Pulling the Plug on Relusi - Looks Like Brausch Did

James D. Brausch had (has?) a PHP script product called Relusi which sets up a resource directory on your site. It was (is?) for the purpose of building reciprocal links. Links out and links back (backlinks).

I no longer recommend Relusi, for reasons detailed below. Bottom line, if you want to participate in a likely much better link exchange method, I suggest you look up "Easy Google Ranking".

Anyway, I wasted a lot of time setting up Relusi on several of my sites. I wasted a lot of time modifying the "look and feel" - the skin. I wasted a lot of time learning about the script so I could make a couple of minor user aids. I wasted a lot of time making an add-on to clean up the article files.

Then, I and some others discovered that somehow - cause unknown - massive corruption would occur, eliminating many links. So I disabled new submissions to my Relusi directories.

One philosophical problem with Relusi is that there is no enforcement of reciprocity. Someone puts a link in your directory. They are are supposed to link back to you. That is a pain in the "a" for the person putting a link on your site, so most don't do it. So they get back links but you don't. Now, Relusi does request a URL you can check to see if they really did backlink, but that is a pain in the "a" for you to verify. Relusi does not offer any automated verification, other than testing for a valid e-mail address at time of submission. And there is no ongoing verification of even your links out to the requesters' sites. I addressed that in a previous post.

Another philosophical problem is: Are reciprocal links all that valuable in the first place? I don't know. Some gurus say yes, others no. One way links, but enforced by a third party service, look to be a more sound method of getting back links.

Brausch himself obviously does not think much of Relusi

Back when Brausch had Relusi on his main blog, his Relusi directory was a mess, full of spam links. One would think that he would have at least maintained it to be a "shining example" of the product. Now, the Relusi directory on that now inactive blog redirects to another of his new blogs (home page). And I can't find Relusi on that new blog or a couple more of his blogs. 'Nuff said?

Relusi and Other Resource Directories Full of Broken Links?

It is reputed that Google will penalize you if you have too many broken links on your sites. As with all things Google, who outside of Google really knows? But, it can't hurt to play it safe and clean up your sites, including resource directories.

I have found that a huge source of dead links on my sites is the Brausch Relusi Resource Directories (a link exchange program). This post is directed mainly at those using Relusi, but everyone can benefit from finding and deleting all kinds of dead links.

For the complete article, visit my site
Relusi and Other Resource Directories Full of Broken Links?

Some snippets follow, but for the complete article, in context, go the link above.

Because of too many problems with Relusi, some time ago I disabled new linking. See why and how at:
Brausch Relusi Resource Directory New Link Request Disabling

However, I have kept existing links in the Relusi subdirectories, FWIW. Since they are static, over time many links have gone obsolete, cluttering up the directories.

So I decided that it was finally time to clean up the broken links.

There are many link validators out there. If you search on Google, you will find 1,830,000 results for "link validation" (without the quotes). I figured I may as well use an authority, the W3 Consortium W3C Link Checker version 4.3 (c) 1999-2006 W3C to find them...

Brausch Relusi Resource Directory New Link Request Disabling

Update 2009-06-18: I no longer use, recommend, support, or act as an affiliate for Brausch's Relusi (or Munius). More trouble than they are worth. I am leaving this page up for reference only. Not even updating links. This is dead to me.

Because of a tremendous number of spam link requests and because of continuing corruption of the "status" data files, due to those spam link requests, I have disabled further submissions to my Relusi Resource Directories (Relusi Link Directory Software).

If I thought those directories were really doing much for traffic to my pages and/or AdSense clicks and/or my product sales, I would look into rewriting or adding to the Relusi PHP script code. That would involve adding input validation routines, for example.

(Fred Black's web scripting course teaches you how to do that fairly easily. But for Relusi, even with his course's help, that is more than I am interested in doing.)

DISABLING RELUSI

If you are interested in disabling future Relusi submissions, but you want to keep the links you have already gathered, here is what I have done.

FIRST, I created a new "throwaway" e-mail address to put into "misc.php" (approximately line 6).

SECOND, since I have even received spam Category Addition requests, I deleted on the server all the category submission related php files. I deleted:
addcatsubmit.php
addcatthankyou.php
approvecat.php
approvecatsubmit.php
approvecatthankyou.php

I edited "addcat.php".
That editing was for two purposes.
1) To to notify people what is happening re that page, and give them some links to other places on my site.
2) To eliminate 404 errors and Google broken link problems.

THIRD, I disabled new link requests by deleting on the server:
submit.php
thankyou.php

I edited "submitsite.php".
That editing was for two purposes.
1) To to notify people what is happening re that page, and give them some links to other places on my site.
2) To eliminate 404 errors and Google broken link problems.

