FIRST Topsite?

[Calvin]

I was thinking about starting a FIRST Topsite; where FIRST websites can join and have their websites listed. Everyone that joins gets a code which they place on their website.

This code will display a 88x31 image with the rank number on it.
example:
http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/buttons/1.gif

Anybody interested in helping out with this project?

I've started working on it here: http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/ :)
How the Ranking Works
"Hits in" "Hits out" and "Clicks in" are added up as the "Today".
Then all the "Todays" of each day are added up as the "Total Hits".

Then the "Total Hits" is divided by the "Days Existed" to get the "Average."

You are ranked by Average Hits per Day.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Looks good..

[tiffany34990]

looks really cool idea-- would help out w/ scouting really easy --good job so far

[Jessica Boucher]

Very nice, but remember that you run the risk of running into the same issues that CD runs into in terms of reputation.

If anything, its a great way to quickly get to all the websites without going through the FIRST site or the website thread. Every so often, I'll see a site with the "FIRST Robotics WebRing" (or some variation of it). The image will at least show that you're attempting to reach out to the FIRST community as a whole, which is great.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Sadly, the image doesn't follow FIRST logo usage guidelines. You'll need probably need to change it. To view the entire exhaustive list of guidelines, click here (http://www.usfirst.org/4vol/resourcectr/downloads/FIRSTlogoStandards_Q.pdf)

[DarkJedi613]

Those things are so abused though - everyone just goes and clicks there own site everyday. :( If not for that I'd be all for it...

[Tim Arnold]

Those things are so abused though - everyone just goes and clicks there own site everyday. :( If not for that I'd be all for it...Exactly. I wrote a long response to parent, but it some how IE (should of been using firefox) went back and lost all of my writing.

Anyway, I agree you with completely. Most top sites become blind linking farms from shoddy webmasters who wish to capture the elusive first place.

Also, if you are coding this from scratch its nice, but not necessary because there are many free, opensource top sites apps out there (usually in PHP). I think Fantastico! (an auto installer included with many hosting plans) has one. A quick google search turned up quite (http://www.monstertoplist.com/) a (http://www.chipmunk-scripts.com/scripts/topsites.php) few (http://www.ultrascripts.com/UltraRank/) such (http://www.phpkitchen.com/article.php?story=20030501064958333) as (http://www.aardvarkind.com/):] these (http://sourceforge.net/projects/phplinks/).

BTW, the demo link isnt working...

[XYR0c]

well, i would be intrested

[Calvin]

Those things are so abused though - everyone just goes and clicks there own site everyday. :( If not for that I'd be all for it...

That problem can be easily eliminated, like restricting one hit for per ip address per 30 or so minutes.

My goal (when starting this post) was to see how many people would be interested. I can easily write my own script from nothing in a day or so, modifying or adding anything needed.

You may register or join now (at the link provided), and all the info will be transfered to the improved topsite later on. :)

Anyway, I agree you with completely. Most top sites become blind linking farms from shoddy webmasters who wish to capture the elusive first place.

If thats what you're worried about that, I can remove any links (or mentions) of my website from the topsite. ;)

[Calvin]

OK I have added two new features...

Everytime your website loads, a hit will be added automatically (You don't have to visit the topsite).

One hit will be counted per ip address per 60 seconds. (So if you want to cheat, you have to wait 60 seconds). :yikes:
Note: this time can be extended.

[AIBob]

I wouldn't go by average hits/day alone, you should also have it so that it checks votes, and limit the number of votes per ip address to one, and determine how significant each one should be by determining what would produce the greatest standard deviation among sites.

[Denman]

I wouldn't go by average hits/day alone, you should also have it so that it checks votes, and limit the number of votes per ip address to one, and determine how significant each one should be by determining what would produce the greatest standard deviation among sites.Of course that also means that if you do it at school , only one vote counts ....
And by "Everytime your website loads" he means whenever you show the image that links to it ;) )

[DarkJedi613]

One hit will be counted per ip address per 60 seconds. (So if you want to cheat, you have to wait 60 seconds). :yikes:
Note: this time can be extended.
Trust me, people will 'cheat'. I've seen ones where it is once daily, and every day it gets clicked by the same IP. It should be used as a way to log traffic not as a way of listing it.

