Mr S wrote:What do you mean by impure? If it means blocking us from posting external pictures and videos, that would seriously degrade the forum and my interest level in participating.
@ Mr S
I'm not suggesting that Winston get rid of the existing site. I'm suggesting that he create an additional site that uses the same data but allows a user to view and post to the forum without seeing questionable images.
@ Winston
At work and on many public computers,
the settings are fixed so you can't turn off the graphics like you can on your home computer.
You CAN have two or more versions of the same website. I've seen it before. I don't know exactly how it works but some sites do it. Basically, you have different sites that draw from the same data source. The different sites just display the same data differently.
My suggestion is as follows:
You create THREE websites all of which use the same data source (the postings to the forum)
1. You keep the site you have the same way it is now. This is good for people who are in the privacy of their homes.
2. You create a second site:
m.happierabroad.com
This site is for cell phones. This way, people with internet ready cell phones like IPhones can check the forum from wherever they are. They don't have to wait to get to a computer to check answers to their questions on the forum. Note that you can still have links and ads on that site. Since cell phones have small screens, you should make this site as simple as possible.
Example: You can check your Yahoo mail from your cell phone as well as from a regular computer. The yahoo email website for cell phones is simplified for cell phones.
3. You create a third site:
http://www.happierabroad-nographics.com
This site is for people who are at work or who are at a public computer. Also, this would be good for people who have slow internet connections. This would be the same as the current website only without the images, gifs, and videos.
I think that creating these alternate sites is important because this is a travel website and people who are traveling have to depend on public computers or cell phones to access the internet. Someone who is traveling might want to post a trip report but might be afraid to access this website from a public computer because questionable images might appear. Other patrons of the internet cafe might see that person pulling up the website and think that the person is looking at stuff they shouldn't look at. While none of the stuff is x-rated some of it comes close to it. Also, there is the potential that some user might post something x-rated before the moderators have a chance to delete it. So it really isn't safe to access the current site from a work computer or a public computer.
The
http://www.happierabroad-nographics.com site could still have ads. They would just be text and not images.
By having 3 websites that give users more options in how and when they can access the site, you would have
MORE TRAFFIC. People wouldn't be restricted to their home computers. You could continue selling advertising on all 3 sites and since you would have more traffic you would have more ad revenue. So the bottom line is you would
MAKE MORE MONEY and GIVE USERS MORE OPTIONS. A Win Win situation for all!
I did a simple internet search and it appears that there are several sites that show you how to make a cell phone ready version of your website.
Thanks!
