(Frequently Asked Questions)
Just remember, I am not a teacher. I never had the personality to be one and never will. However, this is the best in how I can help you.
Q: Why can't I see any images on your site?
A: Thanks to some crazy Aaron Carter fans that hotlinked to some photos I had of that kid that were on my site for a while thinking they had the right to hotlink my photos, and questionable characters that thought it was fun to make fun of me by hotlinking my images, I enabled hotlink protection on my site. I know some people are having problems seeing the images with this hotlink protection on. Check your firewall and turn off private headers for my site. My mother's friend had a very strict firewall that was calling up the pictures on my server as if the browser was calling for them directly, instead of as a collection with the actual HTML/PHP files. A HTML/PHP file on my server has to call an image for it to be viewed. If you do that and it still doesn't work, then I don't know what's going on, I'm sorry. I haven't gotten my IT degree, yet.
Q: You sent me a virus!
A: No, I did not send a virus. The e-mail addresses, subscribe@shawnallison.com, igothisfromyourwebpage@shawnallison.com, yahooskinshelp@shawnallison.com, updatelist@shawnallison.com and imood@shawnallison.com have been "hijacked" by other computers. Those addresses were used on my site for people to send me e-mail, except in the case of imood@shawnallison.com, used for my Imood indicator. A couple of them were on auto responder, which I since turned off. The only way I can be contacted is via a mail form. I will never send a e-mail from those addresses. In fact, anything sent to those addresses are sent straight to my discard folder. My e-mail address is different from those four addresses. Even that address I use can be masked to send spam and virii. Most likely, you are getting a virus from a person you know that is invading their cache and their address books, picking my e-mail addresses and your address at random. And guess what, I get virii, too! My computer has a anti-virus program that will nip the buggers in the bud if they come to my inbox. You might want to look into a anti-virus program.
A good tip of advice: if you get an attachment and you don't know the person that sent it to you, don't open it! If it's THAT important, the person will e-mail you again and explain the attachment in specifics. I don't send out random attachments. I hardly send e-mail at all.
Q: Will you link me?
A: No, but you can. I have a section devoted to links. Here, anyone can add a link. It won't show up immediately, however. I will have to approve it, first. If I don't think it's appropriate, I will decline it. But, you really have nothing to lose.
Q: I came to your site doing a search for "crushes" and came across "Crushes -- Oh The Pain." I have my own crush! What should I do?
A: Let me tell you the hard cold truth about my crush case from high school. I never told him! I never had the courage to tell him. He now knows, years later, after coming to my site. He's a sweet memory from the past but that's it, nothing more.
I am not a Dr. Laura type of person, especially for the teenage set. Each case is different and I don't want to blamed if some drastically goes wrong between someone and their crush.
Q: Where did your Yahoo! Skins/Wallpapers/Winamp Skins go?
A: I closed shop with my Yahoo! skins (and wallpapers & winamp skins). They ate a majority of my bandwidth and I couldn't keep up with them anymore. I hated to do it, but bandwidth issues came to play. And I must be honest with you, I was tired of having to keep up with the skins. I felt like my domain was not my domain but just a host for Yahoo! skins. Don't get me wrong, I like making skins when I have a chance. I was just tired of the responsibility that goes with maintaining a page offering skins.
Q: Why didn't you answer my AIM Message/Y!M Message?
A: I can't go into details on all the answers as to why I didn't reply. The most common answer will be I am not at my computer while my messengers are on. I could be at the store or another family member is using my computer. Sometimes, I'm lazy and forget to turn them off and walk away from my computer. Someone tried to invite me into a voice chat one night while I was on away. My mother just happened to be on the computer and didn't know what to do. I don't like leaving my mother like that. So CHECK my status first, ok?
Q: Hi! I'm in Savannah/Hinesville! Can we meet up?
A: I don't usually meet up with most people on the Internet. That's not to say I haven't - just ask my friends Laura and Tamm. You never know what's out there. I've had several guys message me from this area for the simple reason of picking up a person for some casual sex. I'm not that type of person now and will not become that type of person.
Q: Can I have your picture?
A: If I don't place it on my site, my Flickr account, or my moblog, you aren't going to get it. I don't like my photo. I'm shy to send it out because I'm afraid someone will make fun of me. That's why you'll hardly see my photo.
Q: I was wondering if you might take an interest in giving me a few hints to set up a site for myself in a great format like your own. Did you pay to set up your site?
A: Well, my site set up came to fruitation from many years on the Internet and playing around with HTML. At the current moment, I use tables, CSS, and PHP to get my site working as it is now. i have used SSI in the past. I use PSP 7.x 9.x for the graphics.
I bet you are wondering "What she is telling me? I don't get it!" Don't worry, I had a little trouble getting everything working, at first.
I first played around with the freebee graphics off the web and used an Internet book that I got with my first modem to construct a really bad Richard Marx site. Some of the HTML I wrote for that site still lives on my site today. I've just adjusted it.
But soon in time, I realized my HTML skills had to improve and I needed graphics programs!
I suggest HTMLGoodies.com and Netscape Composer for beginners. HTMLGoodies teaches you the basics of HTML design and even advanced things such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Server Side Include (SSI). Often if I have a problem, I go to that site to figure out what I can't comprehend.
As for Netscape Composer, that's a good program for beginners. As its name suggests, it composes HTML pages for you. I suggest playing around with it at first to find out what each tool does. Once you know what it does, you can design a simple webpage. Even though I do most of my coding by hand, I still use it to create basic layouts for a page and then tweak the code to get it just right. Netscape Composer can be found bundled with Netscape 7.
As for graphics, I use Paint Shop Pro 7.x 9.x (PSP). PSP 9.x is out now. It's a costly program unless you aren't willing to invest $100.00 in a graphics program. But it really is worth it's weight. You can make your own .gif files, use your scanner or digital camera with it, and make other graphical file formats.
If those don't interest you, you can go to Tucows.com and find similar programs that do the trick for free.
I do pay for the hosting of my site. I'm currently using Blogomania as my host. However, I did the design of the site on my own using the tools and skills I've picked up over the years.
And that's basically all that went into my site. I'm really not that great in making layouts (which often I have someone else do for me sometimes when I can't think of a thing!), so I can't do layouts for anyone that ask. I don't mind helping with "Why isn't this working?" once in a while (just ask Laura!), but I don't make whole sites for many people.
More questions will be added as I encounter more issues! Updated: July 30, 2005
