The new HMC website is finally up and running with (hopefully) all the problems and bugs fixed and all the software working including a new design to match the new Oracle. It is now configured in a way that makes it really easy for me to up-date it with the latest Missed a Meeting reports, Photos, Articles and Links. This will be your first stop to check on all the new HMC news and reports, in-between print versions of the Oracle.

Let me take you on a quick tour of the new site, which contains some static pages that won’t change very often, if at all. The History page gives visitors a detailed history of Hull Magicians’ Circle. The Contact page will be the main point for non-members who may want to join HMC or are interested in visiting for lectures; if any members want their e-mail address listing on this page, to allow visitors to contact them, let me know. The addresses on this page and throughout the site are protected from robots that harvest sites for addresses to use for SPAM. There is a list of the present committee and an on-line Syllabus that contains links to the meeting reports.

The Article Synopsis gives a brief introduction and background to all the different sections. The Links page features links to members’ pages, so if you want to see your page listed here, and I haven’t done it yet, let me know!

The new Photo Gallery gives us an easy way to categorise images as you can browse through them by meeting date or article title. You will be presented by thumbnail images, to save download time, and you can then click on them to see the big image, and leave any comments if you wish.

To give you a quick view behind the scenes, and to get slightly technical, the content itself is stored in a database on the web server. This means that the main page you see is generated in real-time every time you load the page, and it pulls the latest content from the database. This system will help to ensure that the site will always contain the latest content. I am using what is called a content management system to help me run the site.

I believe we are possibly the only magic club site in the UK currently utilising such a method.

The design of the site itself uses some of the newest web technologies, to make it up-to-date and compatible with most web browsers and computer systems, but if for some reason you have problems viewing the site then please let me know.

Lastly let me quickly mention the Members Only section. By the time you read this, if you have given me your e-mail address you should have received an invitation to join the HMC Yahoo! Group, which I will be using to power the Members Only section. The reason I have chosen to do it like this is for ease of use. It means I don’t have to write scripts to look after logins and message and file posting, database searching, calendars etc., all of which Yahoo! offer as part of their group facilities. Simply follow the join link in the invitational e-mail or go to the ‘members only’ link on the website, and sign up either by following the first link to the Yahoo! site or entering an e-mail address. If you don’t have one already may I suggest you obtain a Yahoo! sign-in ID.

It’s easy - go to the main groups site (http://groups.yahoo.com) and use the ‘click here to register’ link and fill in the simple form to obtain your ID. You can then login to the main HMC group site (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hullmc) and view/post messages, see any files that have been uploaded and search the database amongst other things. You can also post messages using e-mail after you have signed up to the group. Sending a message to hullmc@yahoogroups.com will go to all members that have signed up to the list. If you have any questions regarding this process or the new design, please contact me.