You have probably noticed the revamped graphics on this webpage. You're probably asking, "What's up with that?" A few weeks ago, I sat down to add something to the website and thought, "Man, this thing is looking old!" Thus in the grand tradition of swishy feminine people, I gave the website a makeover. Really, everything is there that has always been there, plus a few extra things. Some of the graphics are more standardized and page layouts are better. I've added a list of Frequenly Asked Questions (FAQs), a meeting schedule and have added our rules of conduct (see the Vals Info page). I've reorganized the Photo Gallery and cleaned up some of the older graphics.
I have always had an interest in computers. I owned my first computer at age 14 - an old Atari 800XL with a whopping 64k of memory. A floppy disk drive was an option, not a standard. I loved that thing - I could really make it sing. As simple as it was, it did encourage a good understanding of computers. In college I got my first PC and discovered the power of the Internet. With all the usual drama, I came out of the closet in 1994 and joined the Vals. I can remember telling the board members "We need a website" and their response was "What's a website?" The Internet then was not nearly as prevelant as it is today. I can remember when all the big websites could almost be listed on one piece of paper.
I first designed the Vals website in 1995. I was working on a 386SX PC with a pokey slow modem. I had learned how to code HTML on a VAX server in graduate school. The system used Lynx as a web browser. It was a far cry from the current web browsers and webpage authoring software. My graphics software was the primitive Paintbrush in Windows 3.1. The old site was very simple. Click the link to view the first Vals Homepage. Try not to laugh too hard! I had to sneak to use a scanner at work, and it was only a black and white scanner. Since my modem was slow and my computing power small, all the graphics were low resolution images and were as small as possible. As time went on, other websites were developing chat rooms and mailing lists, which I had neither the time, knowledge nor interest to manage. The Vals web site evolved as well, adding better graphics, frames and more pages. Much of the information on the pages was added as a response to the many inquiries got by email. I simply got tired of answering so many questions.
So, today I've moved up to a Pentum 200mHz machine with 36MB of RAM and a 33.6kps modem. Again, it's not state of the art, but it can at least move and process a website. I have access to web sites authoring tools that make generating webpages very easy, and they actually give excellent control over the source code (a feature lacking in early website authoring tools.) I have much better tools and skills to for webpage artwork and a full-color scanner right on my desktop.
The Vals website has managed to draw a lot of folks to our group. We still get 200 hits a day regularly on the website and I get 1 or 2 inquries about our group by email every week. Our website has been a great outreach resource for our group. And the site makes us look a lot bigger than we actually are.
Creating websites is a witches' brew of computer knowledge, writing and art design. It's also nice to actually have a website with something to talk about. So many websites, including professionally done commercial sites are simply void of any real content. Webmasters (and mistresses) must have some dedication to their sites, and keep the content fresh and up to date. I'm certainly no expert on the Internet (I don't have any computer science degrees), so I'll just claim to be a gifted hobbyist and I'll continue to maintain my little corner of the web.
So keep visiting us and reading our newsletters and look at our photo galleries. And you never know when it will get another makeover.