manxathletics.com – semi retirement
After more than 14 years of
publishing manxathletics.com I have repeatedly asked myself what I am trying to
achieve. Pleasingly, so many of the roles I used to perform have been filled my
others. The archives will survive as will the statistics, which I shall continue
to update. Publishing photos and video (as well as sharing links and occasional
news) from the Facebook page will be the site’s legacy but there will no longer
be regular changes to the home page.
These are the reasons I think the
site is redundant.
News
It’s hard to recall that the news
page was a key feature before blogs let alone Facebook. I used to publish
reports of off island trips for most of the clubs and report on individuals too
but this news soon spreads around Facebook.
Club sites
I’ve tried to work alongside the
clubs as their sites have progressed but they don’t need me anymore. In the early
days I was publishing sub-sites for fell running and road running.
Fixtures
I always placed a strong emphasis
on publishing local fixtures, and I shall continue to assist, but the
iomaa.info site now has a tabulated fixture list and that is the best and most
appropriate place.
Results
It’s a few years ago now but I
used to produce the results for the Syd Quirk Half Marathon and the End to End
Walk as well as leaving events with hand written lists which I would type on
when I got home. The clubs generally have good results services and the
volunteer officials put a lot of work into producing them for the websites and
conventional media.
The forum
Facebook has replaced the purpose
of the forum and it’s so much more interactive. My only regret is that that the
sport is less centralised and to follow all the discussions you need to join
half a dozen groups.
Photos
For several years most of the event
photos were published here. If I didn’t take them myself then the likes of Stan
Hall or Neil Wilson would deliver a CD for me to share. In the time I have been
publishing the site I have taken more than 150,000 photos and, although this is
a great resource for me to dip into, there are usually plenty of photographers,
both amateur and professional and with better equipment than me.
Videos
I have published more than 500
videos on YouTube since 2007. In that year I had several of the most seen
videos on the whole of YouTube under mountain biking, race walking and fell
running. My videos are not watched as much as in the early days after the
novelty wore off. So many other people take clips on their phones and David
Griffiths is now producing his own videos (I used to publish them for him).
Even if you are not on Facebook you will still be able to view the videos
through the links that remain on the manxahtletics.com site.
Track & field
I used to take more photos at the
track than anywhere but my family were more involved at the time. The child
protection rules also imposed restrictions and gradually I stopped trying to
cover the track, leaving it to the specialists.
Newspaper archives
I have completed the scanning of
my archives going back more than 40 years as well as retaining other scanned
documents. This is much easier to share on Facebook.
Conclusion
I remain a big website fan. Websites
are so important as a source of fixtures, results, records and club information.
They provide the structure that Facebook lacks. Do remember to send information
to the website editors rather than blaming them for things that they don’t publish
because they don’t receive them. I shall continue to publish parishwalk.com
Murray Lambden
19 January 2015
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