Grand Opening Preview: The Chiffboard Matrix

Whistle
1

Thanks for all of your helpful suggestions to my post regarding Recommended Archive threads.

Fellow Chiffboarders, I have now been to the mountain (and probably dropped a few tablets on the way back). I have waded through 75% of the prior posts on the Chiffboard, and, guided by your suggestions, I have noted a bunch of prior threads that are common themes or are particularly good/enlightening/informative, etc.

It occurred to me that a total newbie may be become a bit…uh…dazed…by this sort of experience.

So, with the reverance and humility of a Second Foundationer making his own first contribution to the Seldon Plan (does anyone read Asimov anymore?) I have taken the liberty of creating the Chiffboard Matrix, a separate website that categorizes these topics and links them directly to the Chiffboard topics in question. Now, if you wish, you can deal with repetitive post questions by sending them to the Matrix.

Like any good snowball, this led to further refinements and this project morphed itself into a site designed for the TOTAL WHISTLE NEWBIE. The main site, called the Whistle Annex, is a geocities site whose main pages will be of no interest to you because you are all on board, but I created these pages to help true newbies, and also for all those clueless Riverdance fans. Also, in a way, this site will inexorably draw truly interested new whistlers who havent yet found C&F to the main C&F site. Then they’ll see Dale’s review of Expensive Whistles, and, well, another one bites the dust. :slight_smile: Either way, the Chiffboard Matrix is a subpage on the Whistle Annex page. These sites can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/whistleannex/index.html
and
http://www.geocities.com/whistleannex/Matrix001.html

Im still getting all the links tweaked on this site, and a lot of the posts on my list have not yet been added to the site (my html editor makes me type all of the crazy link extenstions to the chiffboard by hand…ugh) but I wanted to let all of you know that this is now up. I welcome your thoughts, commments,suggestions, etc. I hope you may find this helpful in finding old board topics, especially those of you (like me) who have a hard time searching the Archive (I must confess I ws surprised at how few results I get back on some easy and obvious searches…I must be doign something wrong) If any of you remember a good post topic thats not in the Matrix that you think should be, just email me and let me know.

I’ll be watching the Chiffboard in the future, and if I see a topic that I think is Matrix-worthy, I’ll post a little something to let you know I’ve added it to the Matrix.

Please dont flame me too bad about this project kind Chiffboarders…Im not a web designer, and its current form is very incomplete, but I am hoping that newbies may be helped by this, and that you all may find it useful as well.

Oh, and by the way, this Special Food doesnt taste half bad…Im getting a double ration now that this site is up…

Kevin

2

Kevin,
The new page and Matrix looks great, and it will be so nice to have a place where some of the great threads of the past and present are there with easy reference! I’ve had a hard time in the past wading through so many pages of stuff trying to find things I’ve searched for, etc. Thanks!

Cees

3

Kevin

For a work in progress it looks pretty good. I do think, though, that since C&F is the source for so much of your content, you probably need to be a little more extensive and specific in crediting &F in general and dale in particular.

4

Dave:
Yes, Ive been wondering how best to do that and I welcome any suggestions from anyone on the best way to do this since Im not a web deveveloper.

I’ve tried to say in the Matrix page that these are links to the C&F site, as well as in the main pages. Im in no way trying to steal any of C&F’s thunder, and in fact Im trying to drive even more traffic to the site.

Again, I CANT SAY THIS STRONGLY ENOUGH, I dont want this to appear like Imnot crediting C&F or shouting the name loudlyenough from the hightest rooftops, but I PROBABLLY NEED THE HELP OF SOMEONE MOER WEB SAVVY TO DO THIS PROPERLY…so if anyone has any suggestions you can post them here or email me at dazedinla@aol.com or you can also send me a private message.

Perhaps if I add more language in bold letters on the Matrix page that says these are links to C&F’s Chiffboard…?

Again, bear with me, this is a first upload of the site, and I appreciate your understanding while I tweak the site so it properly reflects the spirit in which it is intended… :slight_smile:

5

You should probably get in touch with Rich, one of the moderators of the board. I’m sure he’ll be able to help you out.

6

You are doing a great job starting this.
I hope it will be well appreciated.
Do you have to Post it with search engines
so that newbies will find it when they type Whistles into their search?

7

Wow, thanks for all the fast responses…Im already getting email with suggested topics/threads.

I have already made langauge changes on the main page and the Matrix page in bold red proclaimin the pages indebtedness to C&F. Duh, yeah, email Rich. I guess I shoudl have done that first anyway…oh whell…better late…

Im trying to figure out how to register sites with the engines…it used to be free, but now they want tocharge you for this kind of thing, and there are several types out there. If anyone is Experienced In Search Engine Registration and can email me with some pointers, I’d appreciate it.

