Picture Stockton BLOG Picture Stockton is a website showing old photographs from Stockton-on-Tees, thornaby, yarm and billingham http://picture.stockton.gov.uk en-us 05/09/2008 14:16:59 Copyright 2007, Education ICT, Stockton Borough Council picturesNOSPAM@stockton.gov.uk Holidays http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=35 Hi - Just a note to say Steve will be out of the office for a few days (he #39;s never here!) - Sarah will be looking after the site in his absence. New Comments Policy http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=32 Hi All The maintenance work is now completed and the site is now fully functional again. Hopefully I #39;ll get a few more pictures added now. We have taken the opportunity to introduce our new comments policy. This is in response to a lot of concerns about the type of #39;unrelated #39; comments we have had posted recently. I hope this doesn #39;t disappoint too many people out there, but we are essentially reverting to the original remit of the site. Maintenance work.. http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=31 Hi all. You will probably be aware by now that we are doing some maintenance on the site and this has involved the temporary suspension of the facility to add comments. This has given us an opportunity to consider what it was we were trying to achieve when we introduced the facility. Over the past few weeks we have had a number of communications - both emails and (unpublished) comments about the way many of the comments we receive have no relevance to the images, are addressed to particular individuals or are simply conversational between two people. Similarly we have evidence to support the view that many people like to use the site in this way. What is more and more apparent is that we cannot satisfy everyone. What we propose to do while the maintenance work is being carried out is to draw up a new comments policy and then to stick more rigidly to it. We aim to find something like a middle ground which hopefully will appeal to most people. We apologise for the inconvenience and hope to have the comments facility back online shortly. In the meantime we will continue to add new images......... Maintenance on Comments Section http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=30 Just a quick note to explain the comments situation. We are doing a few modifications to the internals of the site and this involves some maintenance on the #39;comments #39; functionality. We will get this back online as soon as we can - thanks for your patience... Just keeping an eye on things... http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=29 Hi Everyone....Me again - I #39;d just like to thank you all for your kind thoughts and words on my leaving, it was very touching and much appreciated. I #39;m gainfully employed in the Health Sector again now but I will still keep in close contact with the site to make sure they don #39;t mess it up! I #39;ve told them I am a bit concerned about the small number of new images being added at the moment but I #39;m sure Steve will sort this out when he gets to grips with the processes I had in place. He may be realising by now how much work I actually did! (only joking....) - I also think its time the Christmas Tree was off the front page but I am assured that Steve is going to do something about this when he gets a chance. I really do miss it all but c #39;est la vie.......and you haven #39;t got rid of me yet! Christmas Greetings http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=28 Well - that #39;s another year nearly over - where does the time go? A year in which we like to think we #39;ve acquired a few new friends as well as strengthening our relationship with our existing ones. We all still get a great deal of pleasure out of working with the site, although we can #39;t always find as much time as we #39;d like to do the things we want. We were all sad to see Barbara go - she has played such a large part in the growth of the site, but I #39;m sure she will keep in touch - no doubt she will be checking the site to make sure we maintain her standards, and let us know if we don #39;t! I #39;ll be out of the office for a few days over the holiday period so there won #39;t be much in the way of new images added but we will do our best and try to keep up with publishing your comments as best we can. We #39;d like to take this opportunity to wish all our visitors, old and new, a Happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year - wherever you may be - and thanks for all of the interest you have shown, the comments you have added and the images you have contributed over the years. Steve, Andrew, Paul and Laurayne (and I #39;m sure Barbara does too.....) Farewell http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=27 I never thought this day would come and now, all of a sudden, its upon me.....its my last day with the PictureStockton Team! After a very happy four years with the team I am moving on. It hasn #39;t been an easy decision as I really have enjoyed working with the site and the many nice people it has brought me into contact with (Alan, John, Janice, Cliff, Bob and Ged to name but a few).... I am going back south to be closer to my family - I will miss working with the team and with the site as I have adopted Stockton as my second #39;home town #39; now. I hope the site continues to flourish in my absence - I have tried to explain to Steve where everything is (not easy) - I shall certainly be logging on regularly to check on progress. I #39;d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone out there for their contributions and comments over the years I shall certainly miss it all.......stay safe. Barbara New #39;Search on Image Number #39; Facility http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=26 Hi All We #39;ve had a number of requests over the years for a facility to search for images by their numbers, (more recently from Mike Renwick - thanks Mike), so we decided to do something about it. By that I mean we asked Andrew if he could fit the work in to his busy schedule. As ever Andrew has obliged and you can now go directly to any image, assuming you know the #39;S #39; or #39;T #39; number, by simplying entering the number in the box below this blog and selecting GO. 10000 Comment Milestone reached http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=25 Today I published our 10000th comment! This is a major milestone for us and one for which we are entirely indebted to that brilliant band of contributors out there - some regular, some casual and some one-offs, but everyone (of those that could be published) very welcome. Thanks to all of you who have added your comments over the years, we feel that this is what has elevated the site from a simple collection of local photographs to a real social record of the area - long may it continue...... Submission of email addresses http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=24 Regular visitors to the site may be aware of how guarded we are about publishing email addresses within the comments we receive. We are also aware that many of you are happy to have your email addresses passed on to other contributors. So, to accomodate this, we have added an email box to the comments bit. Anyone wishing to make their email address available to anyone who requests it can enter their details in the box provided. This is entirely voluntary and we have no preferences as to whether the information is provided or not - we will however assume that anyone entering their email details does so on the understanding that we accept no responsibility whatsoever for any subsequent usage of that address. Family History Idea http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=21 Me again..... We #39;ve been throwing some ideas around about new stuff for the site....we try to keep it buzzing...and we are considering the potential for adding a Family History element to it. We aren #39;t sure what form it would take but we have this concept of a forum where we could provide some advice for researchers, visitors could submit questions for like-minded individuals, possibly submit old photographs of family members, we aren #39;t even sure if it would work......so what do you lot think? We #39;d like your views on this - do you think it would be of any interest, what would you like to see on such a facility if we did develop it? Please email us with any comments or ideas...... Picture Stockton Email Account problem http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=19 To all those out there who have tried to contact us via the PictureStockton email account ...... please accept our apologies for any difficulties you may have experienced recently - the inbox was full! I think this is Barbara #39;s fault but she blames me for not archiving stuff....anyway its fixed now so please resend anything that has #39;bounced back #39;....ta Guided Tours and Themed items http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=18 I was just musing about the new #39;theme #39; that Barbara has added this week on the Globe Theatre and that got me thinking about the number of #39;guided tours #39; we have added over the last couple of years. How many of our more recent visitors actually know they exist I wonder. From what we see of the site monitors the indications are that a lot of people look at the recent comments or recent additions first - I #39;m not sure how many actually look around the site to see what else there is........just thinking......you can find a list under Features and then Guided Tours Prints for Sale http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=16 Hi All....... After the recent upgrade, we are happy to report that the service is now back up and running. Prints can still be purchased of any image that has the #39;Add to Basket #39; associated with it. The copies are printed on high quality photographic paper, up to A4 size, and cost £5 each - including postage and packing. Unfortunately, we are still having to limit sales to the UK at this time but hope to extend this to the rest of the world later this year. We are also adding to the number of images that can be purchased online. Weblinks and email addresses http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=14 Hi All We have had a couple of emails lately in connection with email addresses or weblinks being ommitted from comments that people have added. This is a bit of an odd area really as we don #39;t like to publish email addresses because it could lead to a lot of spam, or worse, being sent to that address. We are also reluctant to publish web addresses as we have no real means of knowing what these sites contain. We regret any inconvenience this may cause but we do prefer to err on the side of caution...... On the air http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=13

