Origin
To be honest, I don't really remember why I decided to make my first web page, other than a feeling that Winter Camp ought to have one. The first page I ever made was actually for the Winter Camp Future Society and most of that content is still available on this site today. Since then, I've gone on to make quite a few pages, many of which no longer exist or have been handed to someone else or I'm not interested in telling you about.
Tools
There are a lot of tools you can use for web page construction. I started outwith Corel, but have since given up on it. I use primarily CuteHTML and Programmer's File Editor (PFE) for actually editing. I've tried Front Page, but didn't really like it. For graphics, I use Micrografx, several clip art collections and Ulead Smartsaver. I have Flash, but haven't done very much with it. I did make a couple of animations, but it's not really anything I'm very good at; on the other hand, they were pretty easy to do and I recommend the tool if you're into graphics. I use CuteFTP for all my file uploads and wouldn't use a host anymore if it didn't support FTP.
Books
As anyone who's been to my house can tell you, I have a lot of books on web design. By and large, I can recommend the Visual Quickstart Guides, but I don't recommend their Perl book; get CGI 101 instead. For design ideas, I recommend The Non-Designer's Web Book and Web Pages That Suck. If you're looking for something specific ask me, I may have it lying around here.
Active sites
These are the sites I've made which are still active, meaning that they have been updated in the last 6 months and are available on the web.
| Name: |
|
Winter Camp Universe |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
You're looking at part of it right now. This is by far the biggest of my web sites (in fact, it's bigger than all the others combined). It started as just a WCFS page, then became the behemoth you see now. It also represented my introduction to server-side includes, javascript, and pretty much every other web technique I've ever used. It was the first domain name I bought and the first hosting space I ever paid for directly. |
| Name: |
|
Mi-Gi-Si O-Paw-Gan Lodge 162 |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
When the Region Chief asked that every Lodge have a web page, Harold Hanna asked me to put one up for Mi-Gi-Si. There already was one, being run by Jay Bottorof, but for some reason H wanted a new one. I took some of Jay's content, some new stuff, cleaned up the HTML and spelling and threw it up on the web using GeoPlus, a service of Geocities that allowed a more memorable page address. The page has since been redesigned twice and now lives on the same server as Winter Camp Universe. |
| Name: |
|
Michigan Renaissance Festival Cast Page |
| Status: |
|
Inactive |
| Notes: |
|
This year's Entertainment Director is running his own web page. I'm not sure it gets any more updated than it did when I was running it, but I don't want to compete with him, so this one is down. |
| Name: |
|
Steve's Basement |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
Tom Ray and I co-webmaster this one. It is my most widely traveled page - it first existed on Xoom (actually still does since they don't have a way for you to quit), then was hosted by WebNet when Tom purchased the domain name and finally landed on the same server as Winter Camp Universe when Tom's relationship with WebNet soured. It's been a big help to our games and I recommend the practice to gamemasters everywhere. |
| Name: |
|
Ample and Trite |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
Ample and Trite are friends of mine who perform at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. This page represents my first ever "work for hire". I set the page up, they provided much of the content and we bartered a deal on the costs. |
| Name: |
|
TurtleChick.Com |
| Status: |
|
Active (in development) |
| Notes: |
|
