[Rhodes22-list] The Website and The List

[Peter Nyberg]

Some people are envisioning something far more grand for a refurbished website than what I personally had in mind.

As I mentioned before, it is my opinion that most important function of the rhodes22.org <http://rhodes22.org/> website is that it gives people who develop an interest in Rhodes 22 sailboats a way to find the email list.   The biggest problem with the website as it currently exists is that it doesn’t do that particularly well.  I think this situation can be improved with a fairly modest effort.

A second function the website provides is as a repository for what I’ll call ‘reference material’.  There’s the pictures, some owner’s manuals, some links to this and that, and the FAQ area, which is particularly useful, but misnamed.  I recall that when I was doing my initial investigation into the Rhodes 22, I spent a lot of time looking through this material.

So, to me, it seems clear that the new website should retain these functions, but dressed in better clothes.

Something else that the current website does is make a small effort to include Rhodes designed boats other than the Rhodes 22.  Despite the fact that the URL is rhodes22.org <http://rhodes22.org/>, the main page title is “Rhodes Boat Owners’ Homepage”.  There’s a section for the Rhodes 18 (content: 7 pictures), a section for the Rhodes 19 (content: nothing), and a section for “Classics” (content: 4 pictures and a dead link).  I think this just muddies the water and is useful to no-one.  There have been recent suggestions to add a section for the Picnic 17, but again, at the moment, we have no useful content.  I believe it would be best to stick to our core mission: the Rhodes 22.

And finally, I don’t think there’s really a need for more interactive features like posting personal stories or items for sale.  I doubt these would be used enough to worth the development effort involved, and for a group this size I think the email list serves these ends pretty well.

—Peter