  Matt Carpenter  Chris Green The idea of Wroxham FC having a website was first conceived by Chris Green and myself over lunch in early 1997. At the time we were both working in the IT department of Norwich Union Investment Management, but we approached the project from different viewpoints. Chris, as Secretary of the club, was keen to publish the name of Wroxham FC to a much wider audience whilst I was a Wroxham fan looking to learn more about the internet and website publishing. Having decided that we would go ahead work began in earnest. An account was set up with Demon Internet and the site address of www.wroxhamfc.demon.co.uk was reserved. I then spent many hours learning the fundamentals of HTML and evolving the design of the site until I finally came up with something that I was happy with. Chris then provided me with a number of articles and match reports to put on the site and the pages were uploaded to the internet for Chris, as a Club Official, to test and approve. After making a few changes, the site was finally ready to be launched and on 4th April 1997 we officially went live. Although we were both pleased with the site, neither of us really had any idea of the number of hits that we were likely to receive (if any!) so it was a pleasant surprise when the visitor counter started to move. After 6 months the site had recorded over 800 hits, which given the size of the club and the lack of advertising was staggering. Many people had signed the guestbook and given the site a lot of positive feedback. As well as Wroxham locals, visitors had come from as far afield as Sweden, Australia and the USA. With non-league websites still a relatively rare thing back then, Radio Norfolk became aware that the club had a site and Chris and I were interviewed for a feature that was broadcast on 7th November 1997. A full transcript of the interview is available here. By the time the site's first birthday arrived, the visitor count was well over 2,200 and averaging around 60 hits a week.  Version 2 Unfortunately many changes of PC since then mean that the original site has been lost, but in April 1998 work began on a redesign, giving the site a new look as well as adding many new features, such as providing a dedicated page for each of the teams in the Jewson Premier division. The new look was launched in July at the start of the 1998/99 season. Once again the site was very well received, winning a number of awards, including the Non-League webring site of the month for May 1998, Runner-up in the Non-League webring Site of the Year 1998 awards and being classed as a 'Star site' by Non-League on the Net. Unfortunately the increased size and functionality meant that it was taking an ever increasing amount of time to update the site and by now I had also taken on the role of Programme Editor. To enable me to still have a life away from football, something had to give and on Tuesday 14th March 2000, the old site was updated for the last time. The break was only ever intended to be a temporary one, with a re-write planned for the summer of 2001. The url www.wroxhamfc.com was reserved but an enforced change of job at the time meant that although good progress was made on the redesign it never saw the light of day as the summer came and went, much to my disappointment.  Version 3  Version 4 Summer 2002 brought renewed enthusiasm and so I began work on the third release of Wroxham's website, wroxhamfc.com, at the end of April. Many months of hard work followed version 3 was officially launched on 4th August 2002. Unlike previous versions, this release was entirely database driven, using a combination of PHP and MySql, meaning that update times were considerably reduced. The site proved very popular with the average number of hits per week increasing significantly. However, the internet is a very dynamic medium and so in the late spring of 2003 work began on version 4, which was launched on 8th August 2003. The new version had a completely new look and several new features, including a Club Shop and the Ridgeons directory, providing comprehensive information on the sides that make up the Ridgeons League. Work began on version 5 just a few months after the launch of version 4 with an intention of relaunching in the summer of 2004, but for a variety of reasons including a lack of time and the fact that I was never really convinced by the style of the new site that I had designed, that date came and went and in the end I decided to start again, so work began on the version of the site that you see before you now late in 2004 and after many weeks of hard week it was finally launched on Friday 29th July 2005. I hope you like it... Matt Carpenter |
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Thursday 15th May 2008
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