What do you think of LinkUp Pro?
 

I'm just about to do some updates on the LinkUp Pro engine and
release it to the public for purchase again. I think the code has
held up very well to time, given the amount of flexibility it's
allowed webmasters to reinvent the way they use it over and
over.

If you have any comments or suggestions please let me know
and I'll add them in before the next release.

Existing customers will not have to pay for any updates of any
kind as usual of course.

http://www.linkuppro.com/

-Ben

I remember beta testing the first one way back when :Graucho

wow!

What's your nick or domain in my system?
Send me an ICQ sometime and we'll catch up.

-Ben

the nick on icq i talked to you on was grogan

I have a membership too but I forget the info, I don't bother with galleries


anyway your icq isn't on my list, post it and I'll hit you up sometime


:thumbsup

I still use Linkup pro a bit at the moment, its a great program, really easy to use. I think the latest recip link update was 2002 though, but I'm not sure how much has changed. Over all a great program, I'd definately recommend it.

Best of luck. :thumbsup

kind of expensive! What does it do that makes it more expensive than say advancedsubmitter?

it wasn't a bad program, a big hassle to add sites, etc...

Needs a major update in that end, ala advanced submitter.

the custom file name thing was cool tho

ICQ: 10638430
AIM: mryellow123
Y!: mryellow123
MSN: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]

Hey Grogan! Yeah I think you were the first user. :-)

Recip images I didn't update as often as the database because
usually I added new sites as text recips and others didn't change
very often. Most of the database updates I did were removing
dead sites with expired domains so over time the number of sites
got less but the reliability of those sites got better. If you missed
it there was another database update early this year. For the
most part I've stopped with the database updates. From where I
see it, users are better off with their own custom database
rather than competing with each other for listings. Also because
it's really customable I found adding your own partner code and
maintaining a good list of decent traffic senders was a better bet.

Yeah Drew adding any kind of data to a system can take some
time if it's to be done correctly. I didn't want to go the same tack
as other submitters and have "intelligent" category selection and
all that kind of thing. By TGP?s blacklist is full of people submitting
wrongly categorised galleries using other submitters. So instead
LinkUp tries to reduce the load not by thinking for you, but by
clicking for you, the interface is setup to reduce the amount of
clicking and tabbing needed to enter the data rather then try to
guess what should be entered using code.

Expensive.... yeah in today?s market it may be, supply of auto-
submitters has gone up a good deal since then. At the time I
wasn't going to start off at a bargain price as this reduces the
worth of the product and makes support harder. I've seen too
many coders go broke undercharging and put it at the price it
was really worth. Which was quite competitive at the time and
came with a payment plan.

This however will change for the new offering. I can't drop the
price too much, as this would devalue the product for my existing
users. I wouldn't want to give it away and have a flood of
newbies take the listing space that would have been for my long
time customers. I'll be dropping the price when I re-offer it, not
sure how much but it should be competitive again. This will be a
limited time offer tho, just to make it worthwhile doing some
extra features while not upsetting existing users.

Back to suggestions....

Any ways you can see to make the data entry faster Drew?

-Ben

Holy crap, before me? :winkwink:

does it support thumbnail submissions?

bump for mr. yellow

Yeah there is an extra field for thumbs or pictures for pic posts.

Hey Lude! :-D

haha yeah you were late man... such a slow mover :-P haha

-Ben

I purchased it but only used it about 4 or 5 times. The database wasnt sufficient and I found adding sites far too much of a pain in the ass, so in effect it was money not well spent for me.

If you found a way of adding sites a lot easier, or keeping on top of the database centrally like the guy at Chameleon does then it may be a worthwhile purchase to people like myself who lack certain skills in setting it up correctly (& patience).

It's kinda cool but quiet expensive.

Which do you rank as more important?

The ability to keep your own database, a site list, which isn?t
shared with hundreds of others and adding your own partner,
codes or even site types.

or

Regular paid database updates.


A lot of people in the market for submission software wanted a
huge site list and many of the submitter programs got in
competition over their site counts. Many including sites that I
knew were garbage from my experience editing the LinkUp
database. I went for a more customable approach with LinkUp. I
believe this was enjoyed by most users, however I could come
up with a way to bring it closer to the center and make it better.

There was a few suggestions going around about a database
sharing system where users and site owners contribute. I
thought this had the same pitfalls, where webmasters get their
submissions mixed in with those of too many others with poor
quality galleries. However it could be good if it's what people
want.

-Ben

I used it about 2 years ago, pretty good program actually

I take it you're not really doing much TGP anymore or have moved on a bit....

Any changes that would bring it into what you're doing now?

More fields specifically for BBS posting or something?

-Ben

My viewpoint on this is this. Firstly I dont doubt the power of the software, but I prefer to buy things that make my life easier. It may have been the time I got it but the database wasnt up to date, and I found adding sites to be too laborious and over complex.

So I personally would sooner have the databases updated regularly centrally whereby I can add them in and they are pre-configured. However then you are up against the other submitters and their charges and you need to work out if its worthwhile.

With regard to actual improvements, from what I can remember if I was grouping certain TGP's together, I kept having to scroll down again to start a new group instead of it letting me carry on from where I was (this may be vague as it was a while ago).

I found it very useful, makes sense $ wise in the long term. A good database is the key. Maybe a webmasterlabor type place do this kind of db work.

When editing a site from the site list or from the submission logs
it jumps straight to the site last edited. However when adding a
new site it doesn't re-query the database to find the new SiteID
and jump to it. This saves a query, which from memory has to be
run quite often. Similarly when deleting a site from the
submission logs it jumps back to be beginning because the site
that it would have jumped to (and it's logs) no longer exists.

I use a couple of simple techniques to help get around this. When
adding a site the program checks to see if it's a duplicate so
there is no need to search first, however after I add the site I
use the search feature to bring it up for editing. When going over
the logs for sites to delete or edit I first submit in alphabetical
order so that I can keep track of where I was up to. This is only
really an issue when you have to delete a site as otherwise it
jumps back to the last site edited. Maybe I could make the delete
function just disable a site, then later you could run a function to
delete disabled sites from the options menu. This would mean it's
still in the logs and has a place to jump to. I could also make the
add feature automatically search for the last site added. I'm not
sure on adding the query that would find the SiteID and jump to
it because of the extra hit on the database however I'll give it a
go and see how things look.

-Ben

ahhh... there is another part to what you're saying....

I don't believe the grid control allows me to expand and collapse
single groups but only the whole tree. There is a button
for "Expand All", "Collapse All" but I can see how this isn't always
the solution. I'll have another look at the grid control and see if
there is anything that can be done, or a new version with better
features.

-Ben

I tried linkuppro for 2 years ago I think.......used it for mostly free site submissions, but then the linklists didnt like that so I stopped using it, still have it somewhere on my computer I think :)

I bought it a while back but never really used it much. When do you expect the updated version to be out?

I've got a few things that won't start for another week or so. I'm
going to squeze whatever code I can in that time, then look over
it for a week or 2 before releasing it and a database update.

-Ben

It's damn cool!