This subject will be discussed at the meeting at 5:30 on Monday 23rd August 2010 in the Lantern House
About me - web sites I designed, when I taught Flash to 6 to 16 year olds: www.tygh.co.uk and www.tygh.co.uk/students
How other towns do their websites:
Thirsk map pop 4,500 Thirsk town - "Car parking is free in for one hour in Thirsk market place,"
Northallerton map pop 15,700 Northallerton town
Skipton pop 16,000 town
Hawick map pop This town has a massive carpark which is free on market day alongside a thriving Market with a wide range of market stalls 14,000 town
Grange over Sands pop 4,000 town attractions and town council site
Ambleside
Ulverston on Google
The following results are very disappointing from the Tourists viewpoint
Ulverston on Wikipedia look at the web site being recommended at the bottom - it's out of date
Discover Ulverston - festivals nothing there
The Ulverston Website - Leisure and Tourism - Ulverston Festivals and The Arts draw your own conclusions
Ulverston Cumbria - link about Ulverston on the whole this is a very encouraging site - check the links to the features being mentioned - they are covered in good detail by far the best site
Ulverston in Cumbria most of the links are out of date
Go Lakes Ulverston Events
Orchard House, Ulverston - local attractions Now this accomodation attracts more business than the owner can handle but look at the "main Ulverston site" - Ulverston.net and you get the Town Council site.
The official web site ulverston.net has now been wound up totally it has been going steadily down hill since is was handed over by Furness Internet who designed it initially
ulverstonuk.co.uk this site was designed by Chris Thorpe who was a lecturer in design when he died last year. It is sadly not being maintained.
The future: -
Blogs like this one?
Twitter like what is being done in Grasmere
Can Youtube be used more effectively like this - Flag festival
Conclusion the sites coming top of Google, do Ulverston and its many features, no favours.
Something needs to be done.
For a long time till last week, ulverston.net came first place on Google thanks to the original skill of Furness Internet. However the web site went steadily down hill in design and content because it was being maintained by someone too busy and lacking the skills to do the job well.The result in 2008 was this reported here on this site.
It had been hoped the the new site for the Town Council would be a great improvement. What happened was a site that concentrated on the Councillors and their business. The promotion of Ulverston and the surrounding area as a serious tourist attraction was neglected and the "Latest News" at present is giving us one item about the re-opening of Hoad in 2010 in amongst what was going to happen in 2008 and 2009.
By comparison I know of no other council that does such a poor job of promoting its town and surroundings in contrast to doing such a good job of promoting its councillors - all at the tax payers expense. Was the expense of this site justified when Ulverston,net was desparate for attention?
I'm convinced the closure of many of our shops in Ulverston is related to the Town having such poor web sites from the tourists viewpoint.Do the councillors care? If so what do they propose?
Do they intend to become better informed on the subject of the use of the Internet to promote towns, thus making better equipped to make important decisions regarding the town's future.
With no known proposal to continue the TIC in the Coro, the state of our web sites, and the lack of forward looking initiative being shown by our council (in regaining control of our car parks, toilets and market), there are some businessmen here who believe that Ulverston is going to become a ghost town.
Does this possibility occur to you?
2 comments:
Ulverston.net was never a good showcase for Ulverston, the content and site build never provided stickability and painted Ulverston in a poor light.
Although the Town Council site does not act solely as a 'Tourism Site' at least it paints Ulverston in a positive light and compared to most council websites, I personally think it is very good.
What we need to do, is get rid of websites like www.ulverstoncouncil.org! This is not a council site and should not pretend to be. This is full of negativity and anyone visiting the town will think we have a town of idiots.
Come on everyone, lets keep negativity behind closed doors and get this website closed down. It just doesn't help!
Come on yourself, anonymous, you give the impression of being very naive.
One does not "close down" web sites like the one you mention. How does one do that?
They are done by people who use the internet to express their very negative view of life. The internet and forums is full of them.
What one does not do is publicise their existence as you have done.
I suspect that you are one of the councillors targeted with a name that rhymes Sol, as up till now councillors were the only ones to know about this and you should know better.
Without publicity no one looks at them because no one knows. Visitors are extremely unlikely to ever see these sites. There are other sites for the town that are far worse because they are frequented by a group of negative people who enjoy tearing others to shreds.
I believe the best strategy is to ignore. Why would one want to visit them?
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