[the_unknown]

If you have the site set a cookie the contains the time last clicked, that doesnt expire for say, a month then log IPs. If a user has the cookie but a different IP, add the IP to a list to not count for that site. If the IP matches but not the cookie give that user a vote HOWEVER there vote would be worth half of whatever the last vote was worth.

For example, the first time it would be 1 pt second time it would be .5 point then .25 etc. etc. starting again every other week. Actually thinking about it, make it only decrease every 2 times that IP comes except for the first time. (first visit 1 pt, 2nd and 3rd .5 point etc.)

If the user has the cookie, they dont count as anything. (except when visiting another site)

[AIBob]

If you have the site set a cookie the contains the time last clicked, that doesnt expire for say, a month then log IPs. If a user has the cookie but a different IP, add the IP to a list to not count for that site. If the IP matches but not the cookie give that user a vote HOWEVER there vote would be worth half of whatever the last vote was worth.

For example, the first time it would be 1 pt second time it would be .5 point then .25 etc. etc. starting again every other week. Actually thinking about it, make it only decrease every 2 times that IP comes except for the first time. (first visit 1 pt, 2nd and 3rd .5 point etc.)

If the user has the cookie, they dont count as anything. (except when visiting another site)But the problem even with that is they could delete the cookie.
Or for the unique IP requirements, people could just use a proxy server to get another IP address, there really is almost no way to have it work by clicks alone, that is why a portion of the rank should be determined by voters, that are other websites, that have signed up for an account with you.

[looneylin]

There'll probably be many ways to cheat the system no matter what precautions you use, but I like the idea of this.

[Cujo]

I think it would be a good idea, I would try to fit it into the site somehow, it would also be nice to have a list of all of FIRSTs team websites, count me in

[Tim Arnold]

All right, I take back what I said. It is really cool, easy, and simple. Plus, for whatever reason my team's site is #1... and I didn't [intentionally] cheat. I think that 60 seconds or whatever is way too short. Mainly because I have been working on my teams website for the last hour or so and I didn't realize that it was counting every page view on your site (oops! sorry). Now I am stuck with #1 (not complaining, just explaining :P) and feel bad. Anyway, I would increase the amount of time/IP logging just so normal website viewers won't falsely boost the ratings.

Thanks anyway, it is alot cooler than I thought (when I last posted it was down).

EDIT: 109 Hits now... heh. I didn't vote though, and we have an 8.5. Score!(well, sort of)

[Calvin]

We won't have any trouble with cookies, since cookies are not used. I'm going to add a 24 hour limit per ip per one hit to each website.

Oh yeah, voting needs a limit too. :)

[Tim Arnold]

I assume your modifing it right now.. heh. I was working on my site again and got a dreaded X of doom! Went to the topsite and was returned the error

"Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (11)"

Those changes sound good to me! I really wasn't trying to cheat the system, I just happen to have no life and I am constantly working on our site. :o

[Calvin]

What I made it do, is record the ip and the id of hit... The list can be found here: http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/data/online.db.php

After 12 hours the listed that is over 12 hours old, "should" go away. And that ip address can once again contribute one more hit for that webpage.

[Babyhueyhnx]

ill help you out if you want.

[Brandon Martus]

Sounds cool. I've added it to our portal on ChiefDelphi.

You're going to change the FIRST logo, though, right? It violates their usage policies..

[Calvin]

Is the violation the fact that the word "FIRST" is no longer attached to the FIRST logo?

[Mike AA]

This is indeed pretty cool, I guess in a way I added a counter?

cool idea.

-Mike

[Bharat Nain]

Is the violation the fact that the word "FIRST" is no longer attached to the FIRST logo? You cannot really modify the logo... Look at this page http://www.usfirst.org/4vol/FLLresourcectr/graphics/index.html
You will get all the information about the logo you want over there.

[Calvin]

http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/index.php

is that better?

hmmm... now for the button... :ahh:

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Sounds cool. I've added it to our portal on ChiefDelphi.

