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