CLEANING UP THE CATEGORIES

There is a possibility that your link categories may be corrupted .
Download the "category.txt" and "newcat.txt" files from the data directory.

See if there is anything in the "newcat.txt" file that you want to add to the "category.txt" file and add it. Then clean out the "newcat.txt" file, just leaving one blank character, and upload that back.

Edit the "category.txt" file, putting the categories in the order you want them to appear, one category per line. Make sure all trailing spaces on each line are eliminated. After the last category, go to the next line, but make it empty. Upload the file back.

NOW, IF YOU HAVE DISCOVERED THAT PREVIOUSLY APPROVED LINKS NO LONGER SHOW, THAT IS A DEFINITE INDICATION THAT YOUR "STATUS" DATA FILES ARE CORRUPTED.

If you want to repair your data directory, this is a bit complicated. You will have to download from your data directory the status files "emailconfirm.txt" and "moderate.txt", edit them, then upload them back. (FTP.) You will have to eliminate on the server the link files you don't want, for whatever reason (usually spam links).

I'm going to give you the simplest way to do it. But it will be the most time consuming.

Look in your data directory on the server and note what is the highest numbered link file.

Edit the "emailconfirm.txt" file so that it is comprised of all "Y", one "Y" per link file.
Add a "N" at the end.

So, short example, if the last link file was number 5, the emailconfirm.txt file would be:
YYYYYN

Upload that to the data directory.

Edit the "moderate.txt" file so that it is comprised of all "A", one "A" per link file.
Add a "N" at the end.

So, short example, if the last link file was number 5, the emailconfirm.txt file would be:
AAAAAN

Upload that to the data directory.

Now, you will have to log in to Relusi in moderate mode and go through the "reject" procedure for the links you don't want.

Note that you cannot just delete link files on the server. If there are any gaps in the numbering, no link past a gap will be displayed.

Now, if you want to permanently delete the rejected links, you can use my packer script, Relusi Link Exchange Data File Packing PHP Script. My script deletes the rejected files, renumbers the rest as necessary, and adjusts the status files. Because at the time I developed that software I was unaware that Relusi was susceptible to data directory corruption, it is strongly advised that you save a copy of your entire data directory to your local hard drive and that you REPAIR THE STATUS FILES FIRST, and moderate, before using my program. If you run it without repairing the status files, many otherwise good link files could be PERMANENTLY deleted without any possibility of recovery. (Unless you can get your host to recover them from THEIR backup files.)

TEXT EDITING

Note: All editing should be done with a TEXT editor such as Notepad or something better like Crimson Editor. (BTW, I don't make a dime on recommending Crimson Editor. It is free, but donate a few bucks to the author; it's worth it.)

MORE ON DISABLING

A major point regarding editing "addcat.php" and "submitsite.php" is that you MUST disable the "Submit" buttons. You can do that by editing or changing the PHP script, or at least commenting out the "Submit" buttons in the code.

For examples, see (deleted).

Brausch Relusi Resource Directory: Hackable, Corruptible.

I will be gradually, as I get to it, removing affiliate links on my sites for the James D. Brausch Relusi Link Exchange Directory PHP script software.

Not that taking space to promote that P.O.S. did me any good, anyway.

FWIW, I am still offering my Relusi data file packer PHP script, for those who may still want to "fight the good fight" trying to keep their Relusi Link Directory straightened out.
Update 2009-06-18: No longer offering that. Relusi -- fuggedaboudit!

WHY?!! Why do I no longer recommend the Relusi PHP scripts?

I have discovered that the Relusi PHP script and data directory construction allows hacking or corruption of the data (the link files). That is a huge pain in the ass to fix.

If I still thought that having "Resource Directories" on web sites was worthwhile, maybe I would try to figure it out and fix it if I could. I would offer a fix, as I have previously, including offering the Data File Packer script. But I do not think it worthwhile to bother.

If Brausch doesn't think it worthwhile to fix his product, why should I? It would be a much more major endeavor for me to fix it, and then if he did fix it and sell an upgrade, that would mean I would have wasted even more time on it for nothing.

Maybe an even more important reason is that it seems to me that Google does not really value you and I having link directories on our sites. Anymore. If ever.

Look at it this way: Did you ever happen across a link directory and say to yourself, "Oh, goody, a link directory -- with all kinds of completely unrelated links -- I wonder what I will find here -- I'll just browse at random instead of going to Google or Ask.com to look for something I'm specifically interested in..." Well, I sure don't say that to myself.

Here's a basic question which I should have asked myself a year ago when I got all enthused about link directories in general, and Relusi in particular: "Why would Google think they are a good thing for Google to consider in providing the best search results to a browser's search query?" I don't think Google thinks they are.

