We've come along way in a very short space of time. With the
club's official internet site being launched In the 'Net looks
back at the birth of HUFC on the 'net and looks ahead to what the future
holds.
The autumn of 1995 is as far back as my memories of any HUFC presence
on the Internet go. The site in question belonged to a
certain Mr Arrundale. Son of Radio Cleveland HUFC reported Brain Arrundale.
In the winter of 1995 the first edition of In the 'Net joined
Stephen's site as the early web presence of HUFC started to take shape.
ITN was then a one page news bulletin updated every other day with anything
and everything. The audience was minimal but a site was born. Access to the
Internet was limited to university students and staff, and employees of
a handful of forward thinking companies. Soon the web presence had
doubled with the introduction of Frode Henanger's Pools Statistic Web Site and
The Flying Pig Homepage which in its early days seemed to be as much about Ben's
musical tastes as HUFC information. With Stephens pioneering site now
dormant as he moved into a sandwich course year in industry the three
sites which, were to become closely connected continued to grown and
develop. Looking back at old copies of ITN links pages, Poolie Paradise
seemed to be the next to set up. David Sewell launched the site and
after a few different designs turned his attentions to the Corrs!!
HUFC to the Corrs! answers on a postcard.
'Another unofficial Hartlepool United site' and Virtual Victoria
Park both setup around the same time and looked to have authors with
a drive to make them work. Both sites are still linked from the current
ITN links page, although they haven't been updated for a while now, which
also goes for 'Another HUFC site'. Anthony Matsis took the job of being
the Hartlepool from the Terrace journalist and has worked hard to make
the site work. Anthony is one of three HUFC web sites owners who live
outside the UK. The Evening Gazette joined the fray with their HUFC
page which, had the benefit of a news feed straight from the Gazette
journalists, the site though never seemed particularly upto date from
day one. After what seemed like an age, the Hartlepool Mail finally started
adding content to their website. The sport section was set to become on
of the first port of call for Pools fans wanting the latest news from
Victoria Park.
Which brings us to the present day. Two news sites which have added to the
growing HUFC net presence are 'Inside Hartlepool from a Distance'
and 'Left hand down a bit'. The former is a site which made an instant
impact. Original written in Swedish, the site author decided it was
time to produce an English version. Lars with the aid of his html assistant
Sonny must spends hours keeping his site upto date with news not
only on HUFC but also the rest of the third division. Again like
Frode and Anthony, Lars and Sonny are based outside the UK, this time
in Sweden, devotion to the cause is undeniable. 'Left hand down a bit'
features the excellent cartoons of Elmo which feature strongly in the
HUFC fanzine Monkey Business and now have their own internet home.
The arrival of the official HUFC site will only add to the already
impressive line up of HUFC sites on the net. However if the site is to
be taken seriously a fair bit of resource will need to be set aside to
maintain and constantly improve the site as the competition for the
attentions of Pools fans on the net is strong. The official site has
of course one or two ace cards which can be played. E-commerce for the
club shop, exclusive news and interviews. The internet is a powerful
tool which harnessed correctly could provide much needed revenue and
public interest in HUFC.
Finally then the future. Well for ITN the next eight months at least
will see the site around in one shape or form, beyond that your guess is
as good as mine. The close ties with both Ballistic (aka the Flying Pig site)
and Frode's Pools Stats site will continue to be forged. The introduction of the
joint message board has created a focus for both exiled and local fans to
air their thoughts and frustrations. The joint mailing list is a lot
quieter as the message board has just about killed off any need for a
mailing list as more and more people are accessing the web as well as email.
The role of the HUFC fans website has certainly changed over the years. Once
a news delivery service, now the sites have to look at other areas as
newspapers bring the news straight to the connected public. While
there's a football team in Hartlepool, they'll be a web presence for
that team. "Where ever you go, I will follow".
