In...Over My Head ?

I AM MAKING A GENERAL APOLGY! THOUGH APPRECIATING GOOGLE'S BLOG ALLOWANCES, GOOGLE'S 'MODERNIZATION' IS RENDERING POSTS WITHOUT ALLOWANCES FOR PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE (THOUGH THEY SHOW IN THE DRAFT FORM) RE: gocascadia.com - The Community Connector / Hello Hornby Community! / Life consists of many phases. After a life-time of kids, family, relocation and professional adaptation, at 80 now, I have been working on a website concept I feel can make a telling contribution. And, with our present global predicaments, I sense the timing is right to start making that difference. Although you may have seen the earlier version, its format structure was an administrative nightmare. So, arduously, I set out to have the site completely custom built and be acceptably user-friendly and responsive. Now, at long last, I feel sufficiently comfortable to invite you to check it out, and get on board to participate. In its early stages, working on the site’s growth from the Inside-Out, I encourage Lister-Members to help spread the word. I look forward to your input and critique. =================================================================================================== The above was some 2 years ago!...... With the pundits advise of: "You only get one chance!" I am still trying to get it right! However, financially restricted, I went off-shore for more affordable development skills. It has been an up-hill battle. At one stage the site was working well, but fell apart during a new Host's VPS Server change. Neither Developers, nor the new Host took responsibility. So though I have settled on a wonderfully conscientious host (one immense achievement), I continue to struggle getting some interactive site basics to work. This has led me to enter the following in our community's monthly 'First Edition.' =================================================================================================== IN… OVER MY HEAD ? “Life is like a Box of Chocolates!” (Donald Trump!) - “No, Dad, it’s: “Forrest Gump!” … At 82, what’s the difference? Like the Idiot Savant, or is it ‘Idiot Advanced ?,’ all begins to sound the same! Over my stretch of existence, early childhood shaped my voyage and no doubt my personality. After four years of internment, to be allowed to express myself freely felt like a gift. And so I sojourned, taking advantage of opportunities with mostly ill-timed projects, to ultimately become a happily settled, failed entrepreneur here on our idyllic Hornby. To skip to the pertinent here-and-now, as a mostly hands-on active type, my very likely last — yet most challenging — endeavor is the creation of a both local e-commerce, yet community–oriented, socially interactive website. Rather than working and living from the outside in, the focus is on integration and self-sufficiency, by working from the inside out; the radius of reach - ‘as required.’ Successfully experienced giants like Bill Gates and Bill Gross each leave their online legacies: “Online, a little late is too late.” (Gates); ”Timing’ is some 43% of the total effort.” (Gross). Plus, “You only get one chance!” Taking their well-earned advice to heart, while trying to make some contribution to our challenged species, I have been at this effort now for some 10 years, plus. Since ‘the devil is in the details,’ I shall spare you them! … Suffice to say this now elder mostly hands-on right brain, former theatre/ film producer/ director, continues to configure this highly demanding - primarily left-brain online enigma, determined to get at least one project up and running productively! - Especially with the legacy of my young grandchildren in mind. WHAT am I leaving them? Granted, as a niche market effort, gocascadia.com’s, ‘Look & Feel’ is retro! However, qualified online responses have opinioned: ‘Looks’ have never held a site from popularity (Craigslist, Facebook?). Rather: How easily and well does it function? - Is there room for un-interrupted personal expression? - Is there guaranteed privacy, security and safety? As an elder, exposed to the present ‘moderne’ of faint text and small fonts, I definitely seek visual clarity and non-challenging font size. Additionally, with our present covidnundrum, elders are challenged, and looking to find a manageable platform to join in and participate in their twilight existences. As such I am launching: eldersunite.com. This then brings me to this, my community-oriented epistle. I am requesting your subjective inputs. Do you feel I have something useful and worthwhile in gocascadia.com, or am I delusional? As such, I am inviting you to register, browse, and check the site’s workings and amenities, even upload an ad, and then send me your frank opinions. I will much appreciate your input and take your impressions to heart. Please know that all Community/ Neighbourhood gocascadia.com sites are identical clones, fully PHP/Java Script, custom-built, with only their databases being their own. With much appreciation, I await your responses. Sincerely, Jan Steen