The NetHack Index

What is this?

The NetHack Index was first created in February 1999, when I wanted to bookmark all sites that had something to do with my favourite game, NetHack. It was updated now and then, when I felt like it, but always too late. Later I added an e-mail form to enable visitors to submit sites to the Index, but the updating was still done by hand.

For a long time I wanted something more interactive. The ability to add notes that you can find on the PHP site appealed to me, so I decided to copy that idea. I took a close look at Wikipedia and h2g2, added some ideas of my own, and created the interactive NetHack Index.

So from now on, it's not my fault when the Index is outdated :-) Go ahead and update it yourself!

How does it work?

The main page shows the NetHack Index, much in the same way the original, static Index did. However, in the left pane, several search an sort options are present.

The "Random Site of the Day" is one site of the NetHack Index that is chosen to be special for a day. This is done completely randomly; being Site of the Day doesn't mean the site is better, more interesting or rather more boring than others. It is just a way to bring an otherwise unknown site into the spotlight for one day.

Any time you follow a link to an external site, this is counted; the number of pageviews is displayed under each items. This way the popularity of a site is tracked.

Each item has an "Add notes" link attached to it. This allows you to add your own comments to that item. If you think the information for an item is outdated, incomplete or just plain wrong, add a note. All visitors to the NetHack Index can see your notes; and at a certain time, an Editor will incorporate your information into the item. This way visitors can help keeping the Index up-to-date.

If you choose "Show/Add notes" from the top of the page, you can add general notes that are not associated to an item in the list. Here you can place general remarks.

If you want to submit an entirely new item to the NetHack Index, you can do so by choosing "Submit an item" from the links on the top of the page. Your new item will be added to a special category, "Visitor's items", that appears on the bottom of the main index. An Editor will review these items; when approved, they will be added to the main index.

The "Changes" page lists items that have been edited, added or deleted the last period, and items that were commented on. If you visit the Index regularly, this is the place where you can keep track of what happens.

Sources

If you want to know exactly how it works, you can have a look at the source code; every page has a "View source" link on the bottom. You can use the software for your own Index, as long as you stick to the following license:

License

Copyright © 2002 Dion Nicolaas

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

(License borrowed from zlib.)

History

November 2003       Dion Nicolaas
- Fixed jumping to URLs containing ampersand (it didn't work.)

August 2003         Dion Nicolaas
- Added a slightly more explanatory error message to the View source
  page.

June 2003           Dion Nicolaas
- Changed the way local link matching works: now shorter site names get
  higher priority.

April 2003          Dion Nicolaas
- Added the Random Site of the Day.

April 2003          Dion Nicolaas
- Made searching through entire item also search in notes.
- Added a Last-Modified date to the RSS feed.
- Added a robots.txt to prevent robots from updating the popularity
  count

April 2003          Dion Nicolaas
- Added a new sort order to the main list: Change date.
- Added searching through notes.

March 2003          Dion Nicolaas
- Changed to sorting to sort by popularity within categories, instead of
  using the arbitrary historical order.

March 2003          Dion Nicolaas
- Added RSS feeds to the Changes page.

March 2003          Dion Nicolaas
- Changes view now shows full Index items instead of headers only.
- Finally implemented a way to delete items without making them lost forever.
- Fixed a bug that made the visit count reset, and that might even lose the
  whole list.
- Show the source history in the About page.
- Added search Anywhere in item.
- Various fixes regarding editing items.
- Added Edit items link to footer.

October 2002        Dion Nicolaas
- Fixed a small bug regarding br tags.

September 2002      Dion Nicolaas
- Initial version.