Yes, that's right, my wife is a big fan of turtles. What with both of us being sick, we haven't done as much with this page as I thought we would have by now, but I'm sure we'll get there. |
| Name: |
|
Not That Bright |
| Status: |
|
Active (in early development) |
| Notes: |
|
This one will someday be my personal ranting page among other things. This one was really born out of a desire to have some sort of Op-Ed page where I could sound off about things that made me mad (like people bashing Boy Scouts) without putting political content in an inappropriate place (like the WCU). |
| Name: |
|
Video Vulture |
| Status: |
|
Active (in early development) |
| Notes: |
|
Someday, this will be a site full of movie reviews focusing on some of the also ran movies I love. |
| Name: |
|
One Part Words |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
Someday, this site will explain things in words of but one part. I think the idea for this one came from some discussions with Jeff. I said I thought I could make a site better than Bro's that would incorporate, among other things, a dictionary of one part words. I have to let him know when I start so he can verify my times. (And no Jeff, I haven't started yet as of 9/7/2000 roughly 1:00 am) |
| Name: |
|
Hassled by the Man |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
Someday, this site will allow people to vent about their bureaucratic frustrations. This one came out of a conversation I was having with Joe Hall about my festival experience this year. I was complaining about no one really interacting with me when I was there and he pointed out that he had. Of course, he's not a performer this year, he's more of a troubleshooter/cop, so I claimed that I had been there only to be "hassled by the man". The idea stuck. Watch for it to become reality one day. |
| Name: |
|
Troop 1373 Web Site |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
This site allows members of my unit to share ideas and information. |
| Name: |
|
KristieAndSteve.Com |
| Status: |
|
Active |
| Notes: |
|
This site was designed to let friends and family know what was going on with our wedding. It hasn't provided as postive an experience for some as I had hoped. |
Inactive sites
These are sites which are no longer active:
| Name: |
|
Winter Camp Future Society |
| Status: |
|
Defunct |
| Notes: |
|
This was actually the first web page I ever made; as noted above, it is still mostly available. The original page was hosted on AOL using one of the five two-meg accounts they provide. It has since been subsumed into the Winter Camp Universe. |
| Name: |
|
Canton of Brackendelve |
| Status: |
|
Defunct |
| Notes: |
|
This page once served as the home page for the Canton of Brackendelve, a Society for Creative Anachronism group. The page was originally created by me on AOL, but is now maintained and hosted by someone else. |
| Name: |
|
Troop 1373 Home Page |
| Status: |
|
Defunct |
| Notes: |
|
This page lasted a while on AOL then morphed into the Scouts1373 page on Xoom for awhile when I became more involved with our pack. Both eventually died when it seemed clear that only one or two people ever looked at them. |
| Name: |
|
Mahican Chapter Page |
| Status: |
|
Defunct |
| Notes: |
|
This page was originally set up on AOL. It has since been rolled into the Migisi Opawgan Lodge page. |
| Name: |
|
Downriver District |
| Status: |
|
Defunct |
| Notes: |
|
The last of my AOL pages; this one went pretty well at first, but would probably have eventually died. It became a moot point when our district merged into Three Rivers |
| Name: |
|
Sub Urban Lourus |
| Status: |
|
Defunct |
| Notes: |
|
This started as a joke about starting our own garage band and evolved into a web page for a band that didn't really exist. Most of the content has been brought forward into the Steve's Basement site. This was actually my first foray into free hosting - the page started out on Geocities. |
| Name: |
|
Mike & Linda's Wedding Plans |