Again, there are a bunch of threads not yet onthe stie because it takes so long to get them typed into the html, but I’ll keep it up.

by the way, I general I want to say that there have been a lot of really insightful and excellent posts on this Board lately, many of which are definitely destined for the Matrix.

Again, Im very open minded about this and welcome anysuggestions.

Thanks!
Kev

P.S. Sorry Rich for not emailingyou first…that was kinda stupid of me.

8

Hey Kev,
I would have just emailed you this info, but I think it will help others too.
I too have noticed that where it used to be free to register sites, there are now only fees.
One trick is to register with what people call the republic of the web, dmoz, the open directory project.
Go to http://dmoz.org
See the “add url” in your upper right and select that. Then follow the instructions they give you. Once you have registered here, and your site is added to their registry, it will be searched by all the other search engines. I know this because the last time I reregistered our business website, this is all I did, and then when I ran Netscape and Google, etc. to see if we would come up in their searches, we did. Also, join at least one webring. I think Dale’s C&F has a banner/lead to one, and last I looked, Noah’s Laughing Whistle did…there are others. On any whistle-related site, just look for a webring banner and the button for joining the webring.
http://www.webring.com/

Lisa

[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-05-11 17:10 ]

[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-05-11 17:16 ]

9

Thanks Lisa! I’ll get right on it. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

10

On 2002-05-11 11:50, avanutria wrote:
You should probably get in touch with Rich, one of the moderators of the board. I’m sure he’ll be able to help you out.

He has; I think it’s a great idea. I wouldn’t have the patience to maintain it, but if he does, great :slight_smile:

    -Rich
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Lisa:

Thanks again for the DMOZ tip. Thats a great site I never knew about before. I’ve registered the WhistleAnnex site on that and we’ll see how long it takes before its listed.

Kev

12

In my experience, it may take a few months for a DMOZ listing to be picked up by other search engines, but it is well worth it. I listed my site on there early on, and the listing brings many, many visitors.

13

I like the idea and I am more than happy with the credit given to the C&F community. Thanks!

Dale

14

Rich and Dale, are you going to post a link to the Matrix anywhere? If so, please let us know where it is.

15

I’ve put a “featured” link up at http://www.chiffandfipple.com/links.html . After the Whistle Annex has been up for awhile, I’ll add a link to the main chiff & fipple page (http://www.chiffandfipple.com/table2.html)under the “help for beginners” heading.

In the meantime: Kevin, you might want to put a link back to http://www.chiffandfipple.com/table2.html pointing out the “help for beginners” section.

Thanks,

Dale

16

Thanks, Dale, for the link. I’ve just added links to that page at several different places in the Annex. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

I’ve also just added a bunch of posts re Riverdance, Titanic and LOTR to the Matrix, so that topic is now handled once and for all for everyone on the board. Links to Brother Steve and L.E. McCullough are getting into place, but for some reasonIm havign some trouble getting the links to work. sigh. Anyway, thanks again.

17

Dazed, looks like good work to me. I checked it out and found lots of info that I’d always wondered about but not seen come up. ( It obviously was stuff that had been discussed before I found this site)
Anyway, I’m impressed.Thanks for a helpful site.

18

It just keeps getting better!! You are doing a great job.

I suggest adding these topics to the Matrix: “Alternate Fingerings for C-natural,” “Cross Fingerings and Half-Holing” and “Making your whistle chromatic” - all of these topics have been discussed quite a bit and I’ve found them very helpful.

19

Cowtime, Kendra:

Thanks!!!

Also, thanks for the suggestions, Kendra. Yes, these are on my list, but I havent run any searches on them yet. If there are any particular threads you remember that were good, you can email me a title or something in a private message…otherwise I’ll try the search engine,but honestly it doesnt give me as many search results as I know must be out there, andI like to think I know how to structure a search. Anyway, thanks and let me know if any other topics come to mind!!!

I literally just got back from the second of two regular monthly sessions that happen in my area (at a pub called McSwiggins…you gotta love that!!!) This was my first time at this session, and my second only ever at any session…what a blast!!! Great people, very accommodating for newbies, and a place to practice any time I want. Makes me wish I’d taken up the whistle so much sooner.

By the way, the Teacher Count is now: 003. If any of you know a teacher in your area, feel free to pass on the McNewbie@aol.com address to them and have them email me their info if they want to be listed.