Thank you! Readers like you are what make the
HotSpots page tick. The info on how to submit your suggestion is further down
the page, but if you'll take a moment to read the following, it may answer
questions you may have about the process of submitting a HotSpot suggestion.
You now have a better chance than ever of having your site selected
as a hotspot! That's because I've tightened the guidelines, giving more
time and space for your site to shine.
I personally review each and every hotspot suggestion you send---with some
major exceptions, detailed below. I use many of the suggested sites as main
daily selections. Almost all the others appear in a roundup of reader
suggestions that appears every month or so. If you take the time and trouble to
tell me about your page, I'll do my best to see it gets some exposure.
And although it's in no way mandatory, I'd very much appreciate it if you
could add a back-link to the HotSpot page (http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/hotspots.htm)
on your page. Let's help each other! 8-)
Now, please either keep reading, or use the following links to jump to the
section you're specifically interested in:
There are three kinds of pages I simply can't include as HotSpots or Reader
Choice pages, and a fourth type I usually simply can't get to. To avoid
disappointment, you should know about these general categories:
1) I have to be able to connect to and view your
page. Sounds silly, but it's true--- please make sure you include your
page's accurate URL. Also, your server has to be up and responding reasonably
well for me to get to it: I get thousands of site suggestions so if I click on a
page and if nothing much happens within a minute or so, I have to move on.
1a) Relatedly, pages that are too browser- or plugin-specific may not make
the grade unless the benefits offered are overwhelmingly positive. I generally
accept sites that work well on stable releases of Netscape and Internet
Explorer, and that use the bundled add-ins and plug-ins that ship with those
browsers. Pages that break either browser or that require time-consuming
downloads of nonstandard plug-ins and add-ons are much less likely to be a
HotSpot unless there's some genuinely compelling benefit to offset the hassle.
Bottom line: I suggest you ensure your site works with the latest standard
releases of Netscape and Internet Explorer, which combined, make up almost all
the browser market anyway.
2) I can't link to pages that are (IMHO) obscene, libelous, or
otherwise objectionable for the intended audience. No, this isn’t a
site for kids and some of the sites here perhaps edge a bit towards the outside
of the envelope with offbeat humor, colloquial and "street" speech,
occasional artistic nudity and such---but I won’t knowingly link to a site
with blatantly gynecological or purely prurient graphics, racist rantings,
toilet humor, and the like. I completely support everyone's First Amendment
rights and think 'net censorship in any form sucks out loud. But if the kind of
material you want to post falls into the above prohibited categories, please
promote your pages elsewhere.
4) Finally, I strongly favor sites you send yourself rather
than via the third-party notification services (you know, those services where
you give them your URL and they promise to promote it to the world). If you do
sign up for such a service, I probably won't be able to view your site because I
get thousands of such submissions each month and simply don't
have the time to wade through them all--- I'm on my own here doing this page.
8-) I much prefer to give priority to HotSpot fans who take the time and trouble
to write to me on their own. For the best chances of being featured, send me
your URL on your own. Thanks!
Every other kind of site is most welcome! Send 'em in! 8-)
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HotSpot nominations are best submitted via a special
mailbox; a small "URLbot" program I wrote then extracts the site
address(es) from the text. The software also creates a brief site description
based on the email’s "subject" line. The program assembles all the
suggested hotspot addresses into a single HTML page I then use to personally
review all the suggested sites.
The semi-automated handling of suggestion mail saves time and allows me to
view far more pages than otherwise, but it does mean you won't get a personal
reply from me about your suggested site. I apologize, but I promise you I will
do my very best to personally check out your suggestion!
If I choose your suggested page as a main hotspot, I will try to contact you
(or the page's author) via the mail link or email address shown on the suggested
page: Being a hotspot can generate thousands or even tens of thousands of hits,
so it may be a good idea to warn your webmaster to be ready on the day I tell
you the page will be a hotspot! (Weird trendlet: more and more pages are popping
up with no clear way to contact the webmaster. I think this is a bad idea on the
face of it---it tells the site visitors that the site owners don't want to
interact with them. If the site is chosen for a HotSpot, lack of an email link
also will prevent me from telling the site owners they're about to get a pile of
visitors.... 8-))
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1) Use your regular email system or this mailto link to compose a note to hotspots@langa.com.
This is a special mailbox devoted
exclusively to handling HotSpot suggestions.
2) Think of a short, accurate "subject" line for your hotspot
suggestion email. This will be the primary way I identify your site(s), so be
clear, please.
3) In the body of the message, all you need to do is place the plain-vanilla
URL somewhere, ON A LINE BY ITSELF with no extra punctuation or formatting.
Something like this:
http://www.domainname.com/pagename.htm
If you're sending multiple suggestions, please use one URL per line. If you
wish, you can also include a brief description of the site, but please put these
on separate lines, away from the URL.
4) Please recheck to make sure you included the correct URL! You'd be
surprised, but I get a lot of mail that contains a wonderful glowing description
of a site, but no clue as to where the site is, or a URL that doesn't work!
That’s it! I’ll check out your suggestion ASAP. Watch for it in an
upcoming HotSpots page!
And again, Thank you!
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