| Status: |
|
Defunct (Geocities canceled it). |
| Notes: |
|
This was a fairly elaborate prank played on one of my co-workers. |
Domains
| Site: | wintercamp.com |
| Purchased: | 07/15/97 |
| Expires | 07/15/09 |
| Notes: | Devoted to Winter Camp |
| Plans: | Continued usage and improvement. |
|
| Site: | steves-basement.com |
| Purchased: | 03/16/99 |
| Expires | 03/16/02 |
| Notes: | Devoted to gaming |
| Plans: | Continued usage and improvement. |
|
| Site: | videovulture.com |
| Purchased: | 06/27/00 |
| Expires | 06/27/02 |
| Notes: | Devoted to reviews of "bad" movies |
| Plans: | Develop primary content by 10/1/01 |
|
| Site: | notthatbright.com |
| Purchased: | 07/01/00 |
| Expires | 07/01/02 |
| Notes: | Intended to be an opinion site; not yet active |
| Plans: | Develop primary content by 12/1/01 |
|
| Site: | ampleandtrite.com |
| Purchased: | 08/06/00 |
| Expires | 08/06/02 |
| Notes: | Devoted to Ample and Trite, performers who are friends of mine. |
| Plans: | Continued usage and improvement. |
|
| Site: | turtlechick.com |
| Purchased: | 08/06/00 |
| Expires | 08/06/02 |
| Notes: | Devoted to turtles and my wife. |
| Plans: | Complete development by 11/1/01 |
|
| Site: | onepartwords.com |
| Purchased: | 08/19/00 |
| Expires | 08/19/02 |
| Notes: | Devoted to developing one sylablle explanations of things |
| Plans: | Complete development by 10/1/01 |
|
| Site: | hassledbytheman.com |
| Purchased: | 08/31/00 |
| Expires | 08/31/02 |
| Notes: | Devoted to exposing people abusing their power. |
| Plans: | Continued usage and improvement. |
|
| Site: | troop1373.com |
| Purchased: | 09/05/00 |
| Expires | 09/05/01 |
| Notes: | Devoted to news about my troop |
| Plans: | Continued usage and improvement. |
|
| Site: | migisi.org |
| Purchased: | 10/04/00 |
| Expires | 10/04/01 |
| Notes: | Devoted to news about my Lodge |
| Plans: | Continued usage and improvement. |
|
| Site: | osp-webworks.com |
| Purchased: | 10/06/00 |
| Expires | 10/06/01 |
| Notes: | Potential business name: "Other Side of the Pillow" WebWorks |
| Plans: | Will not renew |
|
| Site: | troll-works.com |
| Purchased: | 10/08/00 |
| Expires | 10/08/01 |
| Notes: | Potential business name. |
| Plans: | Will not renew |
|
| Site: | diamondtecheng.com |
| Purchased: | 10/11/00 |
| Expires | 10/11/01 |
| Notes: | Registered for third party |
| Plans: | Will not renew |
|
| Site: | dacbsa.com |
| Purchased: | 10/25/00 |
| Expires | 10/25/01 |
| Notes: | Defensive holding |
| Plans: | Uncertain |
|
| Site: | migisi.com |
| Purchased: | 10/25/00 |
| Expires | 10/25/01 |
| Notes: | Defensive holding |
| Plans: | Uncertain |
|
| Site: | webtrolls.com |
| Purchased: | 11/20/00 |
| Expires | 11/20/02 |
| Notes: | Potential business name. |
| Plans: | Develop primary content by 6/1/01 |
|
| Site: | simbasoftware.com |
| Purchased: | 01/11/01 |
| Expires | 01/11/02 |
| Notes: | Prank |
| Plans: | Will not renew |
|
| Site: | twistinginthewind.com |
| Purchased: | 01/17/01 |
| Expires | 01/17/02 |
| Notes: | Registered for third party |
| Plans: | Uncertain |
|
| Site: | amidumbornot.com |
| Purchased: | 01/19/01 |
| Expires | 01/19/02 |
| Notes: | Speculation |
| Plans: | Sold for $50 as part of a package for dumb domains |
|
| Site: | dumbornot.com |
| Purchased: | 01/19/01 |
| Expires | 01/19/02 |
| Notes: | Speculation |
| Plans: | Sold for $50 as part of a package for dumb domains |
|
| Site: | isthisdumbornot.com |
| Purchased: | 01/19/01 |
| Expires | 01/19/02 |
| Notes: | Speculation |
| Plans: | Sold for $50 as part of a package for dumb domains |
|
| Site: | kristieandsteve.com |
| Purchased: | 02/07/01 |
| Expires | 02/07/02 |
| Notes: | Devoted to news about my wife and me. |
| Plans: | Continued usage and improvement. |
|
 |
|
|
 |
The design and content of this page Copyright (C) 1997-2000 by Steve Donohue for the Winter Camp Future Society
If you believe we are using copyrighted material, please contact the webmaster
All rights reserved
