Narrowboat World says today that it's the tenth anniversary of the day it first registered the domain:
Ten years ago today, the 8th March 2000, a new Web address was registered that has had quite an effect on the waterways over the intervening years.
And that new Web address? narrowboatworld.com of course. Yes, narrowboatworld has been in existence for ten years.
The 'whois' information above says Tom Crossley is talking true (give or take a day).
Tom goes on to show screenshots of its various incarnations, starting with a 2002 version (below) and running through to the latest relaunch a year ago, when for the first time it took on a 'bloggy, feedy' format.
(I searched for an older version on www.archive.org, but his screenshot from 2002 is the oldest I've yet seen.)
In the first couple of years after starting Granny Buttons (July 2003) I got extremely irritated with NBW. Tom wanted to stay anonymous, which didn't sit well with his outspoken approach, particularly his 'Victor Smith' column which says the contentious stuff.
I said that if you are going to tweak someone's nose, you could at least do them the honour of standing still so they can punch yours in return.
We've since nagged him out into the open, although he persists with 'Victor Smith', which he still claims is a real person. If you say to him, as I have, that Victor's his alter ego, or at least a 'composite', he goes all sphinxy.
Tom hasn't mellowed. He concludes today's article:
With SOW in effect no more, boaters leaving the IWA in droves and NABO going off on a 'Legal Challenge', the magazines relying on BW advertising, and so mainly sticking to the 'party line', newspapers accepting anything they are told, the blogs having little circulation and influence, so what is left to attempt to curtail the ridiculous—often untrue—outpourings from the waterway authorities? [Granny's emphasis]
I think I have mellowed. Three years ago that phrase in bold would have irritated me. Now I realise it's just a wind-up.
Still, he can be proud of what his decade has achieved. All the more remarkable that he's done it purely as a hobby, after retiring as a local newspaper editor.
British Waterways is now calling for more volunteers on the waterways. I remember writing a couple of years ago that the future of the waterways was in volunteering (see 'Every volunteer has won').
In his own way Tom's still volunteering for the waterways, driving hard at a time when most people would be considering taking their foot off the accelerator. Maybe his bathchair's a Toyota.
Anyway, happy birthday Narrowboatworld!
Comments