Clix Commandments

Clix is, honestly, just for kicks. But while it's all in fun, there are some rules to make sure everyone enjoys themselves. Clix members are expected to play smart and fair, and the following rules should be respected.

On Links and Clicks

1. Use Honest Links

   Unlike other top sites lists, we're not going to tell you specifically what you must say in the Clix link on your site. It can be "Vote for me!" or "Boost my ego!" or "Gimme Clix!" or anything similar that conveys that clicking the link will help you and your site. Of course, just using "Clix" or a Clix graphic is fine.

   If you want to use your own graphic, make sure it discloses the link both visually (i.e. the graphic says 'Clix' or 'Vote for me!') and in ALT tags, or that the image is accompanied by a compliant text link.

   Not acceptable are misleading links that trick visitors, giving the impression that they go somewhere else entirely. So avoid the temptation to say "Click here for free porn" or "easy money here!" or to embed your Clix link in unrelated page elements that visitors might click by accident.

   Finally, Clix links should only appear on pages of the sites they benefit. For example, on your main journal or weblog page, and/or as part of your entry template. In other words, do not collect hits in your site's cat picture gallery, or across a number of other sites you have online.

2. Be Proud

   Or rather, try not to beg. Really, this "rule" is more a tip that will probably help you in the long run. Feel free to include your Clix link in every entry, or even encourage your regular readers to click it every day. But avoid constant pleas to your readers to help you out, or lamenting about how you want more hits. Few things will turn off readers faster.

   Remember, the best hit sluts also have class. Besides, not even we take Clix that seriously. You are not your rank, so just enjoy the listing and visit other journals and relax.

3. Mind Your Mailing List Manners

   Clix should be limited to visitors to your actual site, and collecting hits from subscribers to mailing lists journals-related or not is generally uncool. (Unless it's your journal's mailing list.)

   If you can't resist the temptation, however, keep the Clix link in your signature line. Don't post messages just to get Clix hits (which will likely annoy both us and the people on the list). And per the above, it's an absolute no-no to mis-cast the link as anything but promotion of your journal site.

4. Spam is Right Out

   As an extension of the mailing list rule, it should go without saying that pushing your Clix link in any large forum like USENET, message boards, and especially bulk e-mail is unacceptable, especially in places not relevant to journals, diaries, blogs, personal sites and the like.

   Think about it. The audience for online journals is refreshingly limited, but that also means a false jump of 40 Clix hits in an hour (tracked back to alt.fan.backstreet-boys) is painfully obvious.

5. No Geek Tricks

   If there's anything technology is good for, it's cheating. As clever as it might seem to figure it out, though, please don't do it.

   This includes hidden frames on your site that call your Clix link, jury-rigging an IP-masking proxy server and script to generate a hit every X minutes, or setting your Clix link as the startup page for an entire computer lab. (And that's just the easy stuff.)

   Besides, your Achilles heel will again be cheating too well. If it takes a well-read journal to generate 150 Clix a week, getting 300 hits in a day will raise quite a few eyebrows.

We reserve the right to make the completely subjective determination as to whether malfeasance has taken place, and to take action without notice. (We can't afford to empanel a jury!) Fortunately, the penalty is almost always limited to a reduction of a member's Clix count, or a temporary suspension of his or her account continuing honest participation is more than welcomed. Repeat offenders will be banned, however.

Remember, the objective is fairness. If a member boosts his or her Clix count by some other sneaky method besides those outlined above, and is caught or reported, he or still may still be penalized. So stop looking for those loopholes!

Don't cheat your visitors, and don't cheat your fellow Clix members. We know journal authors (and readers) are a small and special group. Let's be excellent to each other.

On Content

Online journals and weblogs are all about personal expression, and we're all for that. Trust me, Diarist.Net is your greatest advocate despite the fact that most of the complaints we get are related to "inappropriate content" on some of the thousands of sites we link. Even so, we beg you, please be reasonable.

1. Clix is for online journals, diaries, and weblogs. (For you literalists, this usually means personal autobiographical prose, sometimes supplemented by images, separated into entries and usually organized by date.) If your site is instead dedicated to fiction, gardening, personal finance, or a webcam, please don't join. If you do, your account may be deleted.
   
   There are a number of other top-sites services that will probably be more appropriate The Journal-List is more webcam oriented, and you can always start your own.

2. Have fun with your banners and descriptions... but don't go overboard. The Clix listings are for promoting your journal, and should only be for promoting your journal. If you want to promote something else (i.e. girl scout cookie sales, an escort service, your used underpants, movie trailers, etc.), you need to find another more suitable venue to do that in. this is a general-interest journal-focused site, and our audience ranges in age from 13 on up  banners and text should be appropriate to that audience. Explicit nudity or violence, blatant sexual come-ons, or other sensationalistic or shock-value tactics aren't acceptable.
   
   Unacceptable banners and text will be removed, but accounts (hits and ranking) will otherwise most likely be unaffected.

3. Be there. Please keep your Clix link current if you move, please be sure to update your Clix account. If you take your site offline or password protect (or otherwise hide) your content, please be sure to so we can delete your account. We don't want to advertise sites that people can't read!

On Age

You must be 13 years or older to participate in Clix. We didn't make up this rule, the federal government did. Although we do not specifically solicit or "collect information from children under the age of thirteen," this is the safest way to keep clear of COPPA regulations. Especially with a Republican in the White House.