Evening All
A bit of background
I've been running this website for over six years now and it has been fascinating to receive feedback from the many people who come to the site to review the weather conditions, weather forecasts, tide information, wave information and live images of different aspects of the Bay that are provided from the site 24 x 7.
While the weather station is the primary purpose of the site, the most popular resource is undoubtedly the webcam. People view the webcam for many reasons, whether it be to assess the queuing time for their boats to be hauled out at the slipway, watch the RNLI team launch or conduct their exercises, see if the surf is big enough to be fun enough to make it worthwhile, check the status of the racing flags at the flagstaff to see if the sailing is taking place or simply to look at the beautiful views of a place that Vanessa, our family and I are fortunate enough to call home.
One of the statistics that surprised me the most was when the site received in excess of one million hits between its launch in 2018 and early 2022. This pretty well doubled by the end of 2023 and so far in 2024, the site has received c.60,000 hits from c.10,000 users.
Some will have noticed that a few upgrades have been made to the site over the past year or so.
First, the weather station that posts to the home page does so every minute. Weather data is also posted to Weather Underground and the Met Office's WOW site very minute or so. This all contributes to various programmes studying trends in weather patterns, etc.. Interestingly, over the years, Ynys Môn Council has on occasion been in contact to request weather data for specific periods of time to assist with environmental health research they were conducting.
Second, the camera has been replaced in the past month because the old one started to become unreliable after having been outside in the elements for around five years!
So what next?
The site is run as a hobby and, despite receiving several offers of financial support over the years, I intend to continue to operate the site as it is for the foreseeable future, without relying upon sponsorship of advertising. I find many sites that open up to advertising become cluttered and impossible to use.
However, after some reflection, I thought it would be helpful to set up a new section of the site for substantive pieces of information to be shared between those who live here and those who would like to find out more about what to do when they come to visit.
It's early days, but I am thinking that it may be a useful addition to the site to include information about favourite walks, newsworthy items, forthcoming events, historical events, places to visit and information that is of general interest, by way of a journal (sort of a blog really) to which people may contribute.
It may not fly but I'm happy to give it a go to see if it gets legs. We can develop this section of the site as we go along and if it doesn't work, I'll simply switch it off.
How can you help?
Please feel free to pen a note that you think would be of interest (provide photos too if you have them) and, assuming the content is appropriate, I'll be to happy to work with you to edit your submission to incorporate it into the site.
Some rules of the road
These are quite simple really. Any submissions need to be:
- Relevant to Trearddur Bay and/or Ynys Môn
- Informative and appropriate for family audiences
- Not advertising, although some sensitive advertorial content is acceptable
- Well-written and supported by photographs (that are not subject to copyright or royalties)
So that's it for now. The first post to the site is now complete.
All submissions should be sent to: contact@trearddurbay.org
Best wishes
Richard