You're going to change the FIRST logo, though, right? It violates their usage policies..
Well, there goes my shot at being #1 :rolleyes:

[Brandon Martus]

The topsite page is not loading this morning. I'm not sure I can leave an image on our welcome page that isn't going to consistently load. Whats happening?

edit: it's loading now .. hmm.

[Kevin Sevcik]

http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/index.php

is that better?

hmmm... now for the button... :ahh:

The large logo is closer to right, but needs more whitespace around it. the whitespace border needs to be atleast as wide a the FIRST letters are tall. For the button, I think you'll need to abandon the logo entirely. There's a minimum size requirement, and while that's harder to translate to a computer screen, either the logo will have to be really tiny and not legal, or the button will have to be pretty big for that kind of thing.

[Joe Matt]

I think we'll be adding it to sparky384.com, don't know yet. Also, the banner URL, do you enter the url to the banner you created thats on our page, or our own banner? Thanks.

[Babyhueyhnx]

when you register the page will generate html code that say you have to insert on your site within 24 hrs (http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/img.php?id=16 ).

EXAMPLE: "<a href="http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/index.php?id=16" target="_blank"><img src="http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/img.php?id=16" border="0"></a>"

Then you create a banner to put on the Topsite (http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/index.php) like most of the other teams.

[Calvin]

The topsite page is not loading this morning. I'm not sure I can leave an image on our welcome page that isn't going to consistently load. Whats happening?

It's the MySQL database, it has a limit of connections... I believe I can fix the problem. I will do that right after I get home today.

[Tim Arnold]

Well, there goes my shot at being #1 :rolleyes:Exactly what I was thinking. Thanks CD for taking our slot in less than 30 seconds. :p

inconsiderate fiends... ;)

EDIT: First has become wayyyyy too protective of the logo. I think the topsite looked awesome before the change... now the first logo just looks like it was stuck there. As for the buttons, I think they look great too. Perhaps you could do something similar to the First Wiki (http://www.firstwiki.org/FIRSTwiki:Village_pump#New_FIRST_Logo_and_FIRSTwik i) and get it authorized?

We had a similar issue with logo guidelines making our t-shirts. Our main sponsor, GE Healthcare, insisted that we use their exact logo and font (I don't blame them). The problem was that it took them two weeks to get the font to us, and we still dont have our shirts in (or even being made for that matter). Part of it was getting all the logo guidelines, but I will admit that it was also our shirt manufacturer being.. well, you can guess. After we told him we had a finished logo and shirt layout, he decided that we took too long and made his own using "6 hours of my time", which he apparently expects us to pay for.

/rant

EDIT 2: "#08004 Too many connections". Yep, thanks, and I hope you can make it more reliable because it slows down our whole website when it dosen't work.

This post does not represent the opinions of GE Healtcare or its employees. No llamas were hurt in the production of this post.

[Calvin]

Ok I just fixed the problem... Even if the whole database gets wiped out :ahh: an image will still be displayed.

You will see a: http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/error.gif
Meaning there is some error...

It's better then an [x] :D

[webranger7]

Nice icon man. Hope we can get one of those for our website, if we win of course, which will probably not happen. But check out our website. www.railerobotics.com (http://www.railerobotics.com/)

[Tim Arnold]

Calvin, excellent. Thanks for responding to our requests!

webranger7, You do not need to win any awards or anything to be listed on the top site. Just tell your webmaster to sign up, and then paste the code supplied by the script into your websites main page. Every time your image is loaded by a visitor (each 24 hours), a hit is added to the top site's counter. Based on your hits, you are positioned on it accordingly.

[webranger7]

Don't worry, I am da webmasta. But please, check this out. www.railerobotics.com (http://www.railerobotics.com/)

[Babyhueyhnx]

Robosapien (Tim) had a good idea to modify the first WIKI logo. so i did. i think it looks pretty neat. how ever you might be able to improve on it.

http://www.team486.com/images/Topsite_Sphere.png

(This probably goes agianst first logo rules)

[Calvin]

Hmm... We could, but is First Wiki ok with that?

[Calvin]

Ok we just had one of those MySQL errors. The image thing worked (the error.gif) was displayed, but it slowed down the website a bit.

