Add free thumbshots previews from Thumbshots.org

M

martin30

Re: Lissa's Green Google Ball

Does anybody know how to do a script like anaconda or odp++ but that also uses thumbshots?

Martin
 
L

liftarn

Re: Bug report

I added a thumbshot fix for this version and should be OK now.
Click to expand...

At least the thumbshoots are visible now.

You should consider upgrading to K-Meleon 0.8, which should work flawlessly.
Click to expand...

I did, but it has some problems with window positioning and since 0.7 works for me I decided to keep it until the problem is fixed.
 
S

stephenlim

Re: Lissa's Green Google Ball

Hi Lissa,

Following your suggestion, I got in touch with Marco from http://ch.dmoz.org just to find out more about dmoz mirrors. Apparently, there are some mirroring issues with ODP right now causing the mirrors not to be updated at all... yikes! We're waiting for Autumn (ODP staff) to help with the mirror. :)

Meanwhile, I took the liberty to set up http://open.thumbshots.org so that the directory layout follows dmoz.org (closer to what you would expect from a mirror). Try it out! Next step is to add some server side caching so it will be fast and totally reduce the load on dmoz.org without worrying about synchronization issues with mirrors.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Stephen {moz}
 
bobrat

bobrat

Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2003
Messages
11,061
Re: Lissa's Green Google Ball

Any reason why the thumbshot for one of my sites is not from the site?
 
M

mr_anderson

Great job Stephen and to thumbshots.org!

I just want to say how much I love thumbshots. I don't usually use DMOZ until now, it's that good! I'm telling my friends about it... kewl.

They should have this on every search engine and directory. I would definitely use them and tell others too. I like the way thumbshots come up fast and it makes surfing more pleasant knowing I won't be tricked into clicking something weird... wait a minute...kinda think of it, i'm clicking more with thumbshots because some sites look really interesting that i got to see. I love it. Thumbshots rock!

gotta go, turkey's ready...

Mr.Anderson

-- "The difference is between knowing the path and walking the path". Morpheus
 
S

stephenlim

Re: Lissa's Green Google Ball

Bob, we previously did not update the thumbshots in Open Thumbshots.org as often as we liked because not many people were using thumbshots.org. Since we started promoting thumbshots.org a few weeks ago, we got a lot of interest from editors and users. We're even getting requests from webmasters to help them integrate thumbshots into their site.

As a result, we're now updating all the thumbshots for the ODP directory as we speak and we're committed to keep them fresh from now on. Please be patient and once the update has completed you'll be able to say WYSIWYG! ;)

Happy thanksgiving,

Stephen {moz}
 
S

stephenlim

Re: New Red Thumbshot Ball

Very Cool! :)

Autumn from ODP staff officially announced the Red Thumbshots Ball yesterday (and some other future plans in placed for thumbshots and ODP). I was expecting to see the red ball next week, but it came out earlier! Good work Autumn and many special thanks to Lissa, Jean Manco, ODP, editors, users and readers who provided feedback. With your help and support, we'll continue to make improvements and innovations to ODP and thumbshots!

If you find any good uses of thumbshots in DMOZ, please share them with us!

Stephen {moz}

p.s. The new thumbshots are being updated now and will be available shortly.
 
thehelper

thehelper

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2002
Messages
4,996
Re: New Red Thumbshot Ball

I really have to say that the dmoz thumbshots are truly sweet! Very nicely done!
 
M

magne

Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2002
Messages
168
Very cool! Found a site that was down, don´t think I could have found that via search. :)
 
windharp

windharp

Meta/kMeta
Curlie Meta
Joined
Apr 30, 2002
Messages
9,204
Okay, according to my own experience and to those of some surfers over at JimWorld not everyone can see the thumbnails.

I can't for example. And meanwhile I figured out why :)

1) They are blocked by my ad-cleaning software (Symantec Internet Suite) because of a rule concerning "width=88 height=31" images.

2) Something else is blocked, but I don't know what it is. Lets describe it: First - with Firewall enabled and adblocking disabled - I can't see the thumbshots. I have to turn my firewall off completely, access one page with thumbshots, can then turn it on again - and I will see all the thumbshots on all pages I visit with that browser. Looks like a cookie to me, but cookies are allowed in the firewall. The only information I block are broswer type and referrer - do you need those? If yes: Whatfor?
 
