiosity as anything else; I'm not trying to drive this down yer throat.
<G>. news.datemas.de:

<q>

Newsgroups: alt.test
Subject: echolot ping - ignore
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:40:02 +0100 (CET)

</q>

About a month, as well.

I stand Corrected.

I exist but to serve. And swim. And eat. Eat to live; live to eat.

Regards.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Really?

I am only going on *my* server (bigpond). One has to be quick to
actually see the test.

Another serer issue issue is lag.

I used to use a server (a pay server, no less) that took about 20 minutes
before one's posts were available. That's a GIANT pain in the ass when
you're trying to run tests. Takes what feels like all flippin' night just
to do several tests when you're doing configuration testing. Ow!

 

[dorayme]

I am only going on *my* server (bigpond). One has to be quick to actually
see the test.

Ages back, your newserver (on bigpond) was slow. There seems no
happy medium with Telstra! <g>

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Depends on the server. Right now posts available in alt.test (and
not crossposted to any non-test groups) at news.individual.net, my
primary feed, go back at least two months.

Is there a possibility that the spambots ignore test groups? How many
n00bs post their real addresses there? (Just a thought... n00bs seem to
post their test messages everywhere else, though.)

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Is there a possibility that the spambots ignore test groups? How many
n00bs post their real addresses there? (Just a thought... n00bs seem to
post their test messages everywhere else, though.)

Note that - since snipped - I said that I wasn't addressing whether or not
test groups were harvested. Only that retention wasn't necessarily as
short as claimed.

As for the question, that can go both ways. Test groups probably wouldn't
be very fertile for harvesting because not only, as you say, would they
tend to contain fewer real addresses, since the unclued aren't posting
there and because the even the ones who might be posting with real
addresses probably aren't as spam naive as the huddled masses in other
groups. On the other hand, it doesn't cost spammers any more to scrape
test groups as well as nontest groups, so infertility probably wouldn't
much matter to them.

 

[Guest]

<snipped>

First of all, thanks for all the suggestions. I've tried to make the best
of them, and have just placed the changes online.

Sorry for not placing the URL somewhere in the post itself - I just assumed
that everyone would be able to see it in the signature. Didn't think about
replies etcetera

For those who are interested in seeing the new version: it can be found at
http://haus.scienceontheweb.net/ .

Here's an overview of the changes:

1. Stop using pixels for font sizes

I've changed all fixed sizes to "em", if that's what you meant. The site
looks more or less the same, but I'm not sure whether the way I implemented
it is right. It seems that each item within an item inherits the font size
from it's parent, and adjusts based on that size. Is there another way? A
way to set a size, always based on 100%?

2. Validation

Not yet done, but I'll make it up in the weekend.

3. Bump up the navigation colours

The navigation colours were changed (I made the font a lot darker, so it
should be easier to read on the light background).

4. Website contrast

Not only the navigation, but also the links were changed - overall, I think
the contrast is a bit better.

5. Footer

IMHO, the footer was indeed a bit of a problem. After the suggestion to
drop the different background, I decided to make the footer the opposite of
the header. Same background as the website, but with a border on top,
instead of under as in the header.

Thanks for the comment about the "nice clean look" - that's exactly what we
went for. Another poster called the design a bit bland, well, it's actually
meant to be that way. Not boring, but we didn't want to go over the top
with colours and animations and stuff...

Best regards,

Ivana Lottaspam (virtual project spokesthingy)

 

[Guest]

I left your email intact, hope it helps!

Thanks - no luck so far, though...

Rather bland looking site and font is way too small.

I've already replied to Dorayme about the layout and design issues, so I
won't repeat them here, however...

Am I the only one on this planet that finds "Ads by Google" highly
annoying?

.... I would like to reply to this comment. I've noticed that there is a bit
of a growing public who are not so fond of Google Ads, but in my experience
they still are the least intrusive form of ads so far. For those who do not
like to see the ads, there certainly are enough ways to remove them from
sight. Therefor we have opted to go with them for providing us with
advertisements.

I hope you understand, and if not, I would like to know why you find them
so annoying.

Best regards,

Ivana Lottaspam (virtual project spokesthingy)

 

[Guest]

<snipped>

Besides the help I already received with the design/layout of the website,
I would also like to thank everyone for their information and input in our
project.

Today, I've added a new article to the project's homepage in which I have
addressed each concern - feel free to read it at
http://haus.scienceontheweb.net/2008/02/are-we-on-the-right-track.php .

Again, thanks for all the input!

Best regards,

Ivana Lottaspam (virtual project spokesthingy)

 

[Blinky the Shark]

<snipped>

Why attribute if you're not going to quote anything?