Anyway, here is the major problem with Relusi in particular:

Previously accepted links mysteriously become "not reviewed." Even more dangerously, the "confirmed" status of many links becomes "not confirmed". This is due to corruption of the emailconfirm.txt and moderate.txt data status files. Running my packer script then removes what were previously accepted links, because the status files now say they are no good (unconfirmed),

For awhile, I thought maybe that corruption was due to new link requests not in proper format (the Brausch script has no format checking of what goes in each submission form entry box). Or maybe it was because someone who previously submitted a link resubmitted with the same a-mail address or URL and something in the code got confused because of that.

Now, since I no longer value the directories, I thought, "Just in case these directories really are of some value, I'll just fix up the directories. I'll keep them for now, but I'll disable future submissions (and changes) so I don't have to waste more time cleaning them up over and over." As a test, I edited the submission form script file for one of my directories to disable submissions/changes. I then cleaned up the data status files, moderated new submissions, ran my packer script to delete rejected links, and then verified manually that the files were all OK.

Everything was OK as of last night when I finished. This morning, the status files were once again corrupted, along with one new (spam) link request. That new spam link request was not formatted correctly. It got into the data directory, and the data status files in the data directory again got corrupted, even though I had disabled new/revised submissions. I can only conclude that the James D. Brausch Relusi PHP software is wide open to hacking.

My next step is to remove all Relusi files not directly used in displaying existing data (link files). If I get any comments to this post, I'll let you know what the results of that is. If the data status files again get corrupted, that will be a definite indication that the data files are hackable - being hacked - that it's not just the bad formatting of link requests that is the problem. (But I still am not going to try and fix it.)

Dumping Relusi and Munius - What Do You Think?

My previous post: Relusi - Serious Problem - Brausch Resource (Link) Directory - I have come across a serious problem with the James D. Brausch Relusi Link Exchange Software.

That post outline a problem with Relusi. Someone else reported to me a similar problem with Munius.

I had not looked at my Relusi directories for my sites for a couple of days. After fixing the data file corruption reported, I had 200 links approved and confirmed for one of them. For another site I had 83 links approved and confirmed. Looking at them today, they are corrupted again. The corruption starts at link 69 on one and link 68 on another.

Just took a look at yet another directory: That had a different number of links to start with, and it is also corrupted starting with yet another starting link number.

Anyway -- I have had Relusi and Munius installed for 8 or 9 months. As far as I can tell, THEY HAVE NOT DONE ME ANY GOOD AT ALL in building traffic to my sites.

Are there ANY success stories out there for those using either of those products?

I am thinking of dumping them as being more trouble than they are worth. What do YOU think? Comments are open.

Update 2009-06-18: I have long ago dumped both Relusi and Munius -- P.O.S.

Relusi - Serious Problem - Brausch Resource (Link) Directory

I have come across a serious problem with the James D. Brausch Relusi Link Exchange Software.

This software, aka the Relusi Resource Directory software, is comprised of a set of PHP scripts that you upload to your web site server. Underneath that is a "data" directory which holds the links as individual files, and two additional files - status summary files. One of these status files holds the moderated status (not reviewed, accepted, rejected) for each individual link file. The other file holds the confirmed status (confirmed, not confirmed) for each individual link file. (Confirmed status means that the link requester has provided a legitimate e-mail address, to which the software sends a message requiring the requester to respond to it so that the link will show in the directory when it is confirmed.)

The problem is either that the data directory is easily or inadvertently subject to hacking, or there are serious errors in the PHP script coding that leads to corruption of the moderated status and confirmed status files in the data directory.

I have no idea what, specifically, the problem(s) is/are. I have a couple of suspicions:

One is that there is perhaps a problem in the code for the feature that supposedly allows a submitter to delete and/or update his listing. Perhaps that screws up other listings and/or the status files.

The other is that spam submittals (submittals not in the proper format in each of the submittal form text boxes) may screw something up.

In any event, I have noticed several times that the status of link submittals I have previously accepted have mysteriously reverted to "not reviewed" status. And this is not just one or two submittals, but dozens. To fix it, I have had to download the summary files, edit them back to accepted and confirmed, then upload them again. This is faster than going through each submittal individually. I have had to do this several times.

Now, if instead, you just go through each link request to accept they still may not be confirmed status if the confirmation file was also corrupted.

Because of these problems, I started keeping a record of the last good post number, and its subject, so when I went into moderation, I could see what is happening.

This post is already too long, so, bottom line, just one example:

I have a Relusi directory that has 228 links confirmed and accepted, a couple of days ago. Today, 133 of those links had been reverted to "not reviewed". It turns out that the confirmed script was also, unbeknownst to me, corrupted. That directory now has only 97 confirmed and accepted links.

That really pisses me off. First, I have lost a lot of links, and second, my script to get rid of spam links now deletes good links, because of the corrupted data directory status files.

