Multilingual character set problems with Directory Submitter 3.0 - reciprocal link page data loss by Directory Submitter 3.0

While Directory Submitter 3.0 is a fine piece of useful submitter software, I noticed a severe bug in handling NON-ASCI characters such as common in several major European langages like:

1. Spanish
2. French
3. German
4. Italian
5. ... and many others such as Scandinavian, eastern Europe and others as well. Of course such bugs even more apply to all Asian languages!!!

The following characters or word-spelling causes damaged data and faulty processing:

Any combination of special Latin-1 characters such as éàèöäüçñê, and similar. The different special characters may create different problems but the data mistakes are severe!

Also all the special spelling as it occurs in a variety of Latin languages that include a single quote ' within submission profiles or anchor text may cause data loss or faulty data resulting from Directory Submitter 3.0. Since there is NO separate backup-database to restore a lost reciprocal link page. The possible damage can be and has been in my case a total loss of all reciprocal links on entire pages!

Examples of such European / Latin spellings that cause such fatal errors in data processing-output are:

1. l'amour - or - d'amour
2. mother's day
3. father's day
4. l'été
5. l'océan
6. and countless other generic and correct spelling of NON-US / NON-English languages

It might be either the single quote or the combination of single quotes with Latin characters that causes the loss of reciprocal link-page data. The precise cause is unknown, the bug is reported to the developper. If or not the bug will be fixed ASAP is unknown. If you have any international submission use of the software, it is up to you to first verify such issues for whatever software you are planning to use. Internationalization is still far behind among most NON-OpenSource projects. For many the world ends at the boundary of USA or a few english speaking countries. For my site however I enjoy some 75% NON-US traffic - mainly from de, es and fr speaking zones from some 210 countries worldwide.

Hence beware of the current limit. The software is made for US market / english ASCII character set ONLY and any use outside that very tiny boundary may result in loss of your work. Loss of work because typical modern directories have an automated link check mechanism and reciprocal links that disappear may automatically result in your directory listing being removed and thus your time consuming submission work being entirely wasted.

If you have a website strictly in clean english language using DS 3.0 then you may have zero problems at all. If however you have international pages you NEED to be aware of the risk involved using DS3.0 and the possible consequences of loosing your entire or partial reciprocal link page-data.

Reciprocal link pages

Whatever link page you have - manual or created by any reciprocal link page software such as the PHP script included in DS3.0 - there are some strict standards that you should follow to have your link page of any value to the directories you submitted.

A link page normally has a limited number of links - may be 25 links per page, the more links the less value the page to the directories.

A reciprocal link from a directory needs to be on a precise link page as most directories require you to submit the URL of your reciprocal link. Thus if you loose your link page content of several pages and restore the pages on your own, you have to make sure that the links originally from page 1 again are published on page 1, the links from page 2 again on page 2 and so on. Link verification is normally done automatically and on the precise URL indicated by you. If you move your link to another page - that means link NOT found resulting in your directory listing disabled!

Make backups - for DS3.0 more than for any other SW you ever used. The damage in loss/waste of time when losing your reciprocal links and thus your submission may be substantial.

What is valid for Directory Submitter 3.0 also may apply to many other directory submitter tools. Hence beware of the limited internationalization of NON-OpenSource software. use commercial SW with care and caution. In an open source project you normally might have several or dozens of contributing coders from many different countries around the world. many working on different platforms in different languages and character sets. Thus such bugs would be detected in early developer stage. Proprietary code projects keep all code secret and thus get stuck with all bugs and the liability, responsibility and work to solve as well. You get what you give!

God bless

hans