Community websites always seem to fall into two categories – dire, and absolutely dire.
Badly designed, badly laid out, prepared in Word or a really old version of Frontpage, and often just templates of each other aimed to give the creators more of the link juice for the sites they want to promote. In my time and through various other roles I’ve had the misfortune of viewing quite a few bad ones. And those that are decent looking usually are either out of date or lack functionality, or both.
It’s rare to come across one that is very well presented and highly functional. But I’ve managed it! Taking the theme from my last post, I’ve stuck fairly close to home and come across a gem.
Spilsby Online
Spilsby Online covers the town of Spilsby in Lincolnshire with the latest Spilsby news, views (through the Spilsby forums and user blogs) and information on Spilsby local businesses and services, and local clubs, groups and societies. The site is very well laid out (W3C compliant too!!!, a real rarity in community circles!), informative and appears to cover a wide variety of local topics.
The site is still awaiting launch but that doesn’t matter as everything seems to be working well and we found no broken links (a curse of community websites). No Google Ads or whatever, which is always a bonus!
Only one negative about the site, and that it doesn’t cover where I live (Lincoln) because that would have been the icing on the cake!
Link: Spilsby Online