Cre8tive Flow

Spring means rebirth. At Cre8asiteforums, in celebration of any excuse to celebrate, we focused on “green marketing” this week in honor of Earth Day. Testing interest by the Cre8tive Community and web site owners of earth-people-friendly web sites has been fascinating.

We made some new friends and opened our doors to those who feel strongly about making positive contributions to the planet and people. Since the forums are about web site development, it made sense to showcase web sites that wanted to take advantage of our relaxed promotion rules by submitting their web site to the Cre8Green Directory.

We wish you all a happy and peaceful Easter holiday.

Stop by and say hello here.

If you’re interested in SEO help, guests can read Need Help Seo-ing And Indexing A Site to find some actionable advice.

A moderator’s query about if Cre8asite should start a section specifically for ecommerce is leading to a small debate about how ecommerce information could be defined, found and organized for our audience.

Would an ecommerce area become a junk drawer, or could it serve as a clearing house? Diane Vigil of Developed Traffic weighs in:

Ecommerce, though, is another bird altogether, and there are many issues that aren’t really about design or programming. We do a fair number of shopping carts and, again, there are many issues that would benefit from their own forum. Right now, they’re strewn about in Usability, Web Design, Web Programming, marketing … etc. I mean, really, where would you put a thread about SSL certificates?

As part of our ongoing look at the world around us and our contributions to it as web site developers, a new topic was started in Cre8asiteforums called In What Ways Can You Contribute To A World Of “Better Websites For A Better World”?

We’d like to explore your impressions and thoughts on what you’ve learned over the years. Do you think that your company is interested in contributing something positive to the world with its products or services?

Is there talk of being more consciously aware in development and if so, how/where/where/what/why?

Granted, I thought this was spam at first, but it turned out to be a legitimate question asked at Cre8asiteforums - How Would You Get 20 Pr6 Links Fast? You may thinking, well, whatever you’re thinking…based on your experience as an SEO/M. Ammon Johns looked at it from another possible angle:

Well, I’d call in favours. Yet another darned good reason to be a generous soul in this industry - it can earn you credit you might just need one day.

How is it reasonable or even possible for widely different cultures to communicate on issues of bias, using the same language?

A recent post by a non-native English speaker will inspire negative reactions that have nothing to do with his intended topic. Dollars to doughnuts the writer didn’t know he was stepping into anything more controversial than correctly formed English grammar. You could even argue that posting an article like this is a form of spam, ripe for the delete button, but our moderators spotted potential for discussion and moved the post to our members-only social area. As is often the case when a post gets under someone’s skin, there are wider issues at stake.

Thread pick: Free Web Design Tools

Fave rave lists can be priceless. I open them and think, “What was the name of that cool ruler thingy? What free web site editors really work?”

In March of 2005 Graphics4Me asked, “What programs do you use?” That question kicked off a big list of dozens of goodies, paid and free, big and little.

Yesterday limey started a new thread, Free Web Design Tools. Favorite, free web design related programs are being added to this thread by members in the know.

Check out both lists. Nominate your finds and learn what others are using. Your buffet awaits.

Thread pick: With Apologies to Bragadocchio!

What motivates a lurker’s conversion to active participation? Yannis kicks off an interesting Cre8asite Forums thread by using a little positive troll power. You got it: Positrolling

From Wikipedia’s definition of Internet trolling: “Often, a person will post a sincere message about which he is emotionally sensitive. Skillful trolls know that an easy way to upset him is to falsely claim that he is a “troll.” In forums where most users are similar to each other, outsiders may be perceived as trolls simply because they do not fit into the social norms of that group. It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between a user who merely has different values, views, or ideas, and a user who is intentionally trolling. This can lead to genuinely hostile behavior, including flame wars.”