I have fussed with the ArticleMS script a good bit. I am beginning to find my way around without too much difficulty. With some hints from the forum I am making some progress.

I am to the point that I feel I can continue with a few more installations. I would state my position as having reached a plateau but with considerably more to learn before reach a full understanding of what is going on with the script.

On the test installation I have implemented a hack to improve the SEO friendliness of the script. I would have hoped that the code would have been included in the current update cycle as it does improve the SEO of the pages. Applying something that I learned through this exercise I was able to control the display of an ad in the side bar that I only want to appear on the front page of the directory.

I will go apply what I have learned to the two real installations and then will probably install a few more instances on other domains this week. Once these get rolling I can see some potential.

I added real tracking and fake ads to the test install. There is no reason to inflate my ad display numbers while I work on the site.

I considered rebuilding the site without tables, but I probably need to know more about the script and the operation of the directory before I do that. The header section has four cells but I think the main section only uses one primary cell, so that is not too bad. They are using css for most styling, and that is a good thing. If I do rebuild the site without the tables it is just a mater of replacing a few files to update/upgrade the site. The pages are all dynamic so it is just the templates and css that needs to change.

Feel free to check out the test install at my Local Articles site. There is actually a bit more content there than on either of the real sites right now. Tell me what you think either there or here.

I found an open source article directory script while checking search results for a paid script.

I have been using a script on a site and a test site that is offered free, but contains many affiliate links for the developer. In addition the script is all encrypted so little can be done with it. I was able to tweak the css so that it displayed as I wanted it to display and I was able to use a feature to add a limited nav section, but I don’t like the concept of promoting a site so that the developer’s affiliate links will litter the web.

I was looking at a paid script. I saw something about support problems with the one at which I was looking. I went to their support forum to check and found it to be at least inactive if functional at all. If the script works as advertised I may not need support, but the complaints make me wonder. I continued my search and found a link in a forum post to this open source script.

I did a search for complaints about this script and did not find problems. I checked the support forum and there seems to be an active community. The script is also being updated, so is still under active development. There are skins available for the script but I will probably do my own thing as far as that is concerned. I downloaded the latest edition available through a link in the forum and installed it in a test location. I have played with it a bit and it all looks fairly good so far.

I want to replace the one article directory and am also considering using an article directory script for my live sound wiki. A true wiki script may be a better choice, but the one that I tried got spammed to death. This script does have a captcha available to reduce automated spam. There are several of my other sites  where I may consider an install if the script works out.

Making this script work as I wish may require that I learn a bit more about php. That is something that I have wanted to do anyway. I don’t know how much time I want to invest in furthering my education at the present time because I need to do so many things to get the existing sites to preform better. I will play with my test install and see if I can get it into a satisfactory state. If so I may install in a couple of real locations and then dive into the further development as time permits.

I will keep you posted.