Wellesbourne and Walton Community Web - Who, What, Where, Why...

There are a number of sites claiming to be Wellesbourne's "Village" or "Community" site, or mentioning one or more of these elements (look on the More... page, under Neighbours for the latest links):
" www.wellesbourne.co.uk, the original site set up by Mick Stallard to adddress businesses in Wellesbourne and Walton. It is no longer in use, but still owned by Mick.
" http://warkcom.net ("Warwickshire Communities") features some Wellesbourne entities, notably the VLO and WAG.
" www.thelocalchannel.co.uk/Wellesbourne: This calls itself the Wellesbourne Community site, and even features a small picture of Chestnut Square. (It calls us the Village site). It's where the Parish Council have started loading up their minutes, agendas etc., so the place to look for that sort of thing. It's a lot faster now than it used to be, and not so riddled with adverts. The WPC are now getting Agendas up ahead of meetings, which is helpful.
" www.wellesbourne.f9.co.uk, this, the Community site, where you'll find stuff about the two villages and their communities.

This was set up in around 1998 by Rev Norman Howes and a dedicated band of enthusiasts who gradually dwindled away until there was just me to keep it going. In 2005 I streamlined the entry pages and monthly news sections, with each page fewer clicks away than before, in a more logical and up-to-date layout. Some of the old-look pages are being kept on pending an overhaul of links to amenities, clubs etc. following publication of the 2006 Index of Shops and Amenities and the transfer of many of the links to the Council's website (see above). It will evolve with any suggestions I receive, otherwise as I see fit. I have enlarged the welcome screen picture as most people now have 1024x768 screen resolution and above: if anyone's bored with it and wants another one in its place, send it in and I'll consider it. I had thought of putting up 4 views of the same scene in rotation over the 4 seasons, but didn't take it any further.

As a permanent web presence it aims to bring the Newsletter to people outside the parish and provide ready access to static information about the villages. It is now maintained solely by myself, partly out of the goodness of my heart, and partly as practice for my web building skills, so please be patient if it doesn't get published as soon as it might be. I get hard copy up to a week before the end of the preceding month as part of the distribution chain; I have fairly good OCR software to scan it with, and can now put up about half of it at the start of the month and the rest a week later. (Bumper editions naturally take a bit longer). Any pages that are not ready are listed but not linked to until they are. I fill the pages from the top down, except as follows:

the Safety page is updated as soon as I receive a message;
the Timely Mail page is updated with any copy I receive during the month, so if you want your copy published in the first wave, please send it directly to me. I have no feed from the WWN people other than the paper newsletter itself, which I have to scan.
the Church page is updated first if I get the info in good time.

I have given up trying to get a full-time job, so I am able to publish material quite quickly, but I still take holidays, so there nay be delays at some times; Pam Copson sadly passed away in November 2006 after being in poor health for some time, and the rest of the people who set the site up have either left the area or are too busy.

There's a full list of who's who on the W&W News on page 2 of the News section, but I may well move it here; for anything you want on the web site, please write to me. If it's commercial you might write to Mick. I could still do with help on the development, inputting and resolution of any problems mentioned above.

Update Alert

Someone asked for notification when the site changes, in particular, the Action Plan, which came out of Village Voices in 2002-3.
I make changes 2-5 times a month, mainly to add in the current month's news and Police reports, but also to revise pages such as this one as and when I am asked for something or I think of something I think my viewers will find useful.
The alert is triggered when there is a change to the page nominated in the subject of an e-mail created when you click on the link provided on that page (I have written to the Update Alert Team and confirmed this).
Initially I have placed links on the Top Menu page (wwnlead.htm), which changes 1-2 times a month, and in the menu (apmenu.htm) for the Village Voices Action Plan, which was reissued early in 2007 - when I can get hold of a copy I'll update it. Any others you want, please write in.

Technical Information

This site was originally designed for a screen width of 640 pixels. That was a long time ago. When I took it over I mainly designed for 800, with an eye to the 640 people. In February 2006 we got a new counter which tells us what resolutions, browsers and operating systems our users have, so I can tailor the site accordingly. Nowadays there's no-one left on 640, 1024 is the most popular, and 1280 is next; there is only one 800 user, so I'm not too bothered if there are occasional scroll-bars at 800 - 1024 and 1280 should be OK. The most popular browser is Internet Explorer, with IE6 out in front at 80%. Firefox now accounts for 14% of our viewers: I try to make sure the pages work with Firefox, but some things don't. These include wmf pictures, alt tags, status line messages on mouseovers, and limiting cell widths. Most of these are in such widespread use that it would be next to impossible to take them out, even if I knew of a workaround, but I have made a start, by changing the one wmf to a transparent-background gif, and adding a title as well as an alt tag to each picture - this is not, however, retroactive.

Computer too slow? The village library has at least four broadband terminals for free public use.