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.

Attention James D. Brausch Regarding Munius and Relusi

James: How come your Munius Article Directories and Relusi Resource Directories (Link Exchange Directories) on your own sites are not - as one of my correspondents recently asked - "a shining advert for what these tools are capable of"?

Why are so many junk articles and links shown to viewers?

Why aren't Munius and Relusi installed and active on ALL of your sites?

And, on those sites where they are installed, why are so many NOT the latest versions?

Are your product sales pitches questionable? Are you just fat and happy so you just don't care? Does Google accept all the crap just as well as the occasional good stuff posted and boost page rank anyway? Or what?

But, since I am a loser with only a Blogger Blog - without "trackback" capability - I guess the only way you (James) will see my questions is if some intern happens across it and notifies you.

Oh, wait, I forgot. Recalling my intern days, interns (at least most) are not allowed to contact you with questions or comments. Just shut up and do your assignments. Feedback? Fuggedaboudit. So I guess you are unlikely to see this since I am not giving you another link with a "trackback".

Oh, well, if you do happen to see this and you do want to clean up your Munius Article Directories and Relusi Resource Directories, I have two products that can help you.

They delete - forever - rejected articles, links, comments, so they don't clutter up your moderation screens and take up server space.

Now, to my REAL target audience of this post - those of you NOT Brausch - if you are using Munius and/or Relusi, you can easily, simply, conveniently, and in just a few minutes whenever you run them, clean up your directories.

Update 2009-06-18: I no longer use, recommend, or act as an affiliate for Munius and Relusi. I also no longer offer the programs I developed to work with those P.O.S.

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.

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.

Tweaking Brausch' Munius Article Moderation Script

The James D. Brausch Munius Article Directory Software PHP scripts are a pretty slick article gathering mechanism to get content from others for your e-commerce or other website. But there are few rough edges, necessitating a few tweaks I've found desirable.

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

One if them was derived as follows: When a contributor submits an article, he is supposed to select an appropriate category from the drop-down "Article Category" select menu on the submission form. But generally, they just leave it as whatever your default is -- usually just "General".

Then, when you go to moderate, and you want to accept the article, and want to put it into a more appropriate category, you have to manually type something in. I don't know about you, but my memory is not so good, so I don't necessarily remember exactly all the category items and their spellings. (If you type in a category incorrectly, it won't show in any category to users -- only to you in moderation mode.) Anyway, I figured I needed a drop-down select menu in the moderating (article reviewing) page.

Browsing around the Munius scripts, I found the menu for contributors in "submitarticle.php". (Lines 21-37 of the original Brausch script I have.)

Copying that into "reviewarticle.php" and making a few modifications to that gets and displays what the contributor originally selected, then allows you/me (moderator) to select either that or a new category. (The code linked to below replaces lines 42-45 of the original Brausch script in "reviewarticle.php".)

See http://www.e-commerce-biz.com/code/munius-select-menu.txt for the code.