Over-reaching Ambition

Last time I set this site up, I made mistakes; I wasn't ambitious enough. I thought a simple blog to help people make their own sites and blogswould be good enough. It wasn't, and I should have known it wouldn't be. This time, I hope to avoid that mistake and provide more for us all.

Back then, the main page was just for the regular and unchanging stuff. I thought people would link their own pages to the main site but they didn't - many couldn't do it because I hadn't provided features for it. In short, I was missing things people would need.

Don't get me wrong - I had planned to put them into the pages, I just never got round to it. I wanted everything perfect first time - which it never is - but this time I hope to avoid that mistake, start simple and add features as the pages grow.

What is different

The new site began with design - covered in Doing Design and Page Design Software. That meant the blog - where the design was made - came first. Everything else, though it is already under way, will be added later. Now I want to add the main core of the site: the home page site. This will arrive in a basic form and be added to as additional features come on-stream.

This time, I will not expect perfection right away, though the Family Records will also come on-stream at the same time. Incidentally, if any of you are already using the records, I would be fascinated to know why it is mostly people from Australia who are using it.

What comes next

The main page has several sections. In the middle is the main information, with a headline for the "big story" and two smaller ones with smaller stories. Each will - but not yet - link to a detailed page for each of the three main subjects. Below that is a section that can hold several other items if they are needed. All of this gives me a way to show what is going on at the moment.

On both the right and the left is a smaller column, like the one to the right of the blog page. Both are for additional items and are where you come in.

What can I do?

I have my own ideas for those two columns, but the point of a family site is that it should be for the family and not just me. Thanks to Google Analytics I know we get six to eight visitors each day so if everyone pops in twice a month almost a hundred people read each posting (Ed: Analytics puts the actual figure at 91). We have a fairly high readership and hopefully most are members of the broader House.

So I would be foolish not to ask what you want to see in those two columns. It may be a risk, since last time I ran a poll I got a very odd vote from one and mixed responses from the others, but I really have to ask, especially now we are moving up Google search rankings. If you think the poll doesn't offer enough choice, please send a comment - I'll read them all!

On the right is a short poll for your opinion what to put in those columns. Please take a few moments to cast your vote. Feel free to send a comment to explain, expand, instead of, or as well as your vote.

Last word

One final thing: it has me curious and really isn't something I can ask anywhere else.

In the wilds of Alaska we seem to have at least one reader. Now, I know the family sent quite a few to the colonies during the British Empire and there are lots of us all over the world, but so far I don't know of any out in Alaska. I would appreciate it if our Alaskan reader would send a comment or email to let me know about the family out there in the snows - and I am sure others would be interested too!