Xavisys, my company, now owns Attackr.com. I wanted to make sure that you guys were the first to know. I want to stress that I plan on making it the same great resource that Sean did. Xavisys now has two such sites (Attackr & Web Dev News) and is committed to benefiting the community with them.

As you all know, Sean has been extremely busy lately, and a site like Attackr needs regular attention to keep it on the top. I'm committed to giving it the time and resources it needs. We've already launched some changes that should make it better for everyone involved (and hopefully attract even more traffic to your articles and links).

The first major change was the upgrade to WordPress 2.6, which has a more powerful and intuitive interface. We will try to keep Attackr up to date with WordPress releases to give you the latest tools to work with. We will also continue to focus efforts on SEO so that the site will continue to be a good place for developers to link to their design sites in order to build Page Rank and traffic.

Other improvements to the site include new support for tags on posts. All of the old articles have been tagged with the categories that they were listed in originally, and you can log in and update the tags for your older articles. For readers browsing the site, the tags should assist with easily finding related content, as the tags will now be listed at the bottom of every blog post. “Article Contributor” links in the sidebar are not automated, so there will no longer be a delay while you wait for a person to add your link. As before, authors with more than three articles on the site get a link and the link will disappear within one month unless you post another article. Also, the display name for your link can be changed in your WordPress user profile, so you can really control your own search engine benefits. Hopefully this will lead to a more active community on the site.

Ads have been adjusted on Attackr.com to not display for regular users. If a member logs in frequently, the ads will disappear. This will hopefully increase the enjoyment of the site for community bloggers creating content, while retaining the revenue possibilities on the site that cover its operational costs. I want to be real up front about this, my goal is not to get rich off Attackr, it's to continue to develop it as a community site. Since I started putting my ads on it (exactly one month ago on 10/07/2008) it has made $8.29. That doesn't even cover decent hosting for it. Our goal is to make just enough to cover expenses and to continue to grow it. Until that happens though, Xavisys will cover the costs to operate it.

As always, you can subscribe to these sites by RSS (Attackr RSS - Web Dev News RSS) but you can now also follow them on Twitter (Attackr on Twitter - Web Dev News on Twitter).

I'd also like to ask for your feedback and suggestions on how to make Attackr a better site in the future. If you don't want to post them here, you can use the Xavisys contact form.

If you haven't already, you should register for Attackr.com and also register for Web Dev News.

Wow, I had no idea this happened. Well this can be good. Quite possibly refreshing with the introduction of some new ideas.

Posted By: Sean

Posted By: conartistdesigns Wow, I had no idea this happened. Well this can be good. Quite possibly refreshing with the introduction of some new ideas.

Aaron and I have had this in the works for a while now but we needed to get a few things worked out before making it public, but like you said, it will be refreshing to get some new things going on with Attackr and I know Aaron is in a good place to accomplish that goal. I on the other hand have a ton of other things and projects going on as he mentioned.

I do indeed believe Aaron is fit for the job. As for you Sean, enjoy this one other thing off your back now. You work to hard! Thanks Aaron and Sean for all that you do!

I look forward to contributing regularly as soon as I finish some of the major projects in the pipeline for my company. I already started on some articles, but want to get a blog going on my own site first. Starting next month you can count on 3 articles every month from me.

Thanks for the service! I'll look more into to it later to see if I have any comments/suggestions for you Aaron.

Posted By: aaroncampbellThat would be great! Even if everyone here posted just one article per month on each site, we'd have some amazing resources.

Problem with user-driven content is that everybody wants it. Getting people to share knowledge for free on a regular basis is not easy, not even with a carrot-and-stick approach. Although I must admit that the high PR-link (it's not 6 as it used to be but 4 still decent) is one big juicy carrot.

Posted By: conartistdesignsI think a majority of the people here are ok with giving a way stuff for free, lol.

Yes, but my point is that there are about 10.000 sites that encourage you to submit content. So the competition, to use a that word, attackr faces today is stiff. Very.

I'm happy to able to contribute, I like to write right? But it's just hard to find the time to submit at a regular basis, because I write for so many other sites.

Posted By: conartistdesignshow many people here have sites like that

The web is bigger than OD how odd that might sound.

Posted By: niemion

Posted By: conartistdesigns how many people here have sites like that

The web is bigger than OD how odd that might sound.

I wasn't sating that OD was as big as the web. I was saying How many people that actually contribute templates have a site where they want people to contribute articles.

Design by FullAhead. Hosting Donated By OpenReaction. We support Attackr.com

Who are "We"?

Posted By: tomw Design by FullAhead. Hosting Donated By OpenReaction. We support Attackr.com

Who are "We"?

We meaning OpenDesigns. As mentioned in my previous comment above, since day 1 of OD being online, Attackr supported OD and OD supported Attackr by cross promoting the designs and designers to get more exposure for both the design templates and designers and to also help in SEO for both sites with the cross linking.

Posted By: ainslieIt looks more and more like OD belongs to you Sean and not the community.

But you sold it to Aaron, surely?

OD is not my site Ainslie and I do not own OD, so no, I did not sell OD to Aaron... however Joe has control of the domain name, so technically he owns the domain name opendesigns.org. If you or anyone else wants to take over OD, talk to Joe.

I use to own Attackr.com but Aaron and I worked out an agreement for him to take over running Attackr, so I am no longer involved in what Attackr does or doesn't do.

Just to set the record straight, I do NOT own OD. A quick whois on the domain will show you who does. As for Attackr, I took it over in order to keep it running the way it always has. The relationship between Attackr and OpenDesigns is symbiotic. Each links to the other and Attackr features the recent designs.

