Capstoning

I'll do a separate post to make it clear to the casual reader, but I'm going overseas for a couple of weeks and won't be putting any posts on Brisbane Ultimate Blog again until mid-September (hopefully though one of the other contributors (like Wonderful-Rubes, even though he lives in Melbourne now, or aL the Dishwasher) will take over for a bit.)

But this brings me to a point that has pained me for some time. People in Ultimate who get websites going (good stuff), set them up to be updated (challenging but rewarding), and then when they stop doing it (which is always fair enough), don't put a 'capstone' on them (which is the sin I'm most annoyed by).

Capstoning is putting something on your blog or website to say "This website won't be updated with up-to-date info (like you've seen below) for a while. However, here's the 'eternal' information you might want, which can stay here until the site starts to get updated again or it gets taken down."

If you don't have a capstone, then your online presence looks really disorganised and just plain awful.

Remember, your website is what people find when they search to find out about Ultimate in your neighbourhood.

Lets look at a few sinners, drawn from this blog's link list down on the bottom left there:

Townsville's JCU Tossers website – hasn't been updated since November 2006. This thing at least needs a "Sorry, we're not updating this at the moment – for the latest info in Townsville Ultimate, contact [email] or join our mailing list as nudi@yahoogroups.com

UQ Lover Blog – hasn't been updated since August 2006, although at least it finishes with "we got back from Uni Games". But the UQ Lovers are such a strong group, I'm surprised they can't do better.

NUFL – disappointingly out of date. Perhaps it was too ambitious to start with?

Since I'm commenting on the sinners, lets also mention some better sites:

QUTies – its just the basic info, but that's all you need! Contact details, bit of history. Simple.

Griffith Gold Coast – even more basic, but does the job in providing contact details.

Bugger Blog – is maintaining its momentum and purpose – a posting every once in a while, mostly from Mike, with a bit of Mat.

QUDA - hums along quite nicely, under I think Tim's watchful eye.

I should get around to adding the link to O-Shep's excellent site. Any other recommendations for sites with a vague connection to Brisbane Ultimate?

Now to take my own advice on improving this web-presence. After my holiday, I'll be adding a link at the top of the blog that gives key bits of info about Brisbane Ultimate. Just for anyone who doesn't want to dig.