Finder is a fantastic search system, it uses similar concepts to Google but locally for your site. Instead of matching the content simply by the keyword values or repetition it matches the content by phrases and concepts.

For example if a user types in ‘blackberry’ it will execute a fairly acute search for that term. It searches the meta, content, url and title based on the weights you give to each. Thus you can specify a higher weight to the meta then lets say the url.

How does this help? Well lets say that you have a site that uses a tagging solution like Joomla! tags. Which allows you to pool from the meta keywords of your articles. You will be conscious about what keywords you chose and thus it would be wise to give them a higher weight in the finder search parameters. In contrast if you do not even use the meta functions of articles you might as well give them a very low value and instead focus on title, content or url.

Now here comes the cool part. If the user searches ‘Blackberry not iPhone’ finder selects only content that is related to blackberry and will not output anything related to iPhone. Once again based on weight. The user can also search for ‘Blackberry and iPhone not Sprint’ And finder would discern that they are looking for the first two and not the last.

This is a very handy feature for large content sites as users can truly get relevant results based on their needs.

Finder search also accounts for phrases. Which means that results are not just matched up by keywords but by the words surrounding those keywords.

A question like “Why is Blackberry better than iPhone” will yield different results in comparison to “Is iPhone better than Blackberry?” [Provided of course that you have the content to accommodate the query.]

To top all this off finder also offers plugins for the leading components out there. Including K2 content and even the Kunena forum. In the future it will offer more and more plugins for other components.

Overall we get an outstanding search tool, and I would recommend it for any site project.

You can get further details about finder here: Finder from jxtended

Posted via email from Boris Kourtoukov – The Blog

Finder
is a fantastic search system, it uses similar concepts to Google but
locally for your site. Instead of matching the content simply by the
keyword values or repetition it matches the content by phrases and
concepts.

For example if a user types in ‘blackberry’ it will
execute a fairly acute search for that term. It searches the meta,
content, url and title based on the weights you give to each. Thus you
can specify a higher weight to the meta then lets say the url.

How
does this help? Well lets say that you have a site that uses a
tagging solution like Joomla! tags. Which allows you to pool from the
meta keywords of your articles. You will be conscious about what
keywords you chose and thus it would be wise to give them a higher
weight in the finder search parameters. In contrast if you do not even
use the meta functions of articles you might as well give them a very
low value and instead focus on title, content or url.

Now here
comes the cool part. If the user searches ‘Blackberry not iPhone’ finder
selects only content that is related to blackberry and will not output
anything related to iPhone. Once again based on weight. The user can
also search for ‘Blackberry and iPhone not Sprint’ And finder would
discern that they are looking for the first two and not the last.

This
is a very handy feature for large content sites as users can truly get
relevant results based on their needs.

Finder search also
accounts for phrases. Which means that results are not just matched up
by keywords but by the words surrounding those keywords.

A
question like “Why is Blackberry better than iPhone” will yield
different results in comparison to “Is iPhone better than Blackberry?”
[Provided of course that you have the content to accommodate the query.]

To
top all this off finder also offers plugins for the leading components
out there. Including K2 content and even the Kunena forum. In the future
it will offer more and more plugins for other components.

Overall
we get an outstanding search tool, and I would recommend it for any
site project.

You can get further details about finder here:
<a href=”http://jxtended.com/extensions/finder.html“>Finder
from jxtended</a>

Posted via email from Boris Kourtoukov – The Blog

Overall Agora is a fantastic feature rich forum solution. That is 100% native to Joomla. It works and it works well.

The best aspects of it are the wide range of features, from easy image and video embedding to the robust group and permission settings.

The bb code editor that is in Agora provides a vast array of features that accommodates the needs of any community. I have used it on a wide range of niche websites, from game developers to artists. All in all it has been satisfactory.

