But what we are about to do is make some major changes to the way Highlander Web Magazine functions.
In the past you have enjoyed many sections within Highlander' and a lot of these sections contain outdated stories and articles which have never been removed.
Some of these articles are even as old as last year, and on the Web that is ancient, so we are having a very late 'spring clean' if you like.
But that's not all!
Until now we have enjoyed the company of various advertisers, companies, organisations and guest writers - not to mention our regular columnists.
For technical reasons, and in order to speed up Highlander's downloaad time, a lot of these sections are going to move to domains all of there own - the domain being the http:// address that you are used to seeing them in.
What this means is that you will begin to see sections which have always been in Highlander' now appearing out there on there own - at the same time as firmly remaining part of Highlander Web Magazine.
What it also means to most of you is that your book marks might change.
If you have bookmarked a particular section or even an article or story you like - or even if you have your own Web pages and you have linked from within there - you may have to change, or even delete the link.
As you can imagine, we can't go around the web to find all those links, so we ask that you help us out and if you do see a link that is expired, or has changed, either tell the person who owns the page or write to us so that we can take the matter up with them.
Easy. Too many people are getting 'busy' signals and getting frustrated at the time it takes to download a page, and the main reason for this is because Highlander is so HUGE! with so many people in it at one time - it's a case of either make the building bigger or open new buildings, and it's far easier and cost effective to branch out than to re-build.
By separating the sections - deleteing old ones - creating some more comprehensive new sections, and basically cleaning out the old stuff, we can tailor Highlander and create other servers to divert the traffic.
As our Webmaster and maintenance man says - "we're just too popular, too quickly" - "but it's a great problem to have".
Don't go now - there's more.
Yes Highlander is a great success, and indeed the publication receives great praise from home and abroad - not to mention the conventional printed world constantly using it as a reference point for examples of Web publishing.
When Highlander was first conceived in 1994. We were forced into using catalyst-highlands.co.uk as it's domain (URL) because the company that publishes Highlander is called Catalyst (Highlands) Ltd.
In order to make the package complete, Highlander Web Magazine will move to highlanderweb.co.uk - but don't go using it yet as it wont work until our Webmaster is finished with the outline for the actual pages.
Along with the domain (URL) change comes an email change too - and the poeple that you are familiar with at the office will soon have all there own email at highlanderweb.co.uk too.
But you'll know well in advance before anything happens.
Here is a list of the sections that are being deleted;
Here is a list of what is being changed;
Here is what you can expect to find in the future;
EVERYTHING ELSE STAYS THE SAME.
Scot on the Web and The Northern Scot are individual sites maintaned by the Moray and Nairn Newspaper Co. but they are also members of the Highland and Moray Web - as is The Inverness Courier Newspaper published by Courier Publications.
Highlands and Islands Tourist Services, The Romance of Scotland - a new web site soon to join the Web which is a new project by an established company - and of course Highlander Web Magazine. All these titles and Web Sites are in the North of Scotland, and they are designed and planned to bring to the World everything that is Scottish.
Each of these publications could remain individual and maintain some statis within the Wrold Wide Web, but when they meet together, sharing information, services, products and features, they become an important part of not just the Internet in Scotland - but organisation and colaboration needed in order to make the Web work. And in our books that is what the WWW is about.
To us the Web is a source of information, not a battle ground for supremisy, and by presenting Scotland as a united front we can bring to you - the reader - the definative collection of Web sites from Scotland.
So the new changes within Highlander Web Magazine are part of the bigger picture for 1997, and the path to the year 2000.
The best thing about these changes are that they are what you want!
Since 1995 we have been listening to what you have had to say - listening carefully to what you like, and (more imporatantly) what you don't like. The changes are 'reader driven', and when our readership spans over 30 countries, and hundreds of thousands of people, we have to listen to that - we'd be mad not to.
So you can see - it's not a case of "change for change sake" because the managment say so - it's moving forward - improving - growing - moulding and most of all cumunicating with ordinary people from extraordinary places.
And during this month of change - feel free to give us your suggestions and remarks so that we can take them into consideration, simply write to admin@catalyst-highlands.co.uk and subject your email - CHANGES.
We hope you approve of the new changes which will start to take effect over the coming weeks, we know that you will approve of the new easy to use - easy to find features which will be well in place before 1997 comes around.
Happy reading - happy browsing - and for those who are new - Welcome to the North of Scotland!
Highlander Web Magazine
Electronically Published and designed in the Highlands of Scotland
Copyright & Publishing 1995/96 Catalyst (Highlands) Ltd.