OSDev.org

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in an OS dev banner exchange system? I'm thinking little banners, not those great big ones something along the lines of 88x31 pixels in size.

If I could organize such a service would anyone be interested in signing up? I don't want to set it all up to exchange banners with myself

Does anyone have any thoughts on idea?

Thanks
Andrew

Well I went ahead and set up a banner exchange anyway, if you want to sign up, you need a 125x150 banner for your site, then go here:

http://www.mort-os.com/osdbx/

The banner exchange software is a little buggy, so it might have some teething problems.

Two questions:

What do you intend to ask of the contents: i.e. should it contain info about os developing, hardware references, or is just somebody's homebrew os homepage good enough... All my site really offers is a lot of overcommented source and although I post references to my online code browser I dont think its really useful for the masses at this stage under the current definition.

And out of curiosity, why a banner exchange, and not some other system such as a webring? (to be honest, i kindof dislike ad banners)

Also, IMHO 125x150 isnt really a useful size for any banner as its almost square... if it were the 88x31 (or similar aspect ratio) you posted first i could more easily stuff it at the bottom of my menu without making it look ugly.

What do you intend to ask of the contents

Well, the idea is websites that are interested in OS development. If someone isn't interested in a site, they don't have to click it. Also, with a banner exchange, the sites that are more popular get higher exposure.

And out of curiosity, why a banner exchange, and not some other system such as a webring? (to be honest, i kindof dislike ad banners)

Yeah I don't particularly like add banners either. Especially java script ones. The difference between this and a webring is that you get a little graphic. I think you can say a lot more about your site with a little graphic than a link which says "next".

The idea with the almost square box was it looks a little like a poster and would fit into a side bar. The original size I was thinking of was a bit tiny and is only really good if you already know what a site is about or have some acompaning text.

Different aspect ratios suit different sites, and there is always going to be some sites that don't fit in.

Anyway, I just set it up to see what it would look like and as a bit of a trial run. If no one is interested it's no big deal.

Andrew

This is very similar to the OS Ring that I had running a couple of years ago. Was great for getting links going but it was hard to get people to update if I changed anything. OSDev sites tend to stop getting updated after a couple of years and then go offline. I still have images that I host just so other peoples websites don't have missing images even though I haven't shared the urls in years. Make sure you have some standard type of html that gets embedded on the pages of sites that join the banner exchange and write some code that will scan for the text. Remove sites from the banner exchange once the text goes missing for 48 hours.

I think maybe a "Promote independent OSes" small banner that linked to the OS Project page might be cool idea.

I think maybe a "Promote independent OSes" small banner that linked to the OS Project page might be cool idea.

I think I like that idea better actually. I might get rid of the banner exchange and make a button like you suggest. Are you interested in hosting different buttons that people can chose from to link to your site?

Also, I was wondering, with the project list would if be feasable to include a screenshot? even if it's linked offsite, it might be cool to be able to see from that page..

Andrew

spix wrote:Are you interested in hosting different buttons that people can chose from to link to your site?

Sure, we can use the wiki. Check out http://www.osdev.org/wiki/Category:Banner_Exchange . I have no graphical skills so I just used http://www.lucazappa.com/brilliantMaker/buttonImage.php for the little OS Projects logo.

spix wrote:Also, I was wondering, with the project list would if be feasable to include a screenshot? even if it's linked offsite, it might be cool to be able to see from that page..

I'll look into it once I finish re-doing the wiki. Seems to be pretty popular given how big the screenshot thread got.

Hmm the banner seems to be down... This means the experiment is over or?

Combuster wrote:Hmm the banner seems to be down... This means the experiment is over or?

Nah, it means I was stupid and forget to mention when I changed the wiki setup just a little to remove the index.php from the urls. I should have also used my wiki bbcode tag instead of direct linking.

Well it would help if you gave me the new address - you're missing your free ad right now

Combuster wrote:Well it would help if you gave me the new address - you're missing your free ad right now

Sorry, I should have mentioned I edited my previous message to correct the urls.

List of banners [wiki]Category:Banner_Exchange[/wiki]
The little graphic I made http://www.osdev.org/mediawiki/images/b ... ojects.png