I know it is a little early, but I am so excited about the latest website I have been developing that I want to tell you about it. The site is still under construction, however there is enough content on there for you to see where I am heading. The site is basically the work I had managed to do so far on a selected guide to North Wales. I was very close to signing a deal with the guide, and I have to apologise to the publisher for letting them down.
The future for me seems very bright, and I am not sure whether I will return to the UK for long enough to complete the project, so rather than have a half finished book that sits on my computer, I thought that I would buy a dot com and offer it out to the public. Who knows one day it might well become a book. If not I hope it becomes an excellent resource for you guys to enjoy.
I can hear the CC, RockFax and Ground Up fearing the idea of an online guide and I await angry phone calls (please note I am working this weekend so will be unavailable to rant at until after 7pm). I however see it as a fantastic opportunity to put North Wales on the Map, as well as promote the growing number of excellent guides to the area. I also believe that an online resource is no replacement for a paper and ink guide. It is however another form of information that rather than just telling you about an area like virtually all other online resources, this site actually gives you the instruction to experience it and write your own stories. The site contains many of my favourite routes, and I will undoubtably add to the site over time.
What this site is not is a wiki, I can allow selected people to ‘author’ and ‘edit’ the site, and given my spelling and habit of meaning right and typing left, means that if you are a devoted north wales climber with a computer maybe you can help out? I am also short a few crag shots that if anybody manages to take whilst they are out and about, I would be extremely grateful for the images so I can turn them into topos’s. I am also keen to see if any manufacturers, shops, magazines, distributors or heaven forbid publishers would like to come on board and help support the running of the project by advertising on the site.
To see the content you’ll need to set up an account, and I am insisting on real names I am afraid, and will block users who don’t abide by this rule. The info is there for you print out for your own personal use only, under no circumstance should the images be replicated in anyway in print or online form, unless you want a bill for £500 per image. Basically I don’t want you cutting and pasting my work to your own site, as taking the photos and turning them to topos has taken a considerable length of time. If you want online/digital media, then look at this site as my CV, as I am available for freelance photography and writing.
I do have to give a massive thanks to Scott, who has done some amazing work, if your saw my blog post recently, then I can admit now to spending three days trying to get joomla to run on my hosting server. I was totally at my wits end and Scott offered to help, and about 30 minutes later it was up and running. About 12 hours later, and I had virtually broken the site again, and Scott clicked a button and made it work. He has probably kept me from hitting my computer with a large stick, as time after time the ‘computor says Noooo!’