Random Link
Linking to you, forever.
FAQ
- How does the randomizer work ?
- Why don't free links get to show on the randomizer ?
- Will my link really be here forever ?
- Who are you anyway ?
- Why build this site ?
- How does the randomizer work ?
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The Link Randomizer works by making very simple use of the database random function allied with your link purchase amount (that will be referred from now on as weight). For all you that understand SQL, specifically MySQL, this is the (simplified) query used on the randomizer:
SELECT * FROM links_table ORDER BY RAND()/weight
That is all that makes the randomizer work, the actual query has some more parameters to limit to 10 links and only select active links but that's the bit that actually makes it work as expected.
For all you that don't understand SQL I'll try and explain what's going on in layman's terms:
When we tell the database to "order by random" it means that it will create a random number between 0 and 1 for every link on the database and then order everything by that number (that would be truly random).
The twist is to divide that random value by the weight, so for example if the database assigned your link a random value of 0.0850 and you payed $50 for your link, your random value would now be 0.0850/50 = 0.0017. As you can see your link now has a very low order number and therefore a higher chance to be amongst the 10 links chosen.
Even if you only pay the minimum 1 dollar for your link you will still get good chances of showing up on the randomizer, for example the database could assign your link a very low random value like 0.0025 that divided by your weight of 1 would make your final value 0.0025 and therefore also have a very low order number making it very likely to show on the randomizer.
It's like a small lottery on every page, every link gets a chance but you can pay more to have better odds.
Please Note: Free links don't get on the randomizer but only appear on the links page
Top - Why don't free links get to show on the randomizer ?
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If you read the previous question, you'll know that the random functionality of this site depends on dividing a random number by the amount of the purchased link. Free links are zero, and everybody knows that if you divide any number by zero, the planet explodes.
Top - Will my link really be on your site forever ?
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Forever is a long time, but since maintaining this site is actually very cheap, I see no reason why I would ever close it. Gladly I can still afford $10 a year for the domain and since I'm a freelance web developer, hosting is also not a problem.
Top - Who are you anyway ?
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I'm a freelance web developer when I'm not working my normal job on an IT services company.
I live in a small island called Madeira that is part of Portugal.
Top - Why build this site ?
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I was learning about processing paypal payments and paypal ipn requests for another project and needed some virtual "item" to test, so I decided to use links. The random factor honestly was partly because I didn't want to code the whole categories thing and also because I ended up thinking that at least it's different from the other gazillion link sites and directories.
By the way, I released my PHP Paypal classes to the public, so if you need them go ahead and download them from my blog.
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