site history & facts

This page provides historical documentation for the Romeo Destraio Dream Interpretation site and some fun facts about the use of this site.

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Why I Built This Site:

The Dream Site combines some of my greatest passions and purest pursuits. I was introduced to programming in the early 80's (the beginning of the Computer Age), and wrote extensively in BASIC. I loved the simplicity of BASIC and seeing the results of my work appear immediately before my eyes. But I also love publication and have been a designer and creative director for many years. I have been involved with publications since the early 80's as well. HTML combines the accessibility of BASIC, and the creative expression of publication and creative design - HTML is rich and instantaneously gratifying. I am also a bit of an introvert, and I liked the realtive anonymity the internet affords me. So, I very much liked the idea of designing and posting a web site.

As for my personal motives, I have pursude Truth since I was 15 or so, and I found it in the unconscious through dreams. I also want to get people connected to their unconscious because this world is entirely too rational, and relying on the conscious while denying the unconscious is literally using half your brain. I felt that if I could help people see the Truth of them selves through their dreams, they'd put more value on their unconscious.

So, when I found services that hosted free web sites, I was very excited. Fortune City happens to provide what I wanted for the site through client side CGI scripts, and I like the community. And the server administration is solid, clear and client friendly.

Dream Site v1.0:

The first version of the site went up in May 1998. After afew weeks of dead net, I thought something was wrong with my approach. The first thing I did was to include the CGI Form Submission script from Fortune City to make the site more appealing to the impulsive side of people. I had originally used a mailto command which I guessed might be too subtle since it looks like a hypertext link.

In June I added the Symbology Quiz, but was dissapointed because the Fortune City ad appearing on every page was really slowing the quiz down. I had tried a CGI script quiz to keep score and give a report to the surfer, but I didn't have that kind of access to Fortune City's CGI.BIN. So I designed a frame based quiz which would at least let people know when they were right and when they should try again.

The frames quiz was good, but there was one flaw. The multiple choice responses would either load the correct answer into the answer window, or a uniform 'Try Again' page. Once someone 'visited' the 'Try Again' page, all the links to that page were highlighted as 'visited,' and the answer to subsequent questions was obiously the only one not 'visited.' I tried to correct the problem by setting the link colors to the same color through the HTML document itself, but I was still getting comments that the answers were obvious.

Then I hit the boards and asked for some criticism on the site. A couple of people went through and gave me some feedback, which helped finetune the appearance and functionality of the site. One person even sent a dream. But I did not resolve the Quiz issue.

Once I was satisfied that the site was appealing and user friendly, I focused on generating traffic. I submitted my site to six or seven search engines, but I have never found the listing. Honestly, I don't know where the traffic is coming from. I can only guess that aside from a few word of mouth referrals, people are just hitting the site on the way through Fortune City.

V1.0 features: 1. Front Page w/Submission Form (May). 2. Back pages including Death and Visitations (May). 3. Symbology Quiz (June).

Dream Site v1.5:

By late June, I was getting more work than I could handle (it takes 30 minutes to an hour to interpret one average dream). Why the jump in traffic, I don't know. But in August, the friend I was living with and I took separate appointments, and he took his computer with him. Since then, I've had limited access to the internet and my email. I use my friend's computer when I can, but that's about once or twice a week.

I had taken a vacation for several weeks and posted a notice on the front page to that affect. Unexpectedly, the submissions became scarce. I thought I was telling people that I wouldn't be getting to their dreams as quickly as usual (a one or two day turn around before my vacation, but up to a week during), but I guess people assumed I just wasn't in at all. So I took the notice off, and the submissions picked up immediately.

I was surprised when another sudden drop in submissions occured in early September. Submissions and hits were cut in half for no apparent reason. But it didn't take me long to realize that a lot of the submission were coming from teenagers and young adults (the net savvy generation with time on their hands) and they had certainly returned to high school or college.

V1.5 Changes: 1. Addition of Symbolic Dreams back page (June/July). 2. Rewrite of front page (July).

Dream Site v2.0:

With the update to the site in November (which included this page), the site is, to me, transformed. The initial content of the site was geared to very general things about dreams, letting people know I really do know something about dreams, and making it easy for people to submit their dreams. V2.0 is far more information oriented on the back end, and the Quiz has been redesigned.

I had to resign myself to making the quiz less interactive than I wanted to resolve the link issue and the slow load caused by the Fortune City ad. But it is informative, interesting, at least a little interactive, and hopefully fun.

The Symbolic Dreams page seemed more useful as a way to demonstrate how symbols are interpreted based on the context of the dream. Also, pretty much all dreams are symbolic, and the name just didn't make sense. So I redefined the purpose of the page and changed the name to Symbols in Conext.

Several people had commented that they really wanted to know more about dreams than was on my site. I was honestly flattered that most of them said they particularly wanted to hear from me because they felt I'd be honest and reliable (in so many words). So I added the Symbols & Facts and this page to address some commonly expressed interests, and also put forth some of the funny facts about this site.

V2.0 Changes (Nov): 1. Rewrite font page. 2. Symbolic Dreams page renamed Symbols in Context. 3. Addition of dream examples to Death, Visitations and Symbols in Context. 4. Addition of Symbols & Facts and Site History & Facts pages. 5. Revised Quiz frames format.

Dream Site v2.5:

And then came Java.

With the expansion of the site, I felt there were too many hypertext links in the Jump Station. It was ungainly. So I did a few searches and hit the JavaScript Source page. I found some simple Java scripts for navigation (the pull down and go-button menu) and was thrilled to find a couple of multiple-choice solutions for the Symbology Quiz.

The scripts were small and easily changed to suit my needs. Now navigation is actually simpler and more sophisticated, and the Symbology Quiz loads on one page and keeps score! Now more slow loads waiting for the FortuneCity ad to appear at the top of each question page.

While I was at it, I thought the front page was looking a little text heavy, so I made the writing a little crisper. The Symbols & Facts page was pretty heavy, too, so I put the Popular Symbols dictionary on a separate page accessible through the Symbols & Facts page. This area is pretty much an appendix to the site anyway, so I didn't see it as necessary to have the Symbols dictionary and Site History & Facts pages listed on the pull down menu.

V2.5 Changes (Nov): 1. Added Java script pull down navigation. 2. Installed Java script quiz. 3. Put Popular Symbols dictionary on seperate page with single entry through Symbols & Facts page. 3. Edit of front page. 4. Added rather long dream entry into Visitations.

Use Data:

• The ratio of hits to submissions: 2/1
• Ratio of men to women: 1/3.5
• User ages: Under 15=1%, 15-25=84%, 25-35=12%, Over 35=2%, Unknown=1%
• Number of men responding to initial analysis: 1/6.5
• Number of women responding to initial analysis: 1/2
• Ratio of gag submissions to sincere submissions: 1/32
• Funniest gag submission:
  

  From: Gary: Wednesday, September 30, 1998 at 07:30:22
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  content: had a dream 12 years ago about standing on the front of the titanic
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  - and -

  From: melissa: Wednesday, September 30, 1998 at 07:31:04
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  content: had a dream 12 years ago about standing on the front of the titanic
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• Known countries of origin of dream submissions: United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Finland, Philippines, Mexico, Guam, Israel, Japan, Dominican Republic, Iceland, Uruguay, India, Greece, South Africa.

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