A quick guide to our website

The Round Hill Society website was first created in 2005 by Dave Guest, for several years a member of The Round Hill Society committee and luckily for us a professional website designer.

The site can be authored from anywhere in the world, whether on a PC or Mac by using its inbuilt text editor. This includes tools for adding enhancements, lists, tables, pictures and links. Alternatively, you can enter HTML simply as text into the input area for source code. 

 
DESIGN DRIVEN BY CONTENT REFLECTING OUR INTERESTS
 
After monitoring the user-friendliness and content of the website over four years, Dave redesigned the site including several improvements.
 
Firstly, the sections shown on the left were overhauled to reflect community  interests. You will notice that we've also moved the navigation links to the left-hand side of the page which we think will support more intuitive browsing by visitors to the site. There are even more changes behind the scenes to make it easier for the site administrators (Ted and Dave, well, okay, mainly Ted) to update pages and move them to the relevant sections.
 
 
ARCHIVING OUR PAST...

The archives section does not appear in the site index but enables us to keep old stories and items on the site that are no longer relevant but may be of historical interest.
 
... OVER TWO DECADES OF THE ROUND HILL SOCIETY

At long last, every past issue of the Round Hill Reporter is available to download as a PDF.

Looking for something
The search facility has also been improved. The results show a clear distinction between pages with search terms in the title and those where the terms only match the text and the number of matches is shown too. You can also now search on specific phrases ("included in quotation marks").

If you're not looking for something specific but would like to browse through the site for items of interest, you may be interested in the new site directory which provides a full list of all the pages on the site. 

The growth of social media 

What independent websites do best.

The main advantages is that the content can be organised. The articles appear together and not in a random order and important content will not quickly slip down a list. Skilled users of Facebook can use the search facility to group what they are looking for and coordinators can pin important stuff to the top, but these social media sites are more suited to brief exchanges than articles on wildlife gardening or how to research the local history of your street, which need their own independent pages as well as a site index.

The content of a website can reflect many contributors:

  • Events are often publicised as a result of requests from local residents e.g. The Older People's Council or neighbouring groups such as Friends of Hollingbury and Bursted Woods.
  • EVERY PAST ISSUE OF THE ROUND HILL REPORTER - a newsletter which welcomes local contributions - can be downloaded from this site in PDF form.
  • The MINUTES page on this site provides a summary of discussion at monthly Round Hill Society Committee meetings, to which our ward Councillor or residents with particular concerns are often invited.
  • Our GARDENS & WILDLIFE section is largely made up of articles by different Round Hill residents
  • Our HISTORY section contains articles by different contributors
  • The PLANNING section spreads all too easily, since campaigns (mainly of interest to those immediately affected) can go on for years. The dilemma is whether to archive articles on planning or leave them visible e.g. for residents who may be new to the area or want to know the planning history of a large site such as Richmond House or Hollingdean Depot. The Round Hill Society's constitution allows for a planning component: "To promote high standards of planning and architecture in or affecting the area of benefit."

Keeping fun activities to the fore

While editing this site, 

  • Planning articles can be accessed via the SITE DIRECTORY under the section headed PLANNING, so there is no real need for individual planning campaigns to make the site look cluttered. Numerous articles on the same planning theme can also be made more intelligible through a chronological index. The  index forms a pleasing narrative.
  • The MAIN PLANNING PAGE is organised under 5 clear headings. I have added a page on THE PLANNING PROCESS which is intended to provide helpful links and tips to residents involved with planning applications and/or appeals.

    Even a subject like planning can be made fun. Try this 10 question multiple choice quiz. Well, it's not really fun, but it is one of those subjects which becomes important to know about when it affects your neighbourhood!
This page was last updated by Ted on 28-Oct-2021
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