Here is the code used:

mysql_connect($hostname,$username,$password);
if(mysql_error() == "")
{
// Display the right image
}
elseif (mysql_error() != "")
{
header("Location: " . "http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/error.gif" . "");
}
It seems to be taking alot of time trying to connect... is there a faster way to try connect, and VERY fast say if there is a error or not?

hmmm how about:
$link = @mysql_connect($hostname,$username,$password);
if (!$link)
{
header("Location: " . "http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/error.gif" . "");
}
Would that speed it up, as far as testing goes?

[Babyhueyhnx]

i dont know. you might want to email them and ask. i can look into it but it will take some time.

EDIT: I just read that first wiki is hosted by chiefdelphi and neither first nor CD take resposibility for the content. so i am assuming that some one withing first approved the logo. so i guess we have to contact first.

[AIBob]

Ok we just had one of those MySQL errors. The image thing worked (the error.gif) was displayed, but it slowed down the website a bit.

Here is the code used:

mysql_connect($hostname,$username,$password);
if(mysql_error() == "")
{
// Display the right image
}
elseif (mysql_error() != "")
{
header("Location: " . "http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/error.gif" . "");
}
It seems to be taking alot of time trying to connect... is there a faster way to try connect, and VERY fast say if there is a error or not?

hmmm how about:
$link = @mysql_connect($hostname,$username,$password);
if (!$link)
{
header("Location: " . "http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/error.gif" . "");
}
Would that speed it up, as far as testing goes?
It would be slightly faster but only by a little bit, there should be no reason that a small if statement should make it bigger, also you may want to use function die() after you complete the header() function like this, to speed up the reloading of the image to the image file.
$link = @mysql_connect($hostname,$username,$password);
if (!$link)
{
header("Location: " . "http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/error.gif" . "");
die();
}

[Calvin]

Ok thanks, I'll test it out. :)

[Babyhueyhnx]

i emailed first about the logo. hopefully they will get back to me later today.

you can email them at frcteams@usfirst.org if you have any other questions.

[Mike AA]

Ok thanks, I'll test it out. :)

Calvin, out of curiosity, what is this setup running on? Is it your own server or your team's? If it is yours could it possibly be that the computer simply cant handle it? Because as Brandon says a website thats running on others should run 99.9% of the time and can become a problem if it slows the other site down. I've not watched my usage so I cant say how mine is doing (although 19 isn't many hits). Please keep trying to make it better we all start somewhere and this is really a neat idea, neat ideas get book marked :)

-Mike

[Babyhueyhnx]

it appears to be running off of his team server in a subdirectory.

Calvin if you want i can host the site on one of my servers.
currently i have one empty server and one empty sql database.

[Calvin]

The website is hosted for free at f2o.org... The reason that the MySQL database was having problem was because f2o was moving all their "free" accounts to a new server. This week, they have been trying to get everything to properly work again and so sometimes the database would be turned off so they can repair or do something.

I'm thinking about just converting everything to txt files. txt files seem more reliable, then a database. :]

Calvin if you want i can host the site on one of my servers.
Currently I have one empty server and one empty sql database.
I don't know, I don't want to kill your bandwidth.

[Tim Arnold]

The website is hosted for free at f2o.org... The reason that the MySQL database was having problem was because f2o was moving all their "free" accounts to a new server. This week, they have been trying to get everything to properly work again and so sometimes the database would be turned off so they can repair or do something.

I'm thinking about just converting everything to txt files. txt files seem more reliable, then a database. :]


I don't know, I don't want to kill your bandwidth.
Ouch. I don't know if txt is a good idea, but I suppose we will see!

Phil, is this a dedicated server, or just an account? What type of connection are you running?

Calvin, what type of bandwidth are we talking about? The buttons aren't that large of files, and I couldn't imagine that it would use more than a gig of bandwidth on normal use.

If Phil has a dedicated server available to donate, go with that, but if you still are looking, I have a reseller account from surpasshosting.com which runs my team site. Its a reseller account though so its intended to run multiple domains and the like. I could offer somewhere around 5 gigs of bandwidth and 500MB-1Gig of space (I would give more, but through the reseller control panel you set how much space each website is allocated. It doesn't let you use that space for anything else besides that account.)

