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Poor Little Orphan Websites!Dateline: 8th July, 2001 I was going to write an article about amateur theatres and their choice of plays, so, to do my research, I set off on a trip around as many amateur companies' Websites as I could. I have to say that I was horrified at how many poor little orphan Websites I found. And what, you ask, is an orphan Website? It's one that's been abandoned by its father or mother - in other words, the webmaster or -mistress. As the Webmaster for an amateur group's site, I know that there are times when there is nothing new to add for weeks on end, and occasionally, such as during the closed summer season, even for a couple of months. But for years? I couldn't believe how many sites I came across on my journey which had not been updated for two or even three years - and, in one case, four! How many? Well, I took a random sample and I would estimate that approximately 10% of the sites I visited are orphaned. And, of course, one starts to wonder why. Has the author left the society? Has (s)he forgotten the site exists? Has the society ceased to exist? I find my imagination stirring and all kinds of scenarios creep into my mind.... However, the most likely reason is that, after an initial burst of enthusiasm, the author lost interest. Probably updates became less and less frequent until, at last, they stopped altogether. There are hundreds of such ghost sites around the Web. Many are personal sites with little on them but personal details which are of little interest to anyone but the author and his/her friends and family (and, if the truth be known, probably of not much interest to them!), but there are sites for favourite actors, or films, for sportsmen or sports. There are even ghost sites for companies. Rich pickings for the cyber-archeologists of the future! Articles Indices: |
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