For many years, this site wasn’t much of a site at all, little more than a very simple front page to my anti-spam email system. This system was the reason I bought this domain and I had no use for the web space other than explaining how the system works in case anyone bothered looking up my email domain.
The page was extremely simple with a distinct 1998 look to it – pure HTML, no pictures, no CSS, no Javascript. People did check it out though and quite a few linked to it, so that to my big surprise my simple one-pager with no updates in years ended up with Google page rank 5!
Yes, I put an exclamation there, because anyone who has ever built a website and cared for search rankings knows that PR5 is pretty decent and gives your site quite a bit of authority. Many established blogs with regular readership and frequent updates still have lower ranks.
Now, I know that Google page rank by itself doesn’t mean much, but it was still incentive enough to do a little more with the site. The final push came when I read about the latest AWeber breach and wanted to comment on it. First, I installed blog software that allows me to manage content more easily. The home page now continues showing the same text as the old version (because it’s still relevant and I don’t want to risk my ranking) but I added a few more pages about how spam works and what to do against it in general. The new system also allows reader comments so you can share your ideas with me or just say hello and don’t have to pass by silently anymore.
More interestingly, I’ll publish a list of companies and sites that my system caught abusing user email addresses over the years. I have some more ideas, but won’t promise anything more yet because those ideas take time and who knows if I’ll ever find enough. Updates will still be very infrequent, as I will keep everything closely spam-related and there are few ground-breaking news. Don’t be surprised if you only find a post per year or so!
November 2010
Don’t know your name and am certain that even if it came out that you kick dogs and eat crackers in bed, you would still make my short list for Citizen of the Year. Thank you for your site!!
Thanks! Don’t think such a simple and unfinished website would qualify me for such honor, but I’m sure glad you like it!
Hi Ross,
thanks for providing this site – small, but helpful.
Please check out what can be done with the Recent Comments Plugin you use in the right sidebar. When I clicked on one of them, I accidently clicked on the Name/Website link instead of on the link to the comment. Very irritating from an enduser perspective. Maybe there is a solution that shows just the popular or most commented post instead of the comment with link to the authors page.
Happy Weekend!
T.
Thanks for pointing it out, Tom. I will look into it. Obviously this site could use a bit of an overhaul in general. Hope I get around to do that some time soon.