I don't think OD is being exploited, although I agree that improvements could be made. As for the community getting nothing back, the community gets plenty of benefits from this site (in my opinion).

Posted By: ainslieRight on cue Aaron. I'm surprised Sean didn't get you over here sooner.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that anybody though you owned OD but not to worry. More fog to cloud the real issue I suspect.

Ainslie: Aaron commented on his own, I did not contact him to reply.

You're not sure how the idea came up that Aaron owned OD? You said:

Posted By: ainslieIt looks more and more like OD belongs to you Sean and not the community.

But you sold it to Aaron, surely?

Look at what you said, OD looks like it belongs to me and I "surely" sold it to Aaron.

I've been trying to walk away from being an admin on OD for a long time now. Why don't you step up and run things? I will gladly step down and let you be an admin.

Also, the site doesn't make a ton of money. Just over $1,500 USD in two years... that's not a lot... and $300 of it will be contest prize money for the current contest.

Posted By: aaroncampbellJust to set the record straight, I do NOT own OD. A quick whois on the domain will show you who does.

Yep, as I mentioned, it shows Joe as the owner and an old email address for me (I don't own that domain anymore) that doesn't work as a tech contact, so again, Joe has full control of the domain, not me or anyone else.

And yet we can't sort out hosting or any other damn thing?

I give up.

There doesn't seem to be many people left round here anyway.

Please remove me from the mods list. I'm off with Stan and Pete!

Thank you for changing my member status as requested.

I am saddened that the community is being corrupted so much. I hope that you can find your way back to integrity.

You will receive no further comments from me about this matter.

Posted By: aaroncampbellI'm insulted and expect a little more civility even in an online forum.

I'm sorry. I was out of order. This community means a lot to me and it is frustrating that we never seem to make any progress.

OMG!? What is all this? Sean is a very busy person, he works full time, has his own blog, was acting as the only admin for OD, and doing EVERYTHING for attackr.com. I wasn't here when attackr started but I have the feeling that it wasn't a community owned site, which means Sean can do whatever the hell he wants with it. Even this, OD, isn't a "Community Owned Site" it is "Community. Driven." Though it would cause a lot of chaos, Joe could sell it if he wanted to and there "isn't anything wrong" with that. I support Sean in his arrangement with Aaron, whom I trust greatly.

As far as the link, attackr provides the link as well so how is it any different from any other mutual link exchange, it also has an entire column devoted to us. It provides links to posters and this site provides links for mods, and admins, and MASSIVE traffic to our templates. I would not have the PR I do now if not for these two sites.

And for the money, I'm sure it will be put to good use. I trust the runners of this site, with the money (which isn't mine or Ainslie's or gnome's or anyone's btw. So that's not really an issue. IMHO)

I love this community dearly and I hate to see these kind of things. What happened to Stan?

Posted By: ainslieI have no confidence in the current admins. Sorry if you don't like that but that's how it is.

Once again Ainslie, if you want to do something about it, step up or stop talking about it.

Under the current way things are around here, I've personally done the best I can for OD. Joe has full access to the domain name and the ability to change name servers, I do not. My hands are tied with hosting issues at this point.

If you can do better as an admin around here, which you always pop up expressing your feelings like you have a better way, let me know and I'll turn over my admin status to you no problem. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. But wait, you don't even want to be a moderator. Has this changed? Do you want to be an admin or moderator?

I have just emailed Joe via all his site contact forms and left a message on his cell phone. As of this comment, it's around 3am in his time zone, so hopefully within the next 4-6 hours I hope to get a reply.

I agree, the situation around OD does suck... if I could make it all better, I would... it really pains me to read you "have no confidence in the current admins". I've done the best I can with the means available to me... I didn't know you felt like I was a bad admin.

You imply that myself or another admin will take the money and run. Sorry to say but the amount of money OD has earned in Adsense since we added it to the site isn't worth being a black sheep to the community by stealing it.

Posted By: SeanI really hate drama.

I do too.

It would be great to see open designs-NEW. New design, new CMS, everything working with features and a community and people not spamming crap over and over again in designs(example? metamorph), as in only real quality stuff and real quality discussion.
--
But I don't know how it's going to happen.
--

I mean its not a good situation now but I see how the staff is not able to do anything, anyone could walk up but its a huge task that requires in my opinion a complete redo of the site.

Posted By: ainslieSurely I can't be the only person to wonder why nothing changes after months and months.

you're not.

Posted By: ainslieDespite the continued promise of better days just around the corner, oh wait that was six months ago and still no change. And you don't understand the no confidence? That was not personal against you Sean.

As mentioned before, I can only do so much with the site, my access, etc.

You say it wasn't personal against me. Well you said "no confidence in the current admins". Well, I am one of three admins and since you didn't exclude my name from your comment, I did take it personally.

Posted By: ainslieWhat I want to see you say is is the reason why you are powerless to change things???

Just a an after though... you were quick to remove my mod status Sean. If you really though this way why didn't say sooner?

I already explained why I couldn't do certain things. I am not going to repeat myself again. Re-read my comments and you will get your answers.

You asked to be removed as a moderator Ainslie. That is something I do have control over, so as you requested, I changed your status. Why it happened so quickly is because I was logged into the site at the time you asked to be removed as a moderator, otherwise it would have been the next time I was logged into the site.

Joe replied to one of my emails. I'm working on getting a login for the domain name so name servers, etc can be changed for a host move when we are ready to do the move.

@gnome: I'm still working with Aaron and actually just emailed him on a few things. Soon as I hear back and more is put into motion, I'll start a new thread.

Also, Ainslie and I have talked off forum and have worked out a few things between us, so we are still ok with each other without any hard feelings.

Time for a group hug?