Web host issues (July 28)

July 29, 2008 · Filed Under sitenews · Comment 

Ok, so somebody spilled beer on the servers or something, and now it looks like the database is gone. Thankfully, I’ve got backups, but it may be a while before the search function works again and I can add new stuff.

Very sorry about that. Will let you know when things improve (some functionality has already started working again).

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sleightly.com now has searching capabilities

July 11, 2008 · Filed Under sitenews · Comment 

Ok, back to boring you with the website’s development process.

You can now search sleightly.com to check and see what sort of listings we have. You get 20 listings at a time but can continue to retrieve results. There are still some things on the “To Do List” for the search feature, though. For instance…

  • Search rankings are implemented but need to be more complete.
  • The keywords that are searched for are not highlighted. I want that feature in there.
  • An Overview Search and a Focused Search would be nice as well. For instance, if I type in “Richard Sanders”, I get the top search results organized into different categories (the top listings for “DVDs”, the top listings for “Reviews” etc. all separated), plus the chance to make a focused search only within a specific category.
  • There just isn’t enough data there. A directory is only as good as its contents.

Still, I’m pretty happy that the feature’s there and is currently working. Yee-haw.

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Up to 2000 Reviews…

July 8, 2008 · Filed Under sitenews · Comment 

…and THAT is all the work I’m going to put into that section for a while.

After coming by the Magic Talk Reviews I decided to give them a quick indexing. Again, as with everything else on the directory, content isn’t being taken, only links to it to help people find them. It’s worth mentioning that my intent here isn’t to act as some mere link farm, but instead to serve as a resource for magicians out there.

The layout’s been updated to something a little cleaner as well. At this point, I’m thinking it might be time to start promoting the website, to see how much it can handle the stress of visitors. I don’t mind saying I’m a bit nervous about how it’ll do.

So… here goes?

UPDATE:

On 2008-07-07 23:55, kentfgunn wrote:
Ben,

I think the stuff you PM’ed me is dead on target, thanks. Great stuff.

Andrew,

Someday you’ll have to open the vault. Great new site btw!!! Great look and more of the same great stuff!!!

Gents if you haven’t checked out:

http://sleightly.com/blog/

You are missing out on my favorite magic blog. Check it out!!! I may not always agree with Andrew, but, I always read his blog!!!

Uh… I was thinking about promoting it to the smaller web forums first, but oh well, I guess it was going to have to happen at some point. If you’re here from the Magic Cafe, welcome. Be sure check out the Directory.

And Kent, thanks. If this doesn’t crash my server, I’ll get you your 20$ for that. Don’t think this is changing my mind about Erdnase, though.

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1300 magic reviews are listed in the directory

July 4, 2008 · Filed Under sitenews · Comment 

At least that’s what the database tells me.

Anyways, I was able to figure out a neat programming trick that’s probably too unsophisticated for Google’s crawling algorithm, but it worked well enough for me, and because of it I managed to get My Lovely Assistant’s DVD, book, and trick reviews indexed. That, combined with what I’ve gotten off Online Visions, iTricks, and Ye Olde Magick Blogge, that comes out to roughly 1300 reviews. Needless to say, My Lovely Assistant counts for the majority of those (almost 75%), and the olde blogge has just a wee bit. I’ve got a bit more parsing to do of Online Visions’s stuff, and I’m working through The Magic Woods’s Reviews, and hopefully at the end of that I’ll be up to 1500, which is a nice round number.

I’m pretty stoked about that. So much so that I’m thinking about making an announcement over at the Green Place and seeing how well the server would hold up under the load. It’s still not perfect, there’s no search engine and I’ve got a kink in the database that lists things “iKnow” at the end of the section, but I think it’s still pretty good.

In any case, if you’re interested in reading any of them, head on over to the main page and click on the reviews links, (or else skip that step and just go here.

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Online Visions Reviews and the Magicians Registry

July 2, 2008 · Filed Under sitenews · Comment 

Just to let you guys know, after working with the good folks over at Online Visions, I was able to add about 40 or so reviews that they published, that are now ready (and able, and eager in fact) to be browsed in the directory.

DVD Reviews
Trick Reviews
Book Reviews

If you’re interested in reviews, definitely go have a look at that.

Also, there is now an option to get added to the Magicians Registry, if that sort of thing floats your boat. I encourage you to ONLY include information that you’re comfortable with being out there (putting up your email might invite a whole lot of spam — not from me, but from internet crawlers that try to harvest that sort of information). If, however, you want people (other magicians, potential clients, etc.) to be able to easily find your email, website, myspace or facebook pages, go ahead and add that information.

Magicians Registry.

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Getting listed on sleightly.com’s directory

June 28, 2008 · Filed Under sitenews · Comment 

I might as well offer this plug about getting listed on the directory to the general blog universe.

If you haven’t already, please check out sleightly.com to see the main directory. On it is a place for anybody to list an item for free. This means that if you have a website, a product, a blog, a forum, a review published somewhere, there are sections available to make a listing for it. You can also submit links to the work of authors or companies that you are a fan of.

Plus, there are plans for more categories coming, including a magician’s registry that will let you have links to your personal website, email, facebook and myspace (although those four links are all optional), as well as a place to