cleveland radio logo
Steve and myself went along to the BBC Radio Cleveland studios yesterday to talk about the site, and it went on air at around 2pm. John Foster has kindly provided the audio from the broadast, so if you missed it.. you can listen to it here... part 1 and part 2

 Celebrity following http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=12

The site is attracting a celebrity following! It appears that John Foster of Radio Cleveland is a great fan of the site and has very kindly asked Andrew and I into the studio to have a chat about it. We are meeting with John today and I understand the interview will be broadcast this afternoon - how cool is that?

 Technical developments http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=11

Hi All - Just thought I’d update you with the latest developments on the site. Andrew has made some changes to the editing facilities which will not only allow us to update the blogs ourselves (previously it required Andrew’s magic) but he has also really simplified the process of changing the image on the home page. It is now so simple that we can all do it…. Expect to see this homepage image changing a lot more frequently in future.

 Comments and Chat http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=8

This is just a thought that was inspired by one of our visitors, Barry Alexander a few weeks ago, (thanks Barry) and we were wondering what you lot out there think of it..

We have been aware for some time that the comments can often go off at tangents and lose all relevance to the images on which they are posted, we are also conscious that the site sometimes has a chat room element to it. While we aren t terribly precious about it, it is true to say that this isn t what we had in mind when we decided to develop the comments facility.

Andrew and I have talked about it and he is now looking at developing a kind of contact facility where visitors with a connection could contact each other through the site, but without their correspondence being seen by us. What we have in mind is a kind of blind email facility whereby users would post their message to another user s account – providing the intended recipient had previously indicated their willingness to be contacted in this way. They could then correspond without diluting the value of the information that is relevant to the images. To be honest we are a bit ambivalent about it because some of the diversions are quite interesting – but they can look a bit odd in relation to the original image..

We d really like to hear your views on this, how you feel about the comments, or anything about the site at all…..just contact us at the usual PictureStockton email address.

Holiday http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/blogentry.aspx?id=6

Just a quick update to say there may be a lack of new additions in the next few days. Barbara (who does most of the work around here) is taking a few days leave – she has some friends from Sussex staying with her at the moment and she will be showing them the delights of Teesside. She has very thoughtfully left me some images to add – I ll do my best but I don t have Barbara s understanding of how it all hangs together so don t hold your collective breaths. Thankfully she will be back next week.