The group system allows for a complex forum setup that could truly be used for anything. Need beta testers to have their own hidden forum that can only be seen by them and the game developers? Well you can establish that without having to promote them to moderators and so forth. You can create multi-level hierarchies within the permissions of the forums and that allows for full control over who sees what.

The Agora forum system also ads a great deal of extra features, for example the ability to make certain forums ‘one post’ forums. Which is useful when you want each user to be able to post there only once, aka introduction threads/contests. The ability to allow guests to post in certain forums with captcha validation. Powerful custom smiley editor and even community Google maps.

Agora forum has its own robust profile system, but allows for integration with Jomsocial and community builder. It also provides integration for UDDIEM pm system.

The developers have also created numerous plugins and modules that accent the forum. And a few components that extend it even further.

The support is fantastic, as are the developers. The update schedule can be rather erratic but for the most part that is not a huge problem.

To date I dare say that this is the best native Joomla forum solution and recommend it for any website that needs a community.  Just make sure that you actually need a forum in the first place!

Posted via email from Boris Kourtoukov – The Blog

Unlike LinkedIn the focus here is less on networking and more on learning and sharing. What separates this from other art communities is that it is not focused on favourites and following. From the start we wanted to eliminate that, instead Lightwyrm is focused on providing a knowledge base for digital artists.

The difference? In layman’s terms there is less ‘that looks nice’ and more ‘that looks nice because… and here is how… oh and don’t forget to… and in personal experience… ‘ so on and so forth.

How was this accomplished?

After long consideration we decided that it is best to put two aspects of the website as the top priority, the tutorial articles and the discussion community [Forum]. The forum is there to receive direct help, immediate critique and more. While the tutorials are there to give you access to a volume of information that can be searched as you need it, be it for a project or just to get to know a technique. Everything else is there to help accommodate this; a robust user point system to have more users participate in day to day activities and the profile system to place valuable information about yourself.

Our hope is that this will get the artists to collaborate with each other further. Important milestones get met when you work with others. Humans are a group oriented species, we do most things better when we are together and the more we work together the greater the outcomes become.

If you agree with what we said help us out with getting this to a larger public. The more people participating the more effective this will become.
Take a look at some of the ways you can contribute in this thread

For the full description of all the new features take a look here

-The Lightwyrm Team
]]> http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/we-have-created-a-social-beast-some-explanations/feed/ 0 litpam http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/why-the-heck-am-i-up-so-late/ http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/why-the-heck-am-i-up-so-late/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:40:47 +0000 litpam http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/why-the-heck-am-i-up-so-late/ ]]> Short answer: I have no idea.

Long answer? I am too lazy to write it up, or perhaps even think of it?

Which could be the reason why I am up so late. I think I am now capable of being too lazy to go to bed.
But who knows? I am tired and chances are I will collapse shortly after sending this message.

I guess I should really do a legitimate update. But that would be just vile and evil!

Anyway, Chen just sent me the next tutorial. Sadly you will have to wait till I get up, whenever that is.

I might just get too lazy to get up.

I must be starting to overwork in my dreams as well. That would explain everything.

Good night
]]> http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/why-the-heck-am-i-up-so-late/feed/ 0 litpam http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/two-new-tutorials-and-other-updates/ http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/two-new-tutorials-and-other-updates/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:03:24 +0000 litpam http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/two-new-tutorials-and-other-updates/ ]]> So, two new tutorials are up on Lightwyrm.
Chen’s Creature tutorial Birdo Mine How to create Perspective Grids in Photoshop
If you like the Birdo one give it a quick fav on Deviant Art: http://fav.me/n98926

Going to be restructuring the community in the next few days, just to make the forums a little neater.
The user galleries will be rolling out sometime next week, and more focus towards profiles will be given.

If you have any ideas now is the time to tell me!
]]> http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/two-new-tutorials-and-other-updates/feed/ 0 litpam http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/hello-world/ http://boriskourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/hello-world/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:17:46 +0000 litpam ]]> Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!