• ASHP History •

Fast Facts
Owner: Mary-Jane
Hosted at: Geocities.com
Layout version: 7
Established: August 1, 2003
Domain: June 30, 2006

Beginning
At first, I didn't have much of an interest in web designing or even the internet for that matter. Thanks to a little present (Dreamweaver) I received from a friend, the portal to web designing frenzy opened up before my eyes @_@ I didn't want to open up a personal site and I was rereading the Anne series so it seemed perfect to create a site where all Anne fans alike could unite. At that time, I hadn't the slightest clue as to creating graphics so I did some doodling at Windows Paint. The program was very basic and did not allow my skills to develop any further than changing file extensions and paint blotches. I eventually purchased Photoshop 7 (in which I'm still grasping on today).

Domain
Honeytart.com is hosted at Geocities and the Anne Shirley Home Page is a subdomain of the website. I decided to buy a domain because I was sick of hosting on multiple servers and the pop up ads were wrecking this page. I didn't want to scare any visitors away from this page because of the ads (even though some still exist due to Bravenet services) so I scrounged what I had in my wallet and bought this domain =) The domain was bought and quickly established on June 30, 2006.

Past Layouts
+ VERSION 1 +

This was obviously my first layout. I had found a cool background that said 'Homepage' on it and my buttons were made from Dreamweaver's customize-it-yourself flash buttons. I eventually ran out of space on my page because every new item (poll, codes etc.) was added towards the bottom. I like the layout, because of its neatness and simplicity. My goal was, and is, to continue expanding the site and be one of the greatest Anne Shirley websites on the internet. But nonetheless, it was time for something new!

+ VERSION 2 +

This layout was what I envisioned, a page that was much more organized: an update box, an easy to navigate bar, a poll to communicate with visitors and music for everyone's enjoyment. It was a pretty vast change to what I had before. However, I had wanted to create a page using iframes so several pages were converted to such a style. Eventually, I created a completely different layout launched on July 1, 2004.

+ VERSION 3 +

This layout, containing two iframes, was an ambitious attempt at something totally different from what I had before, but was an awful frustration! Using a small div sidebar, and having the layout centered, I soon found out the box moved whenever I minimized it or viewed the site at a resolution smaller than 1024x768. With the help of my friend, I was able to position both the div sidebar and layout pictures without them moving and maintain the style I had before by using frames. Also to the frustration of some visitors, they could not find some of the pages, or did not bother to look. I created a searchbar for this purpose. The counter was then moved to the top (it was quite an eyesore). There were more things that I wanted to place on the main page but I was running out of space so I decided to created a new layout. Version 4.0 was released on Christmas Day of 2004.

+ VERSION 4 +

I tried to achieve a completely constrasting kind of layout compared to the last one. I also wanted to include all the special features on the main page so they were easiy accessible. I planned to use iframes again, and ended up with what I used before, with two. I was very pleased with the header and the chosen colours as well, however, as time wore one, I started to realize they were way too dark. And as the site expanded, I ran out of places to insert them onto the main page. After a year of that layout, I decided to make a new layout.

+ VERSION 5 +

The iframes in the last page annoyed me because of the ads that Geocities placed. They replaced small box ads with page-length ads that took up 1/4 of each page. This distorted my page tremendously.
I changed to a layout without any frames, which meant there were less ads to deal with. The sections were organized into boxes on each page that eliminated confusion. Also, the colours were a lot brighter and (I think) easier to read. However, I hadn't used CSS for my pages, so changing any minor details on each page meant I needed to change it on all the hundred pages. I became fed up and just placed the changes on the index page. However, everything became overcrowded as the website continued to expand (and the site loaded slower). I wanted a domain but wanted to learn how to use PHP first. To conceal the disgusting ads, I used numerous website addresses such as stylish.as/anneshirley, atspace.com/anneshirley (they had NO ads) and devoted.to/anneshirley. This did not work out as those other hosts did not allow for quick file transfers and host reliable servers. In the end, I just took out my pocket money to buy a domain. I absolutely love this domain, Honeytart.com. I am however, not sure if I do have enough $$$ to keep supporting this website...
As I do every year, I create a new layout for this website around Christmas. Version 6 is unveiled on January 1, 2007.

Last updated: January 1, 2007
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