LL-L "Website" 2007.03.02 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 02 March 2007 - Volume 01

=========================================================================

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Website

Dear (quiet) Lowlanders,

As I mentioned yesterday (under "Administrativia"), some things bears to be
announced about our website efforts.

According to our statistics program, all of our web pages are fairly well
and regularly visited, and visitors come from all areas of the world.

Anniversary Presentation (http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/):

Not surprisingly, the anniversary pages receive by far the largest number of
visitors.

I figured out that the sudden increase from Turkey is due to the Turkish
online encyclopedia Ekşi sözlük ("Acid Dictionary,"
http://sozluk.sourtimes.org/) having linked to several of our language
introduction pages (linked to under "Language information" above every
translation). Going by their paths, Turkish visitors oftentimes search for,
say, "Turkish" or "Persian" but then look farther afield and most of the
time end up reading about Lowlands languages. I have observed similar things
among visitors from other countries; they start off with the familar and
then venture out to the lesser known.  This is what I hoped would happen.
It is a good way of "baiting" people and of introducing our field of
interest to them.  However, even those that don't end up in the Lowlands
hopefully walk away with a bit more knowledge about things that are well
beyond their frontyard fences.

On the other hand, I have also noticed that a lot of people specifically
search for information about "exotic" language varieties, namely language
varieties about which there is little or no information elsewhere.  So don't
think varieties like Merchtem Brabantish, Western Flemish of Ostend, Bilzen
Limburgish, Drenthe Low Saxon or Cape Barren English are too arcane to be of
interest! The pages for Garib Afrikaans, Philippine English, British Sign
Language, East Lothian Scots, Stadsfrysk,  Missingsch and Tok Pisin are
among those attracting particular attention, and those in precontemporary
varieties are real hits.  Outside the immediate Lowlands focus, Cornish,
Northern German, Faeroese, Jamtlandish, Gothic, Stadi and Coptic are among
the rather popular ones.  Needless to say that pages with audio files
receive more visitors than those without.  People simple want to hear.
Three more audi files to go to count 100!

A very nice person in Curaçao just provided a lovely translation into
Papiamentu (http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/papiamentu.php).  (Note all
the English and Dutch loanwords!)  She and I are thinking of trying to make
an audio file for it over the phone ...

Gallery (http://lowlands-l.net/gallery/):

Traffic to our gallery is steadily increasing, and there are repeat
customers.  So we need more exhibits.  Yes, audio and video files are
acceptable, as are graphics of works of art.

Please bear in mind that anyone whose works are exhibited in the gallery (as
well as anyone featured in the Anniversary Presentation) is entitled to
"plug" their websites, publications, interest groups, etc.  Lists of
publications of writers and scholars, exhibitions of visual artists and
lists of gigs of performance artists are welcome, as are links to relevant
websites.  (We have a number of such people among us; so this bears pointing
out.)  It is also all right to mention and to link to your businesses, as
long as the actual link does not come across as blatantly commercial.  In
other words, you may mention for whom you work or what own company you own
and at the same time link to their websites.

Main Website (http://lowlands-l.net/):

Our Mathieu (and to a lesser degree I) is working on revamping our main
pages, and it's going to be good.  Obviously a lot of work is involved in
this; so we ask you to bear with us.

As I mentioned yesterday, we are trying to use as many of the submitted
pictures as possible.

So, folks, please make an effort to support us in all of the mentioned
efforts!

Thanks!

Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070302/95fec423/attachment.htm>