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Home > 2009 > December > 15

Top Story, December 15, 2009

Our new resource is now ready for you

By Brian Livingston

I promised in the Dec. 10 newsletter that I'd notify Windows Secrets subscribers this week about a free service we've added to our site.

You have a chance to take advantage of this resource right now, today, with a giant head start — most Internet users still can't find it using search engines.

The treat I've been preparing for you all year long is a giant discussion board packed with tricks on every version of Windows and almost every kind of software application you can think of. After more than a decade as Woody's Lounge — yes, the one started by our own senior editor, Woody Leonhard — the site, thanks to Woody, is now known as the Windows Secrets Lounge.

This is no ordinary chit-chat site. The Lounge is an incredible repository of Windows expertise. More than 700,000 posts are in there, organized into some 125,000 threads. This immense knowledge base covers everything you need to know to make Windows and your apps work for you instead of against you.

I'm not going to go into the Lounge's entire history right now. Let me just summarize by saying the board got its start around 1995 — even Woody himself doesn't recall the exact date — and has had its ups and downs since then.

Initially, the Lounge was programmed and administered largely by Eileen Wharmby, a California resident who was unbelievably generous of her time in order to help harried Windows users. Unfortunately, Eileen passed away in December 2004 after a long illness, and the Lounge never quite recovered from the loss.

Activity in the Lounge was high in 2003 and 2004, but it gradually declined each year after that, as Figure 1 shows. After two lengthy outages in April 2006 and August 2007 (the short lines), the Lounge server came back up to find a smaller base of users each time. Broadband access to the Internet was growing by leaps and bounds during the decade, but fewer and fewer Web surfers were finding their way to the Lounge's fountain of collective wisdom.

Lounge posts per month, 2002–2009

Figure 1. In January 2004, activity in Woody's Lounge peaked at over 10,000 posts per month. By 2008, this had dropped to less than half that level. (The curve is a polynomial trend line that smooths the data.)

The decline in the use of the Lounge had several reasons. One of the biggest, however, was that the volunteer operators of the site felt the need to use the so-called Robots Exclusion Standard to block all search engines. Every time the Googlebot and its ilk started slurping down the Lounge's 100,000 pages, the site's underpowered server would crash or become so slow it seemed to users to have crashed.

As a result of the site's total ban on search engines, not one of the Lounge's 700,000 posts was findable in Google or most other indexes as of Nov. 30. Well, this month we're fixing that.

Here's the part where you get to have some fun

Woody approached me in 2008 and proposed that Windows Secrets become legally and financially responsible for the operation and future growth of the Lounge. Before agreeing, I first met individually with the five volunteer administrators, who were spread out across the U.S., Europe, and Australia. They were enthusiastic about the possibilities, so my co-workers in Seattle and I said we'd do it.

Windows Secrets moved the Lounge to a powerful and stable server in early 2009. Shortly thereafter, we converted the discussion software to the well-known IP.Board platform. Finally, on Nov. 19, 2009, we moved the entire site from its old domain name, Wopr.com, to become part of WindowsSecrets.com. Last week, we started gradually allowing search engines to index the Lounge.

After much testing and bug-swatting, the Lounge is finally stable enough for you to enjoy its content and add your own comments on the latest Windows willies. Let me tell you what you'll find:

• Become a member for free. Getting a membership is free and will always be free. This isn't a money-making operation for us, it's a labor of love for all Windows users worldwide.
  
  
• Freely post comments. Once you're a registered Lounger, you can view content — all of it free — in more than 30 categories. Best of all, you can share with others your findings on Windows, apps, or what-have-you.
  
  
• Follow our progress. This is a BETA, and that's putting it kindly. For example, the platform's default search function is lame, but we'll replace it with the well-regarded Sphinx engine by the end of December. The FAQ and Help pages are stubs at best. Finally, only the Lounge Lobby and the forum view have been redesigned with our blue-and-orange look. The default gray thread view and other major pages will be updated soon, and you'll be able to see the improvements happening before your very eyes.
  
  
• Watch the Wiz. For most of this decade, the Lounge's animal spirit has been a sassy lizard. In his new incarnation, we call him Wiz. He'll pop up here and there in the months to come.
  
  
• Totally opt in. One of the things we're not going to do is compel every Windows Secrets Newsletter subscriber to become a Lounge member. The two intersecting sets are independent of each other. But I hope you'll join the Lounge today to see what all the excitement is about.
  

• Step 1: Free registration. Visit the page shown in the link below. Enable the check box on the bottom of the form, and click the Continue registration button. Then enter your name and e-mail address (either the one you use for the newsletter or any address you prefer), and that's about all it takes. Here's the link:
  
  ► Visit the Lounge and claim your registration
  
  
• Step 2: Verify and sign in. After you register, you'll receive a confirmation e-mail message the same day. Click the link inside that message to verify your address. You'll be taken to our Lounge sign-in page. Enter your username and password, and click the Sign in button — you're a Lounger!
  
  
• Step 3: Upload. Signing in takes you to the top level — what we call the Lounge Lobby. The first thing you should do is upload a photo of yourself. Image-sharing strengthens the communication within the global network. On the Lounge's main menu, click Settings, select the Profile tab, and then click Change your head shot. Once that's done, click the Change your Profile photo tab. (You can use the same image in both places.)
  
  
• Step 4: Enjoy. After setting up your profile, go back to the Lounge Lobby. Find a forum on a topic in which you have some expertise, and look for new threads started by other Lounge members. If you can add helpful information, please do so by clicking the Add your reply button. If not, click Start a new thread and share whatever knowledge you can. Show what you know.
  
  
• Step 5: Promotions await. The Lounge needs more expert hands to assist all those Windows users we expect to start streaming in from Google and other search engines. The subscribers who post the best new content in the Lounge over the next few weeks will be considered for promotion to a VIP — Very Informed Person. VIP status brings extra privileges, high-level conversations with our moderators and administrators, and sneak peeks of Windows Secrets content prior to publication. If you're good, we want you in the Lounge.