New-look website unveiled
During the 2009 season and probably even before that, updating of this site occurred somewhat spasmodically, a fact that has been recognised by the Webmaster and indeed the General Committee of the Club. Clearly, this was a situation that could not be allowed to continue.
Two steps have been taken to rectify this. Firstly, it was decided that maintenance of the old site should be discontinued - hence the reason for the lack of updates over the winter. Professional advice on the redesign was sought and it quickly became clear that the way that the old version had been designed ruled out any chance of it being upgraded. A fresh start would be necessary.
Not only was the original version out of date but it was also open to malicious attack. On several occasions recently, the site has been hacked into, apparently by Russians, and the code modified, due to a vulnerability in some of the coding structure.
The remit of the new design was to ensure that it could be quickly updated and also that the layout could be modified and enhanced in the future with a relative amount of ease. Again, professional input was sought to ensure that this was achieved.
The second step has been to organise a better way of keeping the site updated. In the past, this has been done by one person but ultimately this proved to be just too much work and undoubtedly, the site suffered as a result. From now on, inputs will be provided from a number of sources and it is hoped this will result in the site being kept more up-to-date.
More frequent match reports, for all teams, availability of team selections early in the week, updates on the social scene at Glenpark - these are just some of the initial improvements that are planned. You could say, and you would be right, that these are fairly fundamental parts of a cricket club website but unfortunately in recent times they have been sadly lacking. The site will still have to be administered by one person but a further stage of development should overcome that restriction.
Only time will tell if this new organisation will have the desired effect but at least an attempt has been made to improve the situation.
The redesign of the site is very much a work in progress. Certain sections of the old site remain to be brought over, especially the historical sections, and it will take some time to achieve this. In addition, it is likely that the initial structure of the new design will undergo further evolution and improvements. What you see just now is not the finished article but it is a start.
