About Us
Genesis
This site was produced initially out of a need to list some of the science fiction and fantasy books in our collection at home. It then grew as I increasingly surfed the net for information and got frustrated when there was no single site to go to. Here I'm comparing with IMdB for films.
So I started with my lists. They became a spreadsheet then a full blown database with queries to extract the data. I've previously tried two 'commercial' solutions.
Websites
The first one was the well known PHP-Nuke. Unfortunately the software is too well known. After the site was hijacked. I had to rebuild the site.
The next version used PHP Wiki. I liked the idea of a communal input to the content of the site. Unfortunately something went wrong and I seem to keep getting a number of PHP errors and as the software was quite complex I was not sure where to start to put it right.
My next step was a result of me biting the bullet and producing the site myself. I tried to copy the Wiki layout but with use of the 'latest technology' xhtml, fully Accessible and with full Privacy Policy (see below).
Latest update resulted from a clearing up of the accessibility notes, corrections to accesskey links on each page and correcting errors in xhtml and css validity.
The next incarnation again used software produced by someone else PM Wiki, but a) I can follow it better and b) is so easy to back up and restore in case of infiltration.
Again I had problems with someone defacing the website so I went back to using software produced by myself and building it from the ground up. I did originally make it to look like the previous PmWiki site, but there the resemblence ends. I think following the changes in June 2014 that I may have it OK, with IE 8 and older being diverted to use the original skin and all newer browsers now using a responsive skin.
New / Old
As a lot of my books are shall we say, not recent publications, many are out of print, the listings were mainly older (often now dead) writers and their books and stories - hence classic.
Time and time again I am finding new writers, very talented writers with good stories. Now these are being added as well. Why shouldn't they become classics as well, they deserve it!
About Me
If you are daft enough to want to know anything about me, then see my profile page.