Click if you love Xara III

[jens g.r. benthien]

don't you realize this is an ugly rat race? If someone will reset a counter from time to time, how much sense does a site like that make? No sense at all.

It appears to me that all they want is to get clicks to collect higher fees from their ad clients, nothing else.

Are you sure they don't reset the counter only because they don't want XARA X to reach the highest score? Seems they are Adobe friendly.

Don't go for this lousy game, instead concentrate on your work. This rat race is something for kids who can't afford shooting games because it's biased and unfair.

Do XARA X users really have to participate in this bullshit?

jens

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[gnurf]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jens g.r. benthien:

Do XARA X users really have to participate in this bullshit?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope, I find it to be quite a waste of time as well

-Paul

[gwpriester]

You certainly do not Jens. I would not dream of inconveniencing you :-)

As I stated at the top of this post, keeping the XaraXone at the top of the list has several benefits. It shows the rest of the design community that this is a product they should find out about. Why is it getting so many clicks?

And it also shows Xara Ltd., who support the XaraXone and make it possible for me to create the tutorials each month and add useful content such as the Featured Artist Gallery, the Shareware page, the Tip of the Week page, the Guest Tutorial Page, the Xara Links Page, and more, that there support is producing some sales for them and getting the word out about Xara.

Now if you (Jens) would like to financially support the XaraXone and pay for all this content, then perhaps I would not need to go through this drill every time.

Is Chris Dickman using this Topp Sites listing gimmick to get more hits for his site? I'm sure he is. If it were not for Chris Dickman and the former i-us.com, there would be no XaraXone and there would be no TalkGraphics conferences for you to share your opinions and your excellent design work to the world. And if it were not for Arlen Bartch and Chris Dickman, who persuaded Corel to let i-us make Xara 1.5 and 2,0 avaialble for sale on the web, Xara might not even be around today to be on the Top Sites list. (Corel was just hoping to let Xara die a quiet and silent death).

See how it works???

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<A HREF="http://www.gwpriester.com" TARGET=_blank>
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[gwpriester]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Nope, I find it to be quite a waste of time as well, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, I forgot to mention, without the chain-of-events I laboriously just mentioned, Paul's wonderful images for the June 2002 Featured Artist gallery, would not exist.

Give me a break people.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[jens g.r. benthien]

sorry, but I didn't intend to 'take the butter from your bread' as we say. Thanks for giving me some insight into the background of this operation, however if a poll, hitlist, hotlist or top list is biased just because the operatore randomly resets the counter I have to come to the conclusion that someone doesn't like to see XARA X being #1.

So please don't ask us the 'Imagine what would be with the Talkgaphics if...' question - you'd be better off asking Chris Dickman this question. My advice: if he is really one of the pushers for Xara, he should consult a shrink to have his brain washed thoroughly to keep his fingers away from the reset switch.

BTW, I have always said that I am willing to pay for content on the net - it'll pay off very fast if you consider the connect prices in Europe.

But as far as the talkgraphics.com is concerned, I accept the nuisance of the ads **if** they will keep the forum up and running. However, I don't accept posts to vote for XARA if there is a lunatic pinhead at the other end, resetting the switch from time to time.

I mean how long do you want to play this game? It'll speed up sooner or later. CD will reset the switch more often, and you will nail your posts for votes here more often - maybe even every day! - you'd be better off to run a banner on top of the forum which reads 'Please Vote for XARA X at the graphics.com' - your vote will keep me alive and CD busy!

Hilarious.

See what I mean?

jens

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[Mike Bailey]

It still flips me out that Xara saved I-US from the meat balls, oops... I meant wired eyeballs or whatever their name was? With all the original forums and more. I still commend Xara, Hats off to the folks at planet X.

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[ChrisDickman]

Hi All:

I'm the "lunatic pinhead" that suggested to Xara that they take over the forums I set up on i/us and continue running them here, using the great moderator team I was lucky to have on i/us.

Regarding the Top 100 Graphics Sites list on GraphicsNews.com, I'm a bit taken aback with the paranoid tone of the posts in this thread. Some of you seem to be watching too much XFiles or something. The way this list, and -all- such lists work, is this: related sites submit their site to be added to the list. If I think they're valuable resources - like the XaraXone, something I had a part in creating, as Gary points out and which I am only too happy to promote - I add them to the list. They link to me, I link to them. That's it! The list automatically resets all the rankings from time to time, and more frequently reranks, based on the latest in/out figures. This is to keep things fair, so new sites have a chance, as well as those that are consistently sending traffic to the list. That's it! This is automatic, I certainly don't sit there and rerank or reset based on how any sites are doing. I frankly don't care. They send legitimate traffic, they rise in the rankings, little or no traffic, they drop. That's it! No conspiracy! Sheesh!

Now, the list software does indeed have quite sophisticated cheat detection and if I had a bone to pick with the XaraXone I might actually raise the issue of some rather dubious clicks... ahem. So, rather than giving the XaraXone a hard time, I actually give it somewhat special status and will continue to do so despite being accused of all kinds of nutty things. (Earth to planet Jens - chill, will ya?)

You're welcome!

Yours,

Chris, "the pinhead"

[jens g.r. benthien]

I'll freeze in awe. Promised.

Your post sounds a bit different. But what a weird system. Life can be so simple and beautiful.

Hey, if I would be near you I'd say let's go to a nice club, torture a pinball machine and fight for high scores. Would make more sense, though I can't tell if it makes more fun because I've never wasted dimes on this stuff. And there you can reset my scores as often as you want to - 'me planet' will survive it with ease ;-}

Or let's go to a roulette casino - with you and your hidden reset switch we can drive them bankrupt!

Fiesta.

have fun playing your games so the invaluable winning team CD & GP will survive!

frozen planet jens

and now give it the five stars rating back again

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[gwpriester]

One thing I overlooked.

Yes, Chris would like to have a high hit count on the site. That is how he attracts sponsors to support the site and that is how he makes a living and is able to continue to support the graphics community. Chris and I do have families to feed.

Chris has made galleries available on his site for anybody who wants to show off her or his talents. Anybody who is interested can have a gallery for free. Go to the Gallery page and sign up for a gallery. Jens you could even showcase your product designs in one of the galleries.

The Xara Gallery has received the second most number of visits of any of the galleries and it is only a little behind Photoshop.

If any of you have art you would like to show off, visit the Gallery page and see how well your images fit in.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[gnurf]

My previous reply to Jens was actually about the "ratrace" thing (and not the BS). I don't mind promoting and supporting products I like (ie Xara and XaraXone), but I find it to be quite silly to surf around every month or week or so just to keep scores up. And I am quite skeptical about votings/polls/counters on the web since there are so many possibilties to cheat (with) them.
And by reseting the "scores" the whole thing feels a bit like gas- and service-stations where they reset the hi-scores on the their pinball machines every day - why play when your top result is gone tomorrow?
My critique is not directly directed to Chris but
web votings/polls/counters on the whole.
The idea of giving every newcomer an equal chance to get to the top 20 is of course noble, but wouldn't it be a better idea to have one "All time top 20" and one "This month top 20" category? With the risk of making the page cluttered, why not put them side by side for comparison?

-Paul