The Soap Box                     

Webmasters Notes: Websites and the Internet in my mind are the 21st centuries version of the soap box. It's everyone's (those with access to technology) opportunity to say what they want and it's everyone else's opportunity to listen or walk away.

Website use: You will find here my vehicle passion which is the Grumman Kubvan, lots of free information there and you will also find a section covering the Lehman diesel engines that power our boat. I find that using our website as a vehicle to provide information also attracts others with similar interests and information. Consequently you will find a few other odds and ends on the site that are designed to help me contact others about various other things I am interested in or trying to find information about. I also use this site as a focal point for my day to day activities, this allows me the opportunity to access stuff from a web browser that I need to get to regardless of where I am or whether I have my computer with me or am in an internet cafe or at a friends house. That's why there is a CBC radio button and a Google search on the home page, I like listening to the radio while I work, and often my work at the computer evolves around searching the net.

 A number of things have changed since this site began including use of Microsoft Expression web, which works quite well and is a significant improvement over front page.

Branding: The Dive Cowichan phrase never did catch on and we started using the "Salish Sea" as a destination catch phrase and it's nice to see that that has caught on quite nicely and is now being used by many to indicate the waters far beyond our diving region to include the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

I still don't like the phrase emerald sea but many continue to use it and from time to time I will use it to. Emerald paradise has been coined recently, and I am not sure where that might go, but I did snag the domain name.

Marketing: The internet has become tragically a dumping ground for marketing and it seems to be more and more and difficult to just find information for information's sake. Alas, yes we use it to market our diving but we at least try to give folks information and pictures about the great diving we have in the region. I do believe in free information and I do my best to provide as much as I can with out giving away our business.

Pictures are a good way to spice up a page and so you will find a random assortment of not related pictures here.

Blind Carbon Copy what can I say, why don't computers just do this by default, so that every new person that gets a computer does not get flamed by there friends the first time they send out that great email that ya just have to send to everyone.

Anyway here is a good primer for email etiquette, just in case you don't know.  http://www.putergeek.com/email/

May all your emails be BCC and from someone you know and care about.

So stay tuned and listen or walk away !

Thanks, Peter