Merging the Liobians websites

1

From: Iain Taylor
Sent: July 2011
To: Liobians Forum
Subject: LI War Dead Memorials

Fred Crane and I, have been working for the past several months on a project to mount the expanded Liverpool Institute War Dead story to the History of the LI webpage.

I added to and expanded biographical details circulated last year and Fred has been busy transferring the copy to HTML script and providing web links.

Although this is a first attempt and currently includes detailed biographies of only a third of the School's Second War Dead, we thought that this would be of wider interest and allow Old Boys and the public to consult the files and gain further information.

It is also hoped that members of the families of these dead former school boys might be able to expand on the info. provided. Such contributions will be welcome.

Please feel free to circulate this as widely as you wish to contacts and friends.

We trust you find this of interest and will be pleased to hear your comments on the site. Any small typos and corrections please direct to my attention.

Iain Taylor (& Fred Crane)
for the LI History project


2

From: Iain Taylor
Sent: 23/07/2011 07:01
To: John Snelson
Subject: LI War Dead Memorials

John, just so as you will notice!

Please note acknowledgements in the Preface.

Regards,

Iain


3

From: John Snelson
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 6:57 PM
To: Iain taylor ; Fred Crane
Subject: Re: LI War Dead Memorials

Thanks Iain ... yes, I am aware of Fred's Liobe site.

It's time we merged the two sites. As our numbers decline, I think we need to improve our focus rather than spread the data.

Fred - if I send the files, would you like to incorporate the bits you want into your site ? I will cede all editorial rights to you. I am making this offer. There are no strings, no catches. You are obviously familiar with HTML ... all my sites were built in HTML in 1995, so they are very easy to pick up and use. There is no Java, no Flash, no Dreamweaver. It's all HTML. Of course, I will help you as much as I can - I won't just dump it all upon you.

If you agree, let there be no fuss - we will just do it quietly. As soon as it is done, I will just retain a flash page that will direct the reader to your site, and then the flash page can be closed as soon as the domain rent expires. Of course, if you prefer liobians.com to liobians.org I can cede it to you, but I guess you have paternal feelings about the .org, and it may cheaper !

Over to you.

John

4a

From: Iain Taylor
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 9:07 PM
To: John Snelson
Cc: Fred Crane
Subject: Re: LI War Dead Memorials

Thanks John, to be clear - the reference was to the new War Memorial section of Fred's site.

However your suggestion and proposal I think makes a lot of sense to reduce overlap and time.

But it is between the two of you and I will assist wherever I am able.

Regards and thanks for all you have done in setting this up.

Iain

4b

From: Fred Crane
Sent: 24/07/2011 23:53
To: Iain Taylor; John Snelson
Subject: Merge

I stumbled across John's site in 1997 with no knowledge of web-site design nor HTML. I found the 1956 Lower School panorama and started thinking about a "Name that boy" project to teach myself about the web and HTML. That developed into using maps to identify people and I started to receive requests to do the same with other panoramas. Then other photos began to roll in...... and it has grown from there. Mainly HTML but I've used some java script routines - such as "last update" - available for download from java sites. I've not done a "teach yourself java" course, yet!

In parallel, Iain mentioned the school history and I offered to compile a list of post 1935 students from available data sources. That has also developed into a major spreadsheet and the idea of turning it into a relational data base only got as far as an initial design of some of the tables. The spreadsheet is an ongoing project and university placements are being added.

I don't believe we ever considered the two site to be in competition. I've no particular attachment to .org and have it because you already had .com! On reflection, going forward, I'd stick with .org as Liobians is more an organisation than a company.

A merge would be a challenge but it could be done.

John: Last time we discussed this was when you were about to run out of space and you sent me all the photos from your site to display. However, I believe you found a way to continue without too much of a cost and so a lot of the photos are now on both sites anyway.

I'm currently re-vamping www.liobians.org to try to gain additional speed and space from the host. I registered the domain for 5 years for $100 but the hosting is free from DotEasy. A merge may need additional space but could be achieved by transferring the .com domain and seamless navigation between the two.

Let me take a look at how to merge the two into the new look .org and provide a prototype navigation menu that will show the new site using John's titles in the navigation.

I'll be able to lift the source from .com without difficulty for the design phase so no need to send stuff yet.

I can put a prototype up on one of my other domains for you to preview but I anticipate a month or so before that could happen.

In summary, if we're all agreed it's the way to go, I'll be happy to merge the two sites.

I trust John will continue to manage the forum.

Fred


5

From: John Snelson
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2011 10:51 AM
To: Fred Crane
Cc: Iain Taylor
Subject: Re: Merge

Good stuff.

Let me know when you want me to hand it over.

I have no interest in competition and have never seen it that way anyway Fred. Parallel lines. Time they met and became stronger together. Time for someone else to take it on. I have done my bit. Over to you, thanks for taking it on in good spirit.

Best wishes my friend.

John