For some time, I thought Brausch had some good stuff. In actuality, none of his stuff that I have tried, with the possible exception of Artemis Pro has turned out to be worth a crap.

Update 2009-06-18. No longer using any of Brausch's crap, including Artemis.

Relusi Link Exchange Data File Packing - New Version

The Relusi Link Exchange Data File Packing Script has been updated to version 2.0. (Update 2009-06-18: I no longer use Relusi, and have discontinued this product.)

In addition to permanently deleting rejected links, the php script now also allows the permanent deletion of link exchange requests by those submitting a bogus e-mail address, or who do not reply to the confirmation request e-mail. While I want to have a lot of links in my resource directories, I don't want junk links. In addition to the obvious junk link requests marked "rejected", I consider unconfirmed requests as junk also.

Permanently deleting the rejected link requests and the unconfirmed link requests makes your moderation task much simpler. With all the bogus links still showing, it takes much more time. After using the Relusi Link Exchange Data File Packing Script, you see only good links and the latest unmoderated requests on your moderation page.

Is James D. Brausch Really Serious about Munius and Relusi?

I have both programs (php scripts) - Munius and Relusi from James D. Brausch. I have spent a lot of time learning their operation, installing and tweaking them as to performance. (See my Internet Business site as well as other posts on this blog.) But -- HAVE I BEEN WASTING MY TIME?

The reason I ask this is: I recently developed a program, now in Beta test, for generating unique articles that can be manually submitted to various sites. For some additional sites to test that program on, as well as on my own, I compiled what I could find available on Brausch's sites to submit to.

You can see the results of that on my e-Commerce-biz site article "Article Submission and Link Exchange Submission Links..."

If you examine the table I made (the Brausch Sites section), you will see that about half of the articles submission (Munius) pages are not available or are not functioning. You will see that link submission pages are not available for most of his product sites; in fact, you will see that there are not many link generation (Relusi) installations at all.

Furthermore, you will see that most of the installations that have been done are of older versions. (An annoyance because article titles/headlines are chopped at 50 characters, and various other lengths maximums are also too short). And, Brausch evidently doesn't consider them important enough to increase his workload to five hours a week or to assign an intern to delete all the scores, maybe hundreds, of Cialis and Viagra posts once a week or so.

I developed a script to actually delete, not just have marked rejected, all the links you have rejected in Relusi. I have been considering doing the same for Munius articles and comments. Would that be a waste of time? Let me know. Comments on this blog are ON.

How's Your Experience with Munius and Relusi? Comments Wanted.

I have installed Munius and Relusi on all my sites. I have gotten some articles and links, but not a whole lot. I'm wondering about something.

I have a custom installation for them in that I use "articles-b" instead of "art" for the Munius directories, and I use "links-b" instead of "lnk" for the Relusi directories.

Do you think that makes a difference in how many articles and links submitted? My http://www.e-commerce-biz.com/ is my newest site and has the fewest articles and links. So, for comparison, I just last night installed Munius and Relusi again, under the "standard" directory names, and as "standard" layout and graphics installations. So I have both "standard" and custom versions of both on that same site.

For comparisons, you can look at
http://www.e-commerce-biz.com/articles-b/
http://www.e-commerce-biz.com/art/
http://www.e-commerce-biz.com/links-b/
http://www.e-commerce-biz.com/lnk/

In about a month, I'll see if any differences worth noting between the similar directories on the same site.

BTW, in installing Relusi, I noticed again a couple of minor glitches that I had noticed before I started the website and this blog. They aren't serious, but are minor annoyances that you should at least be aware of and fix.
See "Relusi Header and Footer PHP Script Notes"

AGAIN, COMMENTS?

Update 2009-06-18: I no longer use, recommend, or act as an affiliate for either of these products.

Adding Drop-Down Menu Select to Brausch Relusi Link Exchange Moderation PHP Script

The James D. Brausch Relusi Link Exchange Software is a pretty slick way to get some link exchanges. It is generally assumed that both inbound and outbound links help in getting better search engine page ranking for your e-commerce website. Relusi is designed to do just that.

Update 2009-06-18: I no longer am an affiliate for this product and no longer recommend it.

But Relusi has some rough edges. One of them is the lack of a drop-down menu for the link moderator/administrator to select or change the category a link should be in. It has to be done by typing some category into a text box.

So, I've made some changes to the script to allow category selection by clicking a selection in a drop-down menu. I've done similarly for the Munius Article Moderation PHP script.

For complete details, including the actual script (PHP code) changes that you can implement in your scripts, see:
Adding Drop-Down Menu Select to Brausch's Relusi Link Exchange Moderation Script
Tweaking Brausch' Munius Article Moderation Script