Inquire Within

In no particular order...

1. What is this site supposed to be?
2. Who created this site?
3. How was this site created?
4. Can I (re)use your design?
5. How do you select each link?
6. Can I suggest a site for the list?
7. Why are some days missing?
8. Why are some links broken?
9. What is your privacy policy?
10. Is this site accessible?
11. Does this site validate?
12. How long did it take to make this site?
13. I think you should run this site on [insert name of software/web platform]?
14. Why "redurl"?

1. What is this site supposed to be?

What is anything supposed to be? While I could certainly allow this line of questioning to devolve into the fundamentals of the human condition, let's just say that redurl is a kind of public "favorites" list.

2. Who created this site?

redurl is the brainchild of Michael Ellars, an architect and some-times web developer living in Los Angeles, California.

3. How was this site created?

A whole lot of manual effort went into it. Unlike just about every othe website out there these days, redurl.com isn't running on some kind of database-driven backend. Everything is coded, written or designed by hand, from the HTML and CSS to the images and updates. There are two images (well, three if you count the "favicon") that were designed in Adobe Photoshop; the rest of the site is manually coded using a basic text editor.

4. Can I (re)use your design?

The open nature of the Internet makes it brutally simple to wholesale steal anything you want; anyone who tells you different is probably trying to sell you something that breaks one or more fundamental features of the Internet. On the one hand, I'm flattered that you'd ask; on the other hand, wouldn't you rather gain some satisfaction by designing your own look and feel? If you absolutely must take it, please do me one small favor and change the color to something other than #900. And please do not use my images, or link to the files on my server, or otherwise leech off my bandwidth. Thanks!

5. How do you select each link?

It comes down to "what did I read today that was interesting?" I regularly visit many websites, including great sources of interesting stuff like /., facebook and even LinkedIn.

6. Can I suggest a site for the list?

Sure, but please don't take offense if I don't respond, don't use your suggestion, and/or don't acknowledge your suggestion.

7. Why are some days missing?

Life happens. While my goal is a daily digest, and it even says as much in the masthead, I cannot commit to any kind of guarantee for daily updates.

8. Why are some links broken?

I have no control over the content or administration of external websites. People and corporations change their sites regularly; pages are moved or renamed, or entirely removed, on a fairly regular basis. That being said, if you find a broken link and can identify where it should point instead, please let me know (this functionality is still in progress, you're just out of luck for now).

9. What is your privacy policy?

I like privacy as much as the next guy. I respect your desire for privacy, too. My web host automatically logs web visitor statistics, so I have a record of your IP address (it's 3.142.42.215 by the way, but that's just a cheap server trick), the pages you visited and how long you stayed on this site; I might also have the "referring" site (if you followed a link to get here) and possibly where you went afterwards (if you followed one of the links here). Trust me when I say that none of that is particularly meaningful, and far far less than what just about any other website out there is collecting from your visits. Plus, I'm not doing anything with this information other than periodically deleting it to free up web server disk space.

10. Is this site accessible?

Great question! And the answer is yes! Gone are the day that you could link to a web accessibility evaluator to deliver results, but rest assured that this site passed when it was last checked in early March 2013, and there have been no substantial design changes since then.

11. Does this site validate?

Parking? No. But HTML and CSS? Yes and yes!

12. How long did it take to make this site?

Considering it is an on-going effort, I assume you mean "originally"; and the answer is "about two days, not counting the redurl graphic, which was about another day of effort."

13. I think you should run this site on [insert name of software/web platform]?

Firstly, the observant of you should notice that this is an opinion, not a question. Secondly, opinions are a dime a dozen, and free opinions are generally worth their value. That being said, thirdly, I thank you for your suggestion but I have a long history of starting sites with fancy backends only to neglect or abandon them due to over-complexity in administration. I can handle manual coding and updates. At the end of the day, the only moderately taxing task is the monthly archiving, which is not really even all that difficult or time-consuming.

14. Why "redurl"?

Why not? But seriously, I picked up the domain name several years ago and struggled to find a use for it. Then one day in early 2013, I thought of this concept. It took a few months to see it through, but now here it is.