I was visiting websites as part of my Link Referral penance when I ran across a website that uses the same template as I do. What a shock! I mean I knew it was open source when I began customizing it for my site but I guess I figured once I took it nobody else would. Then I looked into it a little further I found out two rather distressing things. One, they have been using it longer, and Two, they removed the copyright and by line at the bottom of the page. Now, I respect Andreas Viklund , the designer that created Andreas09, (my template), a great deal and I leave his info at the bottom of the template because it’s the right thing to do. So when I saw this obvious violation of web design etiquette I was angry and began thinking of ways to rectify the situation like sending emails condemning the practice. Then I realized it was not my place to do anything and I took a look at my motivation as well, I think I was jealous because their site is better than mine. That is what this is all about, I’m mad because this person beat me to it and did a better job of customizing it and so I wanted to find anything I could to degrade them. Once I was finished with my introspection I went back to that site and learned all I could about the methods they use and now I am a better designer than I was before I ran across that site. How about that? I turned a neg. into a pos. Well anyway I guess there is still a little envy left in me or I would not have written this at all.

I woke up angry that I had only one shoe and then I met a man with only one foot. So, I stole his shoe! I mean he didnt need it, he only had one foot. I out ran him easily. The moral to this story is no matter how bad the day starts out, With just a little effort you can turn it around.

The webmaster support forum has undergone a major change over the weekend and now runs on PHPbb3 rather than IPB, (Invision Power Board).   Nothing against IPB at all it’s just that our newer board offers more in the way of security and I really like the 28 new theme choices. I have uploaded them all so members will find something that suits their personality I’m sure. The categories have been reordered as well in order to better handle newcomers and process questions. Remember, “The Webmasters” is a support forum first and foremost and answering questions is our top priority. The weekend started out great with my registration at several new social networking sites where I planned to promote the hell out of both websites, HillSiteDesigns and the forum, “The Webmasters”. What prompted this change was an attack of pornbots and viagrabots.     I began receiving several auto registrations a minute at the forum because I had Admin authorization turned off, (rookie mistake). It reached over 320 when I finally realized our forum wasn’t just exploding with unlooked for popularity. I began checking the new “members” and found a great deal of dupe IPs but not before making a fool of myself and asking a friend for help moderating my wildly popular support forum. The worst part is yet to come, as I was purging the fake registrations I blew it and deleted the entire membership! Admittedly, I do not know exactly how many “real” members that was because there were no posts but still. Although heart breaking at first, this whole episode has served to, improve the security of our forum, allow the membership several skin choices, and show me the error of believing what I see. All in all it’s been a hell of a week! OH YEA! If your account was one that was deleted, please forgive my blunder and reregister. Remember this was all because of pornbots and my trust in mankind. Speaking of trust in mankind, NO more of that…..all user accounts must be activated by an admin. This will undoubtedly cause a short wait while forum moderators complete registrations but look at it this way, you won’t be blasted with viagra ads while using the forum! I want to thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time of crisis. I think I heard “W” say that once.

I have figured it out! I am going to build a website…..no wait, that would take effort and require a modicum of skill, not to mention what artistic talent might be involved, why invest all of that unneeded and most probably unappreciated baggage when I can just activate some prefab-notalent-hacksite that my host provides for free? Yea, that’s it, I’ll activate a (ahem) site that sells toilet paper. I’ll write several tutorials on how to wipe your ass or perhaps the ass of others, maybe a video or two and pow! Top of the SERPs! Best selling toilet paper selling (ahem) site on the internet! Why? Quality content, that’s why. If it has passed you by, and given the average IQ on the internet today, I’m sure it has, the internet, that tool of the brilliant minds that gave us quantum physics is not best used to teach the vast majority to wipe their asses but to sell toilet paper for crooks pretending to teach the vast majority to wipe their asses. All one really has to do is write some drivel that only slightly appears to resemble a tutorial and the search engines trip all over themselves trying to rank it up there with the Carl Sagen Cosmos series. They stick their noses in the air and proclaim their quest to provide only the best content to the one who matters most…the user, then they serve up the obvious in tutorial form masquerading as information. I think I need a vacation.