STANLEY HAVING A GOOD OLD WHINGE!

[Stanley]

STANLEY HAVING A GOOD OLD WHINGE!

Written 29 April 2004

Every now and again I get out my surfboard and go and have a look at Barnoldswick web sites online. Now I know I could be said to have a vested interest in Oneguy, after all it publishes all my stuff without question, but really, if you want a collection of boring and out of date sites, a Google search for ‘Barnoldswick’ is the place to be. I logged on to Pendle Net and this is what I found in the links they gave.
The parish church site. Overlaid text on home page. Links that don’t work and a general paucity of information. All the hallmarks of a site posted and forgotten.
Barnoldswick United. If you want the best Tripod/Pop up experience ever, log on to this site. It is impossible to view because it throws up 7 pop ups on the home page. I assume it’s about football but lost the will to live.
Barnoldswick Barons. A tasteful but plaintive notice asking the owners of the site to contact the hosts. Looks like a dead un to me!
Barnoldswick Cricket Club. Page cannot be displayed.
Barnoldswick Online. Advertising lectures in the library in 2000 and shops that are long gone. No evidence of any maintenance at all.
Barnoldswick? (No kidding, that’s the name). Page cannot be displayed.
Towards Earby and Barnoldswick. Interesting concept, a black page with three logos and nothing else. Tasteful but what’s the point?
Blues in Barnoldswick. Page cannot be viewed.
The Barlick Hotel. One page carrying a message that it ought to be up by weekend. Huh? What weekend and what is the Barnoldswick Hotel?
Bushido Ju Jitsu Barnoldswick. Ahhhh! A site that works, has internal links that work and is clear and simple. My problem is that there were no obvious dates that gave a clue as to whether it is current or not.
Ghyll Golf Club. Bog standard syndicated listing but it is at least clear and tells you how to get there.
Ken Ranson’s page. It’s clear, it works and has content, what more could you want? One little niggle, it doesn’t let you escape back to Google using the ‘back’ button. Sneaky is that Ken...
Lancashire Lynch’s. Page not available.
Noel Leak’s Nomar racing. A betting syndicate page. Alright if you are daft enough to back horses I suppose...
Noel Leak’s Stitchin time. The site works, is a personal genealogy page and I can see work has gone into it. I lost the will to live when reading the home page CV.
Sam Pease’s page. Doesn’t exist.
Remember, this is just one site’s links. I decided I had better things to do after going through these but just pause and think for a moment. What’s the point of having a resource like the Web if we don’t use it? Even worse if we leave it cluttered with the cyber equivalent of litter in the streets. Why wasn’t there a link on the Council page for Oneguy? I’m sure a link exists between Pendle net and Oneguy but it wasn’t immediately obvious.
So what’s my point? Simply this, email all your friends and ask them to log on to Oneguy and register. That way we get the numbers up and creep up the ratings which in turn makes us more visible. If you know anyone in a local organisation, get them to contact Doc and talk to him about proper exposure on a well maintained site. Have you noticed how on his site every contribution is dated? Anyone visiting can see that this site is alive and buzzing, it’s doing exactly what the Web was designed to do, enabling ordinary people to communicate. Go to it! Love to all, Stanley.

29 April 2004