Fairy Caledon's Site Fights Help Page
I have designed this page in response to questions that I, as a Site Fights Spirit Fairy, received from Fighters on my team. I hope that this will be a useful resource to them as well as to other visitors to this web page. Please, if you would like to contribute to this effort, let me know!! Disclaimer: I am not an html expert by any means!
Leaving graphics in a guest book
We involved in the site fights love to pass the spirit stick
to everyone we meet. This is done by inserting the following
code into the guestbook comments section:
<A HREF="Your complete URL goes here"><img src="Your complete URL goes here/SPIRIT_STICK.gif" width="32" height="32" border="0">
This will leave the spirit stick image that you see above and also make it a clickable link leading back to your URL. It is IMPORTANT to note that you MUST upload the graphic image to your web server in order for the image to show up in a guest book.
Realizing that some Site Fighters might need a little extra help with this, DFairy is gracious enough to allow linking to her site to leave the spirit stick in a guest book. This is done by using the following code:
<A HREF="http://www.thesitefights.com/fairies/Dfairy.html"><img src="http://www.thesitefights.com/fairies/Dfairy.html/SPIRIT_STICK.gif" width="32" height="32" border="0">
**Some guest books will not accept HTML code or images, so it is important to find this out before you leave a mess in someone's guest book. TOAST is one book that I don't think accepts codes. The best way to find out if a guest book will handle images is by viewing the book before you sign it so that you can see if anyone else has left images. **
Formatting Tricks
These codes are pretty simple and straightforward. It took me a while to figure them out, so I will share them with you now!
A really important thing to remember is to close any of these codes that you use. Otherwise, your special feature will continue on more than you intended, and it won't look very special anymore! Maybe this chart will demonstrate what I mean:
| Opening Code | Closing Code | Function |
| <p> | </p> | section break |
| <font> | </font> | font face, color, etc. |
Guest Books
Having a guest book on your web page is cheap and fun! You can get free guestbooks from many places on the internet. For instance, Geocities offers free guest books to their members. Another great guest book can be obtained from Guest World.
Other Resources
Border Backgrounds
I used to be intimidated by border backgrounds before I found a sure fire way to do them! Want to know the secret? Let me refer you to Windy and her wonderful backgrounds! She has an html help section and explains the secret to setting up border backgrounds properly (ie. without having your text or graphics running all over the borders!).
Midi Music Controls
Midi music (good quality midi, that is) is great and adds personality to a web page. But sometimes it is just downright irritating! The best midi control that I have found is used with the Crescendo player. The image is a very small, relatively attractive musical note. The catch here is that you have to use Crescendo to be able to use these little control buttons. That can be downloaded for free here. The code for inserting the button on your page is:
<EMBED TYPE="music/crescendo" SONG="YOUR FILE NAME GOES HERE"PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.liveupdate.com/dl.html" WIDTH=16 HEIGHT=16 autostart="true"></EMBED>
Thanks to Charmaine's Place in Space for sharing this tip!
Spirit Pages
How anyone could think of being in the Site Fights without having a Spirit Page is just beyond me!! But of course, look who's talking: A SPIRIT FAIRY! hehehehe!! So, what do I, as a spirit fairy, look for in a spirit page? Well, in honesty, it goes beyond looking for one special page! I look for a spirited site!! But, let's start out by talking about the Spirit Page itself.
Let your imagination run wild! Think back to the best and most energetic pep rally you ever attended in your life! Remember the thrill? The adrenalin rush? Well, put that down in html code and there you have a fantastic spirit page! Easy, huh? A spirit page should be more than the place you go to beg people to vote for your site! Write yourself some cheers, either for your own site or for your whole team. You don't have to be a wonderful poet. Most of the cheers I wrote as a Site Fights competitor were based on the tunes of kids songs! Once you start, it will be a breeze!
After you've got a cheer or two, or just a happy and upbeat paragraph about how exciting it is to be in the fights, how wonderful your team is, etc. Then, add a colorful background and some graphics. And don't tell me you can't find any graphics, because there are tons of free graphics sites on the internet! If you don't know of any, then click yourself on over to my links or acknowledgement pages and you will find some links to graphics sites. You'll be surprised at what you find and how many different themes you can come up with for your spirit page!
I mentioned earlier that when I visit a site, I look for spirit everywhere! Think about it: how well do you think you will do if your link to the Site Fights is hidden somewhere deep in your page where no one can find it (not even the poor fairy who knows exactly what she is looking for!)? Plant that link in an obvious place so everyone can find it easily. Also, make sure your link is to the area in which you are competing and not to the opening page of the Site Fights. The Fights is a big place, and who has time to search all over just to vote for you? Make it easy to find you!
The same goes for Spirit Pages. You spent all that time making a great one, so why not show it off? Make sure the link to it is in an obvious place, too. Don't hide your spirit page in your *About Me* page! Show off just how proud you are to be in the Site Fights! You will have so much more fun if you really get involved with it!
Don't forget: SHOUT IT OUT!!!