Annual Review
- Ben
Contributors
Straight off, thanks to consistent correspondents who keep LPMCC.net fresh and interesting. Ted Trett continued to send reports of old and recent rallies, high quality collections of photos and also spread the word to fellow rallyists and riders. Les Hobbs experimented with video that has been added to YouTube, forwards funnies for the Foz Spot and has kept LPMCC.net well stocked with sacrificial kittens.
There have been many bright new contributors who have discovered LPMCC.net in 2009. They respond in their own unique style with memories that link us all together through shared experiences. In one or two cases it has been a son or daughter setting an epitaph to their father's memory. We remember them and their exploits well and our youthful days will live on.
Evolution
The style and appearance of LPMCC.net has varied little over the past year; if it ain't broke don't fix it. Minor improvements have evolved as necessary ...
- January: Out of courtesy to the many Dutch riders and rally fans who visit LPMCC.net we added a Google translation service into their language. (I know they speak English better than wot I does but it is only polite.) Visitors from the Netherlands continue to top the non-English speaking countries just ahead of Germany. Check the graph in the Statistics page.
- March: Behind the screens there was a rationalisation of data that simplifies the website structure in the hope of helping the pages to open a little more quickly. This lead on to ...
- April: A hidden Admin Section that automates a lot of routine tasks. In memory of drowned kittens.
- May: LPMCC.net almost became a victim of its own success when the server storage busted through the 250 Megabyte limit. There followed rapid redeployment of photo files to Windows Live. The ramifications are complex and lead to a continuing kitten cull.
- July: As part of widespread changes to the photo system improvements also began to the photo-turn and thumbnail functions. The use of thumbnail links was extended from the Photo Galleries to all the other sections.
- September: LPMCC.net made a subtle change to paler colours as the number of pages passed the thousand mark.
- October: To make it easier for you to take an active part with LPMCC.net a new all-singing, all-dancing Contact Centre was created. You can keep notes, mark your favourite pages and send messages to LPMCC.net from whatever page you are on - including this one. (Hint)
Milestones
As mentioned above, page one thousand was added sometime about September. That is a great achievement considering that every page contains exclusive content to be found nowhere else on the World Wide Web.
News updates have been posted regularly and the last in 2009 brought the total on record to 300. (They are only counted as one on the page count!)
In November LPMCC.net received its 250,000th visitor; through 2009 we had 92,510 visitors and December broke the 9,000 barrier with a staggering 9,647 visits.
Targets
This isn't a money driven business so I'm not setting "challenging targets" to cause stress and anxiety. I just run my finger along the continuously climbing graphs to see where we will pass through in 2010.
I hope to have more time to dedicate to LPMCC.net from February 2010. One thing on my list of ambitions is to get to grips with PHP/MySQL/Apache. I dipped my toe in a few years back and considered myself lucky not to be snapped up by the alligators. Now LPMCC.net has 1000 pages and thousands of photos scattered through the Cloud I should rise to the task of finding a more robust base.
We will pass 300,000 total visitors. I would love visits to exceeded 10,000 per month but, realistically, last December was exceptional. It will need something else exceptional. Ideas anyone?
On the subject of your thoughts - I will need to conduct another survey to check that LPMCC.net is providing what you want in the form that you want it. Expect that in October but if you want to be ahead of the crowd - use the old Survey Form or send me a note through the Contact Centre.
Of course, this assumes that I will have the time for LPMCC.net once I get to work putting the Trident back on the road and ... heaven forbid ... motorcycling!
Thanks
Last but by no means least, Thank You! It is your faithful support that makes LPMCC.net successful. Conversely there would be no point in LPMCC.net existing if you weren't there to enjoy it.