Allotment Website and The Poultry Pages

Weather

The forecast was for rain coming in this evening so arose early for a Sunday to see rain. Well thanks. Climate models running on super computers connected to thousands of seaweed strings and they get it wrong. So I spent some time working and then took a look at my websites.

The Allotment Website

I’m quite amazed by how this site has grown. When I put the forums on, I was really worried they would sit there empty. Now they”ve topped 1400 posts and we?ve 186 members.

My other worry about the forum was people who sign up just to post silly adverts. Well, I?ve had a couple of them. I just delete the post and then ban the user, which only takes a minute. Since they will probably only post once banning them may be pointless but it does stop them coming back, under that name at least.

Seems like my concerns were unfounded. I thought more people would have posted photographs but I suppose, like most things, it?s a matter of time, There are some really interesting ones on there though. I find my own photo gallery very useful. It?s surprising how you forget and being able to look back a year is really useful.

The overall site visits are now over 25,000 and page views (what a lot of people mean when they say ‘hits?) are over quarter of a million. Incredible.

I?ve just cleaned up the links in the admin section. This is where I control things and post my diary etc. as well. About thirty links submitted in the last month for dubious sites. I ask for links from sites that would interest my visitors but these people must think allotment growers are gambling perverts. Oh well, takes but a few minutes to delete them.

Next was the reciprocal link checker. When I link to a commercial site, I expect a link back to this site. This helps both of our sites in the search engines. I won?t link to just any site, even if they pop one back because I don?t want my visitors time wasting. Anyway, I?m a bit surprised by a couple of them.

They put a link back to me on then remove it or say they are doing it then don?t. This is unethical and if they behave unethically in one area then the chances are they behave unethically in others. As someone who buys quite a lot off the internet, I know that it is hard to judge how good a company is until something goes wrong and then it’s too late. How they handle your problem is the true judge of a firm. So unethical companies come off, full stop.

The Poultry Pages

I?m pleased to say the poultry pages have taken off well. Just a shame there is all this uncertainty about the avian flu. I can understand the media want a good headline but this pudding is really over egged. Well, I suppose it will resolve itself in time – these things usually do. We were all going to die from SARS not so long ago and we seem to have survived. The effect is worse on free-range keepers as their birds are vulnerable whereas the poor battery hens are kept in their prison day and night. A real blow to decent animal husbandry.