liobians.com

Naming rights and ownership

We Liobians now have our own prestigious domain …. the ultimate domain name for our group ….. liobians.com this clearly gives us a unique, easy to find identity that has no geographical allegiance or connotations. We have gone global !

I think registration of liobians.com as our very own domain name is a vital step in sustaining our future - as I may not be able to continue with all of this … and if we have our own domain, the whole lot can be lifted and placed somewhere else.

Establishment of the liobians.com does not imply any claim of approval or endorsement by the Liverpool Institute Old Boys Association that existed in the past, nor any current or future claim of exclusivity or governance. Any copyright claimed by Traction Management Services in the content of these webpages relates solely to presentation, format, programming and artistic design such as it may be and of course excludes any work of others, photographs, paintings, images, information in the public domain or historical facts. I ask only that should this material be used elsewhere, reference be made to its source.

Like any trade name, logo, or brand name, liobians.com represents a part of our identity - something everyone can recognise, remember, and positively associate with the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. Registering our domain name will at very least prevent someone else from using it. Note, I use the words "our domain", it belongs to all Liobians collectively. Many of you have been urging me to do this for years, I think Graham Ross and I first discussed this in 1998. Now it is here.

Professionalism

With our own domain name, access on the World Wide Web becomes a simple matter of entering liobians.com Nobody has to write it down, they can remember it. They may even find it on the basis that it should be there. As the saying goes: "You never get a second chance to make a first impression". Having our own domain name projects a professional image and the simple .com extension is the best in this regard, and tends to say to others that this is a serious, professionally managed site, operating in an established and business-like manner.

Portability

If you've ever had to change your service provider, or even move your physical business address, you won't have to be reminded of what an incredible hassle it can be to notify everyone. Without our own domain name liobians.com, your Internet address is tied to that of your service provider. Thus, if we want to change providers we also have to change our Web address and probably Email address as well.

Internet Service Providers

The Internet is made up of far too many small ISPs, I know because "I was one" At some stage they will either go broke or be swallowed up by a larger ISP. As a result the URL will disappear. I want to avoid all the hassle of moving again contacting alumni, all the others who want to be associated but who elect not to part of the Liobians' Forum at SmartGroups. Our own domain name lets us avoid all that, giving Liobians a permanent Internet address. We can change your service provider at any time and our address will always remain liobians.com

Loss of Momentum

As you will appreciate, it takes effort to promote a web site, and sometimes months to get it listed on the popular search engines. Special steps have been taken to preserve all the linkages and heritage so that the work of the last 13 years will not be for nothing.

Technical

I have chosen to change the engine from Microsoft FrontPage, as I was having great difficulty maintaining the site in that format. I looked at using Dreamweaver and Flash but in the end decided to keep it simple. I have rewritten the whole site, all 55 web pages and more than 400 images, in native HTML code, using Cascading Style Sheets. That makes it much easier for anyone else to pick it up later and maintain it. To be most compatible, I have used browser-safe colours and tags, using generally the hexadecimal codes, not the names.

I have chosen colours from the simple 216 tables as the simplest set there is ... these are generation 1 internet colours, and the code is also the simplest form. The webpages have been tested on just about everything including Mozilla, Opera, Netscape, Internet Explorer 3, Windows 95 and Apple IIe and Mac versions that are pre 1998 - plus most of the platforms up to Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6. I understand that it is working fine on the modern Apple OS platform too, but have not tested that myself.

Conclusion

Okay … wow, that seems like a lot of justification, but I thought it important to set it out, so that there can be no misunderstanding. You can contact me by email, like this

Email To :- admin  ?   liobians§STOP§com
Please replace   ?   with an ampersand @ ..... and §STOP§ with a full stop.

Thanks so much to the Members of the "Sand Pit" who have helped in the testing of this new website, and my "Board" of counsellors and advisors (Ken Webster, Angela Duffy, Graham Ross, Ken Ashcroft, Bill Carroll, Doug Whittaker and Iain Taylor) who assist me from time to time in managing or testing these facilities and with matters that involve disputes or moderation. Of course, the final responsibility and accountability lies with me.

John Snelson
Turramurra