S

stephenlim

Hi windharp & liftarn,

Thanks for reporting the bugs. We just added a bug reporting page at http://www.thumbshots.org/bugreporting.pxf just for you guys! ;)

In future, this will be the proper way to submit bug reports in order to help us to track bugs and minimize work. The solutions will then be added to our FAQ so others will be able to refer to these bugs/solutions from one place. :)

But to answer your questions quickly:

Try visiting http://dmoz.org/Games/Roleplaying/Genres/Fantasy/Dungeons_%26_Dragons/ and then click the red ball.
Click to expand...

Liftarn, the problem has to do with the %26 in the URL of Dungeons & Dragons. This will be fixed shortly. Thanks.

They are blocked by my ad-cleaning software (Symantec Internet Suite) because of a rule concerning "width=88 height=31" images.
Click to expand...

Windharp, your ad blocking software removed the Open Thumbshots attribute button 88 x 31. Since 88 x 31 is standard IAB ad size (http://www.iab.net/standards/adunits.asp), I guess Symantec figures that it should remove it. Maybe we should make the button some odd size. You may encounter another problem because thumbshots are also 120 x 90 (another standard size). We try to standardize all the images to comply with Internet standards and to make webmasters' life easier. Imagine thumbshot was 123 x 92... eek how odd is that? Perhaps you can try allowing images from the domain open.thumbshots.org if possible?

Something else is blocked, but I don't know what it is. Lets describe it: First - with Firewall enabled and adblocking disabled - I can't see the thumbshots. I have to turn my firewall off completely, access one page with thumbshots, can then turn it on again - and I will see all the thumbshots on all pages I visit with that browser. Looks like a cookie to me, but cookies are allowed in the firewall. The only information I block are broswer type and referrer - do you need those? If yes: Whatfor?
Click to expand...

We don't use cookies and we don't use referrers either. However, the JavaScript code tries to read the User-Agent and browser type to determine the best way to display thumbshots. I don't know to what extend your firewall is blocking the browser type. But your firewall should not affect anything the JavaScript needs since the issue here seems to be server-side related. Maybe the page is heavily cached and you really needed to reload the page.

If you still have problem, please file a bug report and we can try to figure this out more in depth.

Thanks,

Stephen {moz}
 
S

stephenlim

Re: Found a bug

Liftarn,

It turns out the problem with %26 at Dungeons & Dragons is DMOZ related problem. You get the same problem if you click on the green Google ball. The URL is incorrectly encoded. I will email Autumn (DMOZ staff) and let her know. Thanks!

Stephen {moz}
 
mcoupal

mcoupal

Curlie Meta
Joined
Oct 1, 2002
Messages
408
Re: Found a bug

We do our best to remove sites whose domain has expired. But I'm curious if your thumbnail generator runs into a lot of these. If it does, it'd be neat if an 'Expired' thumbnail showed up. (I understand no thumbnail occurs if the site doesn't respond for whatever reason)

Or, perhaps I have a perverse definition of 'neat.'
 
S

stephenlim

Re: Found a bug

Hi mcoupal,

Thanks for the feedback. We do run across many sites that are no longer available and/or whose domain has expired. We don't keep track if the domain has expired, but we do keep track of the HTTP error code ("File not found", "Connection timed-out", etc). These codes are packaged into the data dump available for users to download and experiment with. In the future, we could easily overlay the thumbshot with different features like text or icons to indicate various states of the site in question. :)
 
L

lissa

Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2002
Messages
918
Re: Found a bug

In the future, we could easily overlay the thumbshot with different features like text or icons to indicate various states of the site in question.
Click to expand...

That would be nice - even just displaying the error code number in a little graphic instead of the thumbshot would be helpful.
 
S

stephenlim

Happy New Year!

For those anxiously waiting. We have updated all the thumbshots for ODP. Please check them out. I found many 404 errors and duplicates just from glancing the directory with the new thumbshots.

Cheers, {moz}
 
J

joeblakesley

Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2002
Messages
20
Character Encoding Bug (was Re: Add free)

The reason for character encoding problems is that none of the pages on open.thumbshots.org seem to have a character encoding specified. The content-type string in the HTTP headers is "text/html; charset=" (i.e.: it specifies a charset but specifies as nothing) which is very strange. I hope this can be fixed.
 
S

stephenlim

Re: Character Encoding Bug (was Re: Add free)

Hi Joe,

Hmm... I thought the character encoding issue had been fixed. Can you please put in a bug request with details on which category, language, browser that you still see the character encoding issue. You can submit the bug report at http://www.thumbshots.org/bugreporting.pxf

Thanks,

{moz}
 
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