Simon's
Website started being built in 2001 as part of a project whilst being
home-educated. It was suggested by my mum - "Why not make your own
website?". So I did.
For
a long while, I wasn't sure what to have on it or what to call it. I
eventually decided that it would feature things that interest me, so I
could share them with the world.
Even
today, it still is about things that I like but it has changed
dramatically since it first opened.
The
site took nearly a year to build because I worked on it on and off during
that year. However I finished it, and at the beginning of 2002 started a
Yahoo group to attempt to drum up support and interest in the launch of
this fantastic new site. Sadly the group never took off and closed down in
2004. However, the website was launched on March 30th 2002, and it looked
very different to how it does today.
Above
you can see an image of the original home page. This was used until 2004,
and you may notice that some of the features still exist today albeit the
pages themselves have been redesigned several times since.
At
this time my website was hosted on Geocities, over time there appeared to
be more and more pop-ups and advertisements on my site which I got
frustrated about and tended to turn off people visiting the site. In 2006,
I spent money on buying my own domain name and ad-free webspace and here
we are now.
The
name Simon's Website was going to change as soon as I thought of something
better but I ended up getting stuck with it. Other names have come to me
like IFU which stood for Information For You, and SiSpace, a take on the
popular MySpace name but I never ended up using them.
So
there we have it, a brief history about Simon's Website. I hope you've
found it interesting.
Below
is a list of some of features that were on my site but have now ceased to
be...
RCT
Style! (2002 - 2003) - An attempted mini-site dedicated to the game
Rollercoaster Tycoon.
The
Golden Arches (2002 - 2007) - A mini-site about UK McDonald's Toys,
proved to be popular and revealed exclusives, but closed when I stopped
visiting McDonald's.
The
pages however are kept online for archive purposes.
Popsters/Sound Station
(2002 - 2004, 2005-2007) - Dedicated to Pop Music, was replaced by The Sound
Station in 2005.
The
Ride-O-Matic (2002-2003) - Supposed to be about theme park rides but I
didn't really know what to do with it, and it ended up just being a photo
gallery of my trips to theme parks which partly merged into Simon's Shots.
Radio
Si (2002 - 2006) - Appeared in various forms over the years, but in
it's last form as a Radio Blog where tracks could be streamed online. Each
month had a certain theme. However, it was forced to be taken down, beyond
my control, after someone made a formal complaint about it to my webhosts.
Cooking
With Simon (2003 - 2005) - An area to share recipes of things I had
made whilst being home-educated. It closed down when I ran out of recipes.
However, it made a brief return in Easter 2007 when I put up my recipe for
making Easter Nests.
Brookside
Closed (2003 - 2006) - Dedicated to the soap Brookside and featured
brand new stories written by myself. It closed when I was trying to save
space to expand other areas and when I realised not many people were
looking at it.
