Website Report    April 2010                                                            Back to Tail Corn Reports

The website took second place to the Village DVD in my agenda up to the end of March. I had to end the DVD programme with the arrival of Spring. My first thought had been to make a DVD of the restoration of the two churches but one thing led to another and the collection soon grew into a celebration of five years of village life in its many forms. In the end I included pictures from the plays, parties, concerts, fetes, games, the farming year, and the seasons, together with a few little surprises. It took over!

The DVD has already made about £600 for the village hall. I have a (Performing Rights) licence to make up to 250 copies. I am hoping to achieve a sell-out eventually. As I write, the DVD is topical, but by Christmas it will still be worth buying (I hope) as a pictorial record of five years in The Eversdens. A unique present for exiles and distant family members?

Meanwhile the website continues to grow. I confess to being just a bit disappointed that only about 25% of the respondents to the Eversdens Ahead questionnaire said they regularly look in. That doesn’t count the visitors from distant places, of course. Perhaps the percentage will grow as more people come to rely on the rolling banner on the front page for news of what’s coming up in the villages.

I made the effort to record the first visit of the Chip Van to The Eversdens only to find that it was also the last! Hopefully, the Youth Bus will turn into a great hit and become a permanent feature of the Eversden week. (The Eversden Jinx did strike on the day it should have started. The bus hit a branch going into a village car park and broke a window.)  However, it turned up on the 26th April to a waiting queue of youngsters. I had a privileged look round (for the website, of course) and wished I was under 18! It looked fantastic.

Visitors top 68,000 now and the “per day” count for April was over 50 (and, last week, 98!). The Lads v Dads football match pictures caused a real surge. Recently several new visitors have done hour-long trawls through the site looking at topics from the war graves in the two churchyards to the worm farm. Who, I wonder? People still occasionally look at Eddie’s World Cup robin (though that could be Eddie himself!).

It’s good to hear that the Local Businesses page does attract some custom. If I have not included yours, please let me know.

The transfer to the new server is working very well. Just occasionally I forget that I now have to do something cunning to make pound signs work so you may spot a little square where a pound sign should be – especially in the Parish Council minutes.

A few people are learning how to Add Event to the What’s On calendar – including Harlton Gardening Club, I see. When a new local event appears there (and I spot it in time) I usually add it to the rolling reminder across the front page.

Do write to me from the website if you wish to make (polite) suggestions.

David Farnell