Inquire Within

Questions

1. What is this site supposed to be?
2. Who created this site?
3. How was this site created?
4. Can I use your design for my own site?
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”?

Answers

Q1: 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.

Q2: Who created this site?

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

Q3: 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 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 SVG images and updates. There are two images (well, three if you count the “favicon”) that were originally designed in Adobe Photoshop but are now manually coded with the rest of the site using the excellent Notepad++.

Q4: Can I use your design for my own site?

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? The open nature of the Internet makes it brutally simple to wholesale steal/borrow/adapt anything you find on it; anyone who tells you different is probably trying to sell you something that breaks one or more fundamental features of the Internet. If you absolutely must “use” my design, please do me two small favors:

1. Please change the “theme” color (CSS variable --rred) to something other than #990000.
2. Please do not use my images, or link to the files on my server, or otherwise leech off my bandwidth.

Much appreciate. Thanks!

Q5: How do you select each link?

It comes down to “what did I read today that was interesting?” There is no underlying theme except my broad personal interests.

Q6: 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 if I use it.

Q7: Why are some days/months/years 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.

Q8: 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).

Q9: 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 (which is 104.176.73.68 BTW, 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 storage space. All that said, certain state and federal laws obligate me to provide an official Privacy Policy.

Q10: 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 March 2025, and there have been no substantial design changes since then.

Q11: Does this site validate?

• Parking? No.
• Life choices? Also no, but wouldn’t that be interesting?
• HTML? Yes!
• CSS? Yes!

Q12: How long did it take to make this site?

Considering it is an on-going effort, I assume you mean “originally”—in which case, the answer is “about two days, not counting the redurl graphic, which was about another day of effort.” Beyond that, to date I have spent about a dozen hours updating the HTML and CSS to keep up with modern standards.

Q13: 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 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 as long as I can find the time and inspiration to actually do it.

Q14: Why “redurl”?

Why not?

But seriously, I picked up the domain name many 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, and then it went fallow for several years. But now, here it is again!