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www.hoochfrog.com
OTHER STUFF - THE INTERNET
This
page gives a little background information about the experiences of Hooch
and the Internet. Some history, some hints & observations along with
other comments and advice, either useful to others or, maybe just 'soapbox'
rhetoric...
History:The Webmaster has been using the Internet now for several years, this first started as a result of his studies for a Bachelors Degree in Information Technology with The Open University. During those studies he became interested in the Internet firstly as a source of research information and secondly, as a publishing medium.
After using several different Internet Service Providers and having many different versions of his personal website (formerly known as Castle Hooch) we now see this rendition. The Castle was in about it's sixth major revision and was originally built by 'handballing' the HTML code, not to be recommended for the feint hearted! Things have moved on a pace since then however and, after using several different WYSIWYG editors, Macromedia® Dreamweaver™ is now the preferred tool. Interests have changed as time has moved on and hoochfrog.com has now replaced Castle Hooch.
Website
Publishing:After playing around with different designs, formats and ISPs for personal use over a period of time, Hooch eventually got around to building sites for other people. The first of these was for Dolphin Scuba Team, the operation in Turkey where Hooch first qualified as a diver.
(Please see the Scuba Section or the Kalkan Dive Log in particular).
Shortly after publication of the Dolphin site, and whilst talking to his brother who is the diving officer for the Craven Water Rats Sub-Aqua Club, (below right) the possibility of producing a site for the club came up in conversation. Prior to the site for Dolphin and now for the Rats, Hooch had always had total control over what was published and how it was presented however, things were about to change...
Other
people now had to be consulted about design, Hooch had to meet deadlines
for publication of certain types of information and, the sites required
ongoing maintenance and update of content. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing
it and, I benefit from learning more about site design and the editing software.
However, the effort involved with maintaining three separate websites, although
not individually large, can be quite a drain on your available spare time!Why Publish a site?
As I said above, the first one served as a personal learning tool, the other two however were for two very different reasons. The Dolphin site is obviously there to promote the business activity of a commercial entity and the Rat's site, was originally intended to be an online members magazine. The secret is to make sure you do actually have a reason and you fix that reason clearly in your mind. Once you have done that you have a framework from which to construct the site and hopefully, it takes on a cohesive and targeted aim, as opposed to being somewhat of a patchwork quilt...
Who Cares Anyway?
Obviously, both the designer and the site owner does however, probably for differing reasons. A designer wants the site to display their artistic and technical skills, a commercial organisation will want it to reflect favourably on their business and by no means least, the visitor will want it to be pleasing to the eye and relatively quick to view. Without visitors what is the point of publishing in the first place?
Site Popularity:
There is so much information available on the web, the difficulty these days for users is sorting the wheat from the chaff and getting at the stuff you are actually looking for. From a site designers/owners point of view there is the considerations of how to get to the top of the chaff pile, in short how do you get your site found in the first place and how do you keep it popular? I will come back to the question and try to give some answers in the future. In the mean time there are numerous sites on the net that discuss the self same matter so, go get searching!
Have fun... Hooch