FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

GENERAL QUESTIONS
What is diysearch all about?
Are you anti-corporate anti-capitalist?
Why not just use google?
There are a lot of dead links here, what's up?
What's the deal with the Donate button?

ACCOUNT QUESTIONS
I had an account about a million and a half years ago, what should I do?
I tried resetting my password, but was unsuccessful, what do I do now?
How do I add my links to diysearch?
I added a link, but it isn't showing up
What is this sponsored link stuff?
I can't get my link approved, what's up?
What is "report dead link?"
My link has been reported as dead! What's that about?

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
What runs diysearch.com?

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GENERAL QUESTIONS
What is diysearch all about?
Heh, well. To put it simply, diysearch was created out of frustration in 1996 by me (david palmer). Back in those days there wasn't anything like this, and the major search engines just didn't spider these little out on the fringe sites. Yes, google has done a pretty damn good job with their pagerank system in making it much much easier to find just about any site, the problem is still the glut of results returned in a typical google search. diysearch is much more focused. That is key. focus. If you care enough, I've written up an abridged history of the site. Its not terribly interesting, but you may be curious.

Are you anti-corporate anti-capitalist?
No, not in the slightest. In fact, I find the anti-corporate attitude found in some diy projects really quite useless and not entirely sensible. Corporations have their place. The company that hosts diysearch.com is a corporation. They provide me a service, which I pay for. See how it works? Not all corporations are evil (in fact, I think anthropomorphosizing things like corporations is painfully silly). Anti- capitalist? Heh, doing a zine, running a label or a distro, etc. is the ultimate expression of capitalism. I like it, it means freedom. Frankly, I like freedom, and capitalism, in our current socio-economic evolution is the best way to express that freedom. The only thing really stopping you is yourself (just so long as you take off that tin foil hat).

Why not just use google?
I urge you to not limit your searching and self-promotion to one vehicle. Use google. But, keep in mind that with diysearch.com you'll most likely get a more narrowed result. Also, the control link owners get is nothing like what google provides. We don't spider sites. Links are stored in the database and are maintained by the owners, including how they are organized within the database. This amount of control is a double edged sword. On one hand site owners can do the darndest thing, but the other side of that coin is, the relevance of your searching is more, er, relevant.

There are a lot of dead links here, what's up?
The short answer is, don't worry about it, they will be disappearing as time goes by. But right now I am fully aware of this problem. The problem is really organic in that the nature of diy projects is that they are highly fluid, meaning here today moved (or in some cases, gone) tomorrow. I've done a lot of work to provide link owners the controls to make sure their links stay up to date, but I can't make anyone update their information. Instead I have written a whole new indexing system that goes out and does a validation of links, and if they are not valid, they won't be included in search results or category browsing. Also there is a feature to enable users to report dead links. This way a dead link can be brought to my attention when the system can't catch one (there are several reasons why the system can't catch a dead link, like a parked domain for example).

What's the deal with the Donate button?
Well, think of it as "passing the hat." I basically pay a rather signifcant amount of money every month to pay for the hosting of and bandwidth for this site. I've been doing this for over a decade, and have never complained, but it would be nice if we could have just a little (or just a token) amount of help to hopefully make this an easier pill to swallow. I have no illusions that this project will ever be self-sustaining, that's NOT why I do this. But, I do have a dream that maybe through the kindness of the few users would see fit to lend a helping hand.

ACCOUNT QUESTIONS
I had an account about a million and a half years ago, what should I do?
Well, first, thanks for coming back! Well, you can search the database with your email address in the hopes of resetting your password. I understand that any email address you have in the database may be years and years old and no longer active. If this is the case, please contact me. I do not have an automated process for this such condition, and I will in the near future, but I'll do what I can.

I tried resetting my password, but was unsuccessful, what do I do now?
Best thing is to get in touch. You could also just try to create a new account. Most cases are of users coming back who have been old users of this site, and the only possible thing from stopping you from creating a new account is if your URL(s) have not changed (this is unlikely). If you are still having problems, just get in touch.

How do I add my links to diysearch?
Prety simple really. Just log in and then starting adding links. You should know that links go through a review process, mostly to ensure correctness, but also to ensure that the noise is kept down to a minimum.

I added a link, but it isn't showing up
Like above, there is an approval process for links submitted to diysearch. There's a reason for this. In the beginning everything was perfect, links came in, they were good. Then spammers, scam artists and minor criminals found the site, and posted so much crap the search engine was innundated. So, I had to institute a review process. Its a fair process, and not judged on content. Your link is judged on relevance (is it what you say it is) does the link work (not result in 404's or 501's etc.)

What is this sponsored link stuff?
Pretty simple really. Just a way to maybe help this site out, by hopefully make some of it pay for itself. frankly, this site is expensive to run, and the costs come right out of my pocket. Also, apart from helping diysearch, it also helps you. Sponsor links are given priority in search results and in category browsing. there will also be other benefits that will be coming online.

I can't get my link approved, what's up?
Well, the most likely cause is that there is a problem with the actual URL you provided. Double and triple check to make sure you don't have a typo. The other reasons include things like: your site is a scam of some sort, or is a porn site, casino site, or just generally not relevant. If your site promotes things I find hateful (racism, sexism, homophobia etc.) then it won't get approved either.

What is "report dead link?"
In order to aid myself in ensuring that links are relevant and fresh, I'm enlisting the help of you, the actual user of diysearch to help keep things fresh. Now, reporting a dead link won't take it out of circulation. What it will do, however, is alert me that a link should be looked at, and if it is dead, I will be the one to remove it from the index. Which is to say that the link won't be removed from the database, it means that its approval flag will be set back to 0. I made it this way so as to remove any temptation to abuse the system.

My link has been reported as dead! What's that about?
Well, it means simply that someone was going through search results or a category page, wanted to view your site but found that the URL you provided is most likely out of date. Of course I can't tell you how to feel, but grateful comes to mind, because now you have an opportunity to fix things, which you can do just by going into your account and fixing the problem. Your link will be sent for review and when it gets approved, you'll be good to go. Just know that if someone does just report your link, this doesn't mean they have the power to remove it. Oh no, only I have that capability. In fact, nothing actually happens but a single flag being set in your link record. Pretty basic really.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
What runs diysearch.com?
diysearch.com runs on a Linux-based server with an AMD chip set. The front end of the site (the thing you see and interact with) runs on Apache 2 using PHP 5.x (which implements the presentation and user-interactivity code). The stuff you don't see, but drives the entire site runs in JBoss application server. The "middle tier" is written using Java 1.5. The database back end is using Mysql 5.x. If you want to get a more detailed explanation of the architecture, just check out this blog entry.