History of the LAWP

First of all, I'd like to explain why I chose that particular title. Well, I'm an idiot :) I don't actually worship him, I don't have a shrine in my basement or bedroom or any place that a nutcase would put a shrine. In fact, I wanted something that would stick in someone's head. I just thought it would be different than the generic stuff I was finding all over the internet.

In May of 1997, "The Linden Ashby Worshiping Page" (LAWP Version 1) came online to compensate for the lack of information I could find on Linden Ashby. It started as a very simple website, as my HTML skills were way below novice level. I later realized that my design was seriously flawed, as it didn't have any "fluff" to compensate for the lack of information on the site. Yep, that's right folks! The only graphics I had were in the picture gallery.

That's when I learned to create graphics. The next version of the site (LAWP Version 1.5) had these horrible Menu graphics that faded from red to blue and the Titles were just spruced up fonts with a little bit of shading. I must have been color blind. There wasn't much added to the content (if any), so the site still wasn't worth visiting.

On the other hand, Version 2 wasn't much better. Nasty green and blue graphics and because it was hosted on AOL, they never uploaded or displayed correctly. Man, this didn't last long.

Version 3 - The dreaded, cheesy buttons. I can't believe that I thought it actually looked cool. And the logo was a desperate attempt at filler. But, by this time, I had learned how to compress graphics so that the load time was faster. This is the version that I actually realized that a guest book and a chat room might be a good idea. Okay, I'll admit it, the guest book worked out great - but the chat room had such poor turn out (one faithful person), it wasn't worth keeping. Plus, because the site was hosted on TheGlobe, chatters were booted out every 15 minutes because TheGlobe kept trying to log them out. Annoying...

Welcome to Version 4, not located on any server that specializes in "FREE WEBSITE HOSTING." For the first time, I designed a site for the bandwidth challenged. Now, the load time is even faster than ever. I also redesigned the picture gallery for easier navigation. You'll also notice that the old fan club has been scrapped due to lack of involvement from [ahem]...some of the higher-ups. The new one, which is entitled "Church of Ashby" will hopefully have better luck.

Version 5 was more reliant on CSS, Perl-based scripts, and SSI. As a result, it's easier to update and is much more consistant. Sure, the design itself is bland, but at least I won't have to spend four hours doing an update anymore.

Funny thing about Version 5...it got pushed out by Version 6. And Version 6 is really just a Version 5 with a facelift. I cleaned up the HTML and since we're not worrying about being compatible with really old browsers anymore, it relies heavily on CSS. Plus, I've built a fairly workable CMS to get updates posted as fast as they come in. And just in time for our ten year anniversary!