Good luck

[Babyhueyhnx]

the server that i would be using is an account. the server i run the 486 website from is an identical account (identical in features) and work extremely well. i also run a third as a test server. servers are all run by 1and1 (http://www.1and1.com). Currently i have a calendar, forum and news all running out of one sql. i havent experienced any problems

Server storage limit is 500meg
Sql DB limit is 100meg. (this should be large enough)
Bandwidth i beleive is 2 gb

[Brandon Martus]

I'm thinking about just converting everything to txt files. txt files seem more reliable, then a database. :]Please tell me the logo smiley was meant to indicate that you were joking. :)

[DarkJedi613]

Please tell me the logo smiley was meant to indicate that you were joking. :)
I prefer flat file databases over mysql databases ;) no seriously though...

anyway - how did you eventually decide to arrange them? it looks nice too :ahh:

[Calvin]

Please tell me the logo smiley was meant to indicate that you were joking.

I have actually created a whole "forum" based on txt files, it's in test mode now. It was put aside because I had joined the franklin robotics team and had no time to work on it.

You can see it here:
http://snowshoe.f2o.org/cubeitTEST/forum.php
Run 100% on txt files.

[Brandon Martus]

I have actually created a whole "forum" based on txt files, it's in test mode now. It was put aside because I had joined the franklin robotics team and had no time to work on it.

You can see it here:
http://snowshoe.f2o.org/cubeitTEST/forum.php
Run 100% on txt files.
We used to use a really old version of wwwboard (http://www.scriptarchive.com/wwwboard.html), which is perl & file based .. after we got larger than 20-30 users, it started to have major issues with file locking and other related problems. (stuff mysql handles automagically)

[AIBob]

I use a combination of files and databases on my website, the databases work a lot faster, I see no reason not to use them, they are very simple to do and much faster...
...also they are more secure, they do not put your website available for change by anyone that is hosted by the same server.

[Calvin]

Everything seems to work fine now, and we have 19 members! :yikes: Once we reach 25 I'll be adding a search engine. Any other suggestions?

[lookslikeapuma]

well for the "cheating issue" I'd say go ahead and record all ratings via a mysql database, because all a user has to do is disable cookies (easy thing to do on firefox) and they can repeatedly vote (I've tried it, It works :), you may deduct a 10 point vote from team1039.org). There are ways of getting the "true IP" of a computer (if they are using a proxy), here's the one that I use (PHP):

function f_GetIP() { // Get the true IP of the user, runs through various methods of getting the IP
if (isSet($_SERVER)) {
if (isSet($_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"])) {
$realip = $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];
} elseif (isSet($_SERVER["HTTP_CLIENT_IP"])) {
$realip = $_SERVER["HTTP_CLIENT_IP"];
} else {
$realip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
}
} else {
if ( getenv( 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR' ) ) {
$realip = getenv( 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR' );
} elseif ( getenv( 'HTTP_CLIENT_IP' ) ) {
$realip = getenv( 'HTTP_CLIENT_IP' );
} else {
$realip = getenv( 'REMOTE_ADDR' );
}
}
return $realip; // Return the IP.
}

[Calvin]

well for the "cheating issue" I'd say go ahead and record all ratings via a mysql database, because all a user has to do is disable cookies (easy thing to do on firefox) and they can repeatedly vote (I've tried it, It works :), you may deduct a 10 point vote from team1039.org).


OK, thanks for the info... Have you tried cheating with hits?

[AIBob]

function f_GetIP() { // Get the true IP of the user, runs through various methods of getting the IP
if (isSet($_SERVER)) {
if (isSet($_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"])) {
$realip = $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];
} elseif (isSet($_SERVER["HTTP_CLIENT_IP"])) {
$realip = $_SERVER["HTTP_CLIENT_IP"];
} else {
$realip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
}
} else {
if ( getenv( 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR' ) ) {
$realip = getenv( 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR' );
} elseif ( getenv( 'HTTP_CLIENT_IP' ) ) {
$realip = getenv( 'HTTP_CLIENT_IP' );
} else {
$realip = getenv( 'REMOTE_ADDR' );
}
}
return $realip; // Return the IP.
}Although this is a good idea, I tested five proxy servers, and none of them sent the HTTP_CLIENT_IP or the HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR... (They are anonymous proxies though...)
I would still recommending you do something like this though Calvin, because you should take many precaussions

[Tim Arnold]

Down again? Wow. I wonder if it would be possible to mask the icon with one hosted locally - as long as its the correct ranking?

