Great to have Shipspotting back, but I think it would be nice if Shipspotting could start sending out an email/newsletter with some information to all members when something major happens to the site.
First of all, many thanks to the techie team for the hard work during these days of blackout and hardship. Certainly far from being an easy task to keep the site up and running again, I am sure. Please receive my sincerest sympathy and appreciation for all you efforts.
Certainly having the SS website down has been hard to endure on a daily basis, when one is accustomed to using it as a sounding board, and as a source of pleasure and motivation to tackle the chores of daily life.
Regarding the quoted sentence above, I think it raises an interesting perspective, and maybe it provides some food for thought. Maybe in the future SS should consider diversifying a little bit, and perhaps use an alternate channel for passing along key messages to members at large, and to its many followers from around the world. And, at the same time, raise interest on its institutional services, and promote their uniqueness.
So, and this is only a suggestion, why not opening up an institutional page on a social network (Facebook, for instance), where key messages could be conveyed in alternative, and in parallel, to the service provided by the database (i.e., the main institutional SS website we all know about). Wouldn't it be an attention catcher and a magnet to the main website, drawing new publics to it?
Here I leave this suggestion for the consideration of the SS Administration.
Best regards,
(and quoting Kurt Vonnegut in the best-seller "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "...and thanks for all the fish!")
Jose
(jdap)