History of HOP / Archives

A little history of this web site and links to archives.

This poi site was first created using the software package "Front page" by Microsoft®. It went under the url of www.juggling.co.nz as that was a url I had purchased earlier. The site was uploaded and went live on 26th October 1999.

Originally used the built-in button making functions of the "Front page" program.

This poi discussion board went live on 7th February 2000 and was used until 12th December 2000.

It was set up on a microsoft server using the built in "Front page" server discussion board. It did the job quite well in the beginning. And so the site grew to the extend that this type of discussion board was no longer suitable.

The page was getting too long and took ages to download using a slow connection. The search button funnily enough never worked but being created by Microsoft it probably was never meant to.

You can visit the old discussion board however not all the buttons will work as we are now on a Linux server and have no microsoft extension things.

See First poi discussion board archive

I used "paint" to draws out some neat little site characters and some funky navigation buttons in 2000. Unfortunately these took up too much of the screen and pushed the content too far down.

I also made some funny animated GIF's like the talking couple above.

Image taken from the old poi shop

A picture drawn by me (Malcolm Crawshay) depicting our diversity as a group with a common focus (Yes, I am colour blind, and proud of it)

KISS or "keep it simple sweet heart". Made a simpler navigation system with javascript drop down menus. These were guaranteed to be suitable for all browsers. Unfortunately they were not

A little dragon greets those entering the shop in 2003.

The following modules have been archived for historical purposes.

• See previous polls archive
• See previous video gallery

OMG: I can not believe I made this Flash Object. I have hidden it here in the basement just as a fun reminder.

The web site had become very "piece meal" with many modules spread across 4 different servers and operating systems and thus unable to talk to each other. In November of 2003 it was decided to start again from the ground up to develop a new totally integrated web site with one login giving access to all features. A new look with many features as suggested by users and customers.

Drop down menus are finally compatible with most browsers. Six months of hard work and the new site is ready for all to see in May 2004.

Well those drop down menus have become a hassle . They were meant to be all browser compatable however they are not. So we have removed those put in new simple HTML navigation and added in a google search button at the top of the pages because Google is far better than our own search tool. More little improvements here and there to make things run a bit more smoothly and an imporved HELP page. To save on bandwidth we are again hosting more video and picture files on a seperate US server.

We have moved away from the dark grey colours and gone for something a bit more brighter. Site looks more consistant across all areas. Logo man is no-longer so alien looking.

We have gone more curvy. Overhauled the shop to include many new functions and broken down the main page to direct visitors into the three main areas of the site, Community, Lessons, and Shop.