[Calvin]

Was the whole website down or did you see an error? For the button did you see a ??? image or an [x]? :ahh:

I feel like I’m letting all you guys down... :(

[Denman]

Somehow i think Cd isn't going to be shifted from the top....

[Tim Arnold]

Was the whole website down or did you see an error? For the button did you see a ??? image or an [x]? :ahh:

I feel like I’m letting all you guys down... :(
It was completely down, no ??? or web page. Just came up as a 404.

Its cool, things like this take time to perfect. I appreciate the time you have put into it. As far as I know this is the first FIRST (redundant?) topsite, and it has been progressing nicely. I bet that it will be a lot more popular next year as developers begin to design their websites again (seems like a waste to me - why not just update and improve?).

If this is because of your free hosting, remember that there are people out there will host you for free. (Have you looked at the offer (www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24872) made by sevaa.com (www.sevaa.com)?

[Babyhueyhnx]

Starting this morning the site has moved to a new URL FirstTopsite.com (http://www.firsttopsite.com). We have also switched to a more reliable web hosting provider. However the old site has not been shut down buy us. Its just another host provider outage.

Please change your links
From:

<a href="http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/index.php?id=16" target="_blank">First Topsite<br><br><img src="http://franklin.f2o.org/topsite/img.php?id=16" border="0">

To:
<a href="http://www.firsttopsite.com/index.php?id=16" target="_blank">First Topsite<br><br><img src="http://www.firsttopsite.com/img.php?id=16" border="0">

Please rememberer to change your ID tag "index.php?id=16" as well.
**NOTE: You only need to change the id if you copy the above**

[Tim Arnold]

Excellent! Thanks for this great news. I have already updated the code on our website.

[Calvin]

If you do not know your id number, you can find it here: http://firsttopsite.com/lostid.php

[looneylin]

is there any way to make the link work so u just input ur team number b/c the way u have it u have to constantly modify the URL as ur rank changes. it's hassle for my site b/c i dont have control over the site, so i cant upload anything i want when i want to, changes usually occur in one week

[Babyhueyhnx]

is there any way to make the link work so u just input ur team number b/c the way u have it u have to constantly modify the URL as ur rank changes. it's hassle for my site b/c i dont have control over the site, so i cant upload anything i want when i want to, changes usually occur in one week


I think you are thinking the the "ID" in your URL is your ranking which it is not. You need not change anything because the images on your website is being propagated from the FIRST Topsite server. your URLs are merely a pointer to this image. As for the "ID'" this is the tag which identifies your team number in the database. so, when the database detects a change in rank it looks at all the "ID" numbers and changes the image number to correspond with your rank on the site. Thus you need not to change anything.

[Mike AA]

I was wondering if anyone knew anything about FIRST Topsite getting reset or if they lost the data? I went to our team's website and noticed we had jumped WAY up then went to the website and saw that nearly everyone had way lower Total accesses and per day totals. Just curious if this might be a server crash or done purposely?

-Mike

[Babyhueyhnx]

I was wondering if anyone knew anything about FIRST Topsite getting reset or if they lost the data? I went to our team's website and noticed we had jumped WAY up then went to the website and saw that nearly everyone had way lower Total accesses and per day totals. Just curious if this might be a server crash or done purposely?

-Mike

No, there has not been a server crash and no data has been lost. If your access go up its because people are actually visiting your site.

[Mike AA]

No, there has not been a server crash and no data has been lost. If your access go up its because people are actually visiting your site.

I was referring to the fact that it shows I have 4 visits, but I have had the site up and been registered since early on, user #18. I had something like 400+ visits now its down to 4 seems something happened?

-Mike

[Babyhueyhnx]

it seems your right. ill have to look into this. thanks for bringing it to our attention.

