I've owned and administered the site and forums for almost 8 months now (since June 1, 2005). Many of you know that I have a real fulltime job (Web development) which pays the bills. Much of my available HSBBWeb time has been focused on learning how some of the admin functions work, taking care of basic member problems like login issues or other technical blips, and handling "behavioral challenges" in the forums - serious Board Manners violations.
However, in recent months a bunch of moderators have stepped forward and taken many of the behavioral issues off of my hands - THANK YOU, Moderators! Now I am beginning to focus my attention on more constructive issues, and I wanted to let you know a few of the things I'm working on or have planned.
PAGE UDPATES:
I am catching up on updating many pages of the site itself (outside of the forums), such as Where Are They Now, the Photo Gallery, broken links on a few pages, and resources such as listings of Showcases and Camps. Any members who have additional updates for me are welcome to send them to jas@pclink.com.
MENU SYSTEM UPGRADE:
I will be upgrading our menu system on the non-forum pages of the site to make it easier to find all of the great articles and resources written and compiled by our founder, Bob Howdeshell. The current menu is good, but the new one I am developing will include all the main menu buttons plus a SUB-MENU for each main button. This will allow a member or visitor to run their cursor over the drop-down menus and quickly survey ALL the topics available on the site.
Picture 10 or 12 main categories with a dozen or more drop-down topics each - allowing two-click access to the hundreds of pages of articles which are tucked beneath the surface on our site. Please be a little patient with me for the rollout date of the new menu, though. The entire site consists of something like 7,000 items (pages plus images) - not including these forums - and took Bob about 7 years to build.
VISUAL DESIGN
As long as I am redesigning the menu, I plan to include an update to the visual design of the site. I probably won't make any drastic changes since Bob put together a nice looking site, but will add a little of the artistic flavor that I use in my real Web job.
MORE GOOD STUFF
I have several other projects planned for this year, but can only give you hints, as those will have to wait for a while. Hints? Just a few key words: Games ... Database ... Clips ... oops, can't say any more right now!
Feel free to e-mail me at jas@pclink.com with questions or suggestions!
Julie
Thanks Julie!
You rock!! There will definitely be a luxury box seat complete with your own personal snack bar someday in baseball heaven where the games and fun will never stop.. The world is in need of more devoted people like yourself who donate their time for young people and for the love of the game! 