How to "Blackout" web site? Many Questions???

n1800

For a lurker here who has very little knowlage of html or web workings, please could detailed instructions be posted.

Before I was kicked from SNL I used to be able to spend hours trying to get a simple web site to work by trial and many errors. I now have to pay dearly for each minute and can't afford to spend three or four hours tweaking on line.

Other questions are: What happens if Google or another Web Bot is doing its thing on your at that particular time when the site is down ? Might it take several months to find your site again ? Any way round that by keeping the meta tags or whatever hidden under the blackout page ?

Will the Blackout page be a link to the Blackout host or will it all have to be carried on the web site's server ?
With my past experience it will take me many hours to change the site and probably twice as many to put it back as it was. I haven't maintained it since July and have forgotten how to !

Sorry this is so long, all help and suggestions will be appriciated.

N

dahamsta

For a lurker here who has very little knowlage of html or web workings, please could detailed instructions be posted.

God, there's so many FTP clients out there that'd be pretty messy. I'll try and point people to suitable resources tomorrow when I update the site tomorrow though. My offer to update people's sites remains on the table too.

Before I was kicked from SNL I used to be able to spend hours trying to get a simple web site to work by trial and many errors. I now have to pay dearly for each minute and can't afford to spend three or four hours tweaking on line.

Good reason to state your case then!

What happens if Google or another Web Bot is doing its thing on your at that particular time when the site is down ? Might it take several months to find your site again ? Any way round that by keeping the meta tags or whatever hidden under the blackout page ?

That's kind of awkward, although it would be a pretty hefty coincidence if the major search engines chose that day to spider your site. (Reindexes are commonly run once a month, and often at wider intervals. Altavista hasn't reindexed for several months now.) Adding the META tags to the Blackout page would be a good start, and you could add links to the major sections of the rest of your website to the bottom of the page too.

Will the Blackout page be a link to the Blackout host or will it all have to be carried on the web site's server ?

There's just one page, which links to the rest of the site.

With my past experience it will take me many hours to change the site and probably twice as many to put it back as it was. I haven't maintained it since July and have forgotten how to !

Again, it's difficult to explain because there are so many FTP applications out there. In simple terms, you just have to open your FTP client, rename the current default file (usually index.htm(l) or default.htm(l), and upload the Blackout webpage with the filename you just changed. Then on Saturday or whenever you want to put your regular site back, you just delete the Blackout page and change the name of the usual page back.

adam

drrnwbb

slightly off topic.. hope no one minds

i saw an animated gif ad on the xfm site (http://www.isis.ie/xfm/DSLAnim.gif)...
is it okay to put this on my site?..

also i'll take my site down on friday too and put up the new index.html that ye are talking about..

oh yeah.. (ehehe.. sorry about this) but some of my irc friends in sweden were asking about the blackout.. so word has spread far and wide

dw

Boston

Have to ask bard about that

n1800

Many thanks Dahamsta and others,

You have answered my questions and made the change sound easy. I don't think I should have any problems.

BTW I use Eleet FTP Client.

I guess I should try putting the blackout page on to my site but perhaps hidden from normal view ( with *.blackindex extention ?) with the mata tags etc as you suggest and asking someone to look at it ?
It would then only be a matter of renameing it on Thursday night ?

Thanks again.


N

corkie

A quick and easy way for you to automaticaly redirect to
the blackout site would be to detect the day of the week
using the javascript availabe

Script for redirect on a date

Here it is altered to redirect to the site for
Friday and Saturday

<script language="JavaScript">
<!-- 
function makeArray() { 
for (i = 0; i<makeArray.arguments.length; i++) this[i] = makeArray.arguments[i]; }  
var daysArray = new makeArray('sunday','monday','tuesday','wednesday','thursday','friday','saturday');  
var today = new Date();    // get todays date 
var dotw = today.getDay(); // get the day of the week                            
// Sunday = 0, Monday = 1 ... Saturday = 6  
if ((dotw>4)) {location.href = 'http://blackout.irelandoffline.org/';}

//--></script>

Just insert in to head section of your page/s.

If you would like a count down clock for your site
have a look at my example one here
Best regards,
John