[Calvin]

I have always intended of resetting the values at the beginning of new build season.

Your ranking is based on the “average hits” you receive per day. Since some websites were less active last build season than this season, their average will be low no matter how much they improved this season.

I apologies for any problems this might have caused.

I was referring to the fact that it shows I have 4 visits, but I have had the site up and been registered since early on, user #18. I had something like 400+ visits now its down to 4 seems something happened?
-Mike
Is your rank lower then it was before? If so, I will do everything in my power to fix it. Just say the word.

[Mike AA]

I have always intended of resetting the values at the beginning of new build season.

Your ranking is based on the “average hits” you receive per day. Since some websites were less active last build season than this season, their average will be low no matter how much they improved this season.

I apologies for any problems this might have caused.


Is your rank lower then it was before? If so, I will do everything in my power to fix it. Just say the word.

no that isn't neccesary, I was just curious and wanted to point it out to someone. I had a feeling that it was reset for the new season.

-Mike

[Tim Arnold]

no that isn't neccesary, I was just curious and wanted to point it out to someone. I had a feeling that it was reset for the new season.

-Mike
Looks like the topsite was reset again today. I am definitely digging the new features! Here's what the help page says:
Did FirstTopsite.com get an Upgrade?
Yes, Instead of using our own Topsite Software, we've decided to use the one provided by Aardvark, which is updated on a regular bases.

The new software has a "review" system, which will help us stop any non FIRST websites from joining. This also means that we can bring bring back the"leave a comment," since now we have an option to review them before they go public.

Because the System works differently, the Hits/Ranks will be reset. Within hours websites should return to normal rank.

The only issue I am hitting is that when editing account details, it now verifies the size of your image. It says "It must be smaller than 300x31.", and my team's banner is 283x31. I'm guessing that it checks to see that the banner is smaller than 31px tall, not to make sure that it is up to that large as was previously offered (less than or equal to 31px). I can easily re-size the banner, but every team has to do that when/if they update their information. Just want to verify this is how it is supposed to work.

Other than that, great job with the new updates! I really like the stats page, that will likely be a valuable resource to see how frequently visited sites are. I'm guessing that the old comment/forum system has been merged into the review process... very nice.

[Michelle Celio]

The only issue I am hitting is that when editing account details, it now verifies the size of your image. It says "It must be smaller than 300x31.", and my team's banner is 283x31. I'm guessing that it checks to see that the banner is smaller than 31px tall, not to make sure that it is up to that large as was previously offered (less than or equal to 31px). I can easily re-size the banner, but every team has to do that when/if they update their information. Just want to verify this is how it is supposed to work.


My teams button is 88x30 and it won't go through =\

I'll probably redo it tomorrow or something, but if anyone knows anything about that please post.

[Babyhueyhnx]

does it work now?

[Michelle Celio]

does it work now?
Nope.
http://www.team1065.com/misc/buttonv2.PNG
thats the button I'm trying to upload.
--
Edit: it works now.

[Babyhueyhnx]

ok should work now.

[Mike AA]

I noticed something last night and checked again today. Currently on topsite, my team's website (http://team1654.com) is listed as #60, but the block on our website says 64. Seems to possibly be an error in linking the user number?

-Mike

[Tim Arnold]

I noticed something last night and checked again today. Currently on topsite, my team's website (http://team1654.com) is listed as #60, but the block on our website says 64. Seems to possibly be an error in linking the user number?

-Mike
My team's site also hasn't been correct most of the time; however, I have noticed since the change that the button usually does happen, it may just take some time. It may just be a cron delay (or whatever system they use to generate the images).

[Fred Sayre]

I am curious about the site, but a number of computes and locations that i have tried to access the site from get a forbidden 403 error. I am not the only one that seems to have this problem.

[Babyhueyhnx]

The system is set to update ranks a few times a day. That is why you have noticed a delay. This may be changed in the near future.

As for the 403 and other errors, if this happens, please send a screen shot with the said error and address of the page, to webmaster AT firsttopsite DOT com, so that we can resolve this issue.

Thanks.

[Fred Sayre]

no more errors... whatever it was, it has been fixed.