Our Parish Website -- Ten Years On

Ten years ago this week, THREE major events took place in our (Bedford) world:
1. Father Pat arrived at Saint Ignatius to serve as our Parish Priest.
2. Steve Jobs and Apple shipped the first iPhone.
3. We re-launched our parish website (see #1).
Back then, we already had a website, as you know. But it was rather poorly organized and visually unappealing.

I thought we could do better ... so I made a few inquiries.
After 5+ years in retirement, Dear Reader, I was ready to embark on a new project.
I learned basic coding and design, poring over books and internet courses, studying what should be on a Parish website, and what it should look like.
We tried to include what a typical visitor needed, right on the flash page:
— parish address and phone numbers;
— Mass times (so they wouldn't have to [automatically] phone the parish number!);
— interactive Google map; and
—upcoming events.
(You might be surprised to learn, D\ear Reader, that some parish sites still do not provide these basics up front, or they're difficult to locate.)
We wanted a visitors to the local area, using a smartphone and in their vehicle, to get instant answers to the following questions: ‘Where can I go to Mass? When? How do get there?’
Detailed Information in greater depth for parishioners was made available in summary form below or via a drop-down horizontal menu.
The site content and presentation had to be easy to navigate.
I brought a couple of designs to a professional web designer, and after discussing the proposals in much detail, she came up with the excellent initial 'look' of the website.
We were able to post it on the Internet at 6 p.m., June 30, 2007.
Right from the start, the site was busy.
As I wanted to to know who was visiting, I registered with ‘StatsCounter’, a website data management Company, based in Ireland, on March 8, 2008.
We have had some interesting results, as I will list later.
At first, the site was quite labour intensive but, in about 2012, our webmaster suggested we explore a ‘joomla!’ system, which would prove to be much more flexible.
It was ‘back to the books and Internet courses’ for me, but I quickly discovered that I could manage the content more easily, for example, by using the system clock to plan, publish and/or unpublish articles in advance.
Around that same time, we adopted a 'responsive' format, so visitors could read the website on almost every medium: desktops, laptops, and then smartphones and tablets.
Throughout the ten years, we have met the challenges of a complete site hack (Webmaster and I always back up everything, so she had the site repaired, re-populated and available within a few hours).
Here are a few interesting visitor statistics from ‘StatsCounter,’ beginning with the raw numbers, since March 8, 2008:
-- First five years:
Total visits: 136,514; daily average: 75.
-- Latest five years:
Total visits: 91,629; Daily average: 63.
-- Last 12 months:
Total visits 23,230; daily average: 64.
-- GRAND TOTAL, March, 2008 to June, 2017:
Total visits: 235,601; daily average: 70.
After checking out the numerical data, it's fun to explore other areas of their reports.
(Throughout the web design courses, the 'experts' stressesed that, although a parish website exists primarily to serve its parishioners, it is a medium of introduction for visitors from ... all across the world. The data certainly prove that point!)
‘StatsCounter’ presents the visits by geography, country, and browser:
— For example, besides the local areas (Bedford, Halifax, Lower Sackville), I can note recent visits from such locales as: Mountain View, California; Summerside, P.EI; Bridgewater; Holyrood Newfoundland; Athens, Greece; Sorel, Quebec; Wilmington, Delaware; San Francisco; Edmonton; The Philippines; Vietnam; Indonesia.
— The summary by country, reads as follows: Canada, 77%; U-S-A, 20%; and then (in descending order) Madagascar, Venezuela, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
— It also lists by browser: Mobile, 21%; Web crawlers, 19%; 'Chrome,' 18%: tablets, 50%; and 'Others,’ such as 'Internet Explorer,' 'Edge,' 'Safari' and 'Opera.'
Right now, we continue to plan for the revamped website, which will present the long-anticipated new church.
I'm looking forward to recruiting and bringing on an 'understudy' as website editor for the long term.
Happy 150th, Canada! ///

I Like Mornings

There's something special about mornings.

At this time of year, mornings start early; we've just had the earliest sunrise of the year (5:28 a.m.). The birds are singing and all the foliage fresh.
I come from a long line of folks ”doing mornings."
-- My dad was a mariner, ex.-Royal Canadian Navy, and his watches on minesweepers and other craft were simply called,"Four hours on, and four hours off."
When he became a civilian again, and for the rest of his life, he got up at 4 a.m. — EVERY morning.
I remember as a child, hearing the coffee percolator on the stove and then smelling the coffee shortly after.
-- My maternal grandfather was also a mariner, and a cook.