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What
is the catch?
There is no catch, really. The site is free to you as long as you abide
by the terms and conditions of the Thinker's
Web Project. This project is designed to help philosophers communicate
their ideas and philosophies to others. This is not meant to compete,
and indeed cannot compete, with services like Geocities,
or Tripod. This is simply a project
by philosophers for philosophers in an effort to create a community
where ideas flow freely and exchanges are frequent.
How
do I get an account?
To get an account is simple. Just go to the sign
up page, select a username and password, give your (REAL) name and
your (REAL) e-mail address and click "sign up." You will immediately
be taken to the manager
where you can begin uploading your files into your new website. When
you select you username, keep in mind that this will be part of your
web address, so it is a good idea to make sure that it is something
that you and your visitors will be able to remember! (Also be advised
that if it is learned that you did not give your real name, or your
real e-mail address, that your account will be deleted!)
How
much space do I get?
You get 200KB. I realize that this is not much, but it is not meant
to be. The journal itself only has a limited amount of space, and this
project would like to allow as many philosophers as possible to make
use of the site to present their work. If you use images sparingly,
you can actually get quite a few essays in 200KB, provided that you
use an HTML editor and not a program like WORD to create your webpage.
Plus, there are a number of hosted features that you can add to your
site that will not take up any of your space. It is possible to present
all of your work in a very professional fashion, and also have a guestbook,
a messageboard, and various other add-ons by making use of a number
of free services that will host these things for you (e.g. Bravenet).
If you simply need more space, then we recommend that you use a service
like geocites or FortuneCity
where you will get a lot more space for other types of work. Or, if
you would like to set up an e-commerce site where you can sell things,
or want virtually unlimited space, then we HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you
contact Rolf Erickson at SolveCom
and purchase a site and a domain name from him. Again, this site is
only intended for philosophers to present their work. If, you would
really like the site, but you just need slightly more space, contact
the administrator
and we can probably work out an arrangement (within reason) for you.
What
type of material can I have on my homepage?
As mentioned above, this space is specifically for philosophers. But,
if you have something that you believe will be of interest to the philosophical
community (history, classics, linguistics, poetry, etc.), then you are
free to present it. But, understand that if your work is artistic, or
done mostly with graphics, you will probably not find this to be a suitable
home because of the limited space. You cannot have any material that
is illegal, or that the editors deem to be offensive. Absolutely no
porn, no hate propoganda, and no files that pertain to hacking or disrupting
the internet in any way. Understand, if any material appears on your
site that is illegal, or presents a danger to another person or any
institution in any way, your account will be deleted, and you will be
reported to the authorities. Now that we have that out of the way, you
can have almost anything else that you wish as long as it fits into
your space allotment
What
are the restrictions on the site?
The first, and most obvious restriction is the space. If you feel that
you cannot fit what you need into the space allotted, then you should
consider a service like geocites
or FortuneCity. You cannot sell
anything from your site. If you need a site where you can sell things,
then I suggest that you contact Rolf Erickson at SolveCom
and let him set you up with a quality site with a very fair price. You
cannot upload .pl, .cgi., .asp, .cfm, or exe files to your site. And,
as mentioned above, you cannot have any material that is illegal, offensive
(we determine what offensive is), pornographic, promoting hate, pertaining
to hacking or disrupting the internet, and no files that threaten another
person or institution in any fashion. It is preferred that you use the
site for philosophical purposes, but also as mentioned above, we will
allow sites that might be of interest to philosophers.
How
do I make a webpage?
Making a webpage is surprizingly simple. It is not necessary that you
know a great deal of programming, or that you be an expert. Everyone
has to start someplace, and a site like this is as good as any. You
may have noticed that most word processors now have the ability to make
webpages. While this is certainly a nice feature, it is not reccommended.
The reason is that programs like WORD write far more code than what
the page needs, and because of this, they take up far more space. But
taking up space is only part of the problem. Remember that anyone viewing
your page has to download it from the internet, and unless they have
high speed access, it will take them quite a bit longer to download
a page created on WORD than it would if the page was made with an HTML
editor; so, it is best to use an HTML editor. There are two types of
HTML editors: WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors that allow
you to design like a regular publishing program, and standard HTML editors
in which you write in code. This latter, however, is not as daunting
as you might think. Most editors come with automated wizards that not
only will help you perform a task, but also teach you what it is doing.
You might also be concerned with price. Some editors can cost hundreds,
even thousands of dollars. While these are certainly nice programs to
have if you are going to create a large and commercial site, there is
no reason to spend money for a personal site. There are a number of
FREE programs that you can use to create a webpage. Frontpage
Express, for example, is a nice WYSIWYG editor and it is probably already
on your computer from your windows install; if it is not, you can easily
install it from the Windows disk. But, there are also a number of free
programs out there that are easy to use and even better than Frontpage
Express. I will leave a short list here:
- AOLPress
(WYSIWYG) - extremely easy to use - if this is your first site,
you cannot go wrong here. (by the way, this is becoming increasingly
harder to find, so grab it while you can!)
- AceHTMLFreeware4
(editor) - This too is good with a large number of templates
- Webford
2.01 (editor) - This is a very easy program to use with several
wizards
- EZHTML
(editor)- an easy program with templates and built in page viewer
- Homesite
1.2
(editor) - This is the freeware version of the popular editor by
Allaire
- First
Page 2000 (editor) - A power packed editor with tons of features!
It is hard to believe this one is free!
There
are number of others that I could mention here, but this is enough to
get you started. I should also mention that there are plenty of sites
on the internet that supply free graphics and templates for you page,
and you can easily find these with a simple search. Plus, if you get
stuck, and just do not know what to do, there are a plethera of free
HTML tutorials on the web at your disposal.
What
is HTML, and why do I need it?
HTML is HyperText Markup Language, and contains a series of conventions
that allow webbrowsers like Internet Explorer, Netscape, and AOL to
read any document on the web. The reason that you need this is because
not everyone has the same computer or the same operating system. Your
computer may be a PC with windows but this server, for instance, is
running UNIX and not windows, so the server itself cannot read most
windows programs. Also, even if the server could, if you put a page
on the web without HTML with your Windows PC, then no one with a Mac
or Linux would be able to view it. HTML is the magic bullet that allows
anyone with a web connection and a browser to view your page. Because
HTML is a standardized language, all webbrowsers can read the code and
show the page the same way. There are some exceptions to this, but they
are only in the more advanced features of HTML and they are certainly
nothing that is a major problem. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to
view your page in both Internet Explorer and Netscape if you can to
make sure that it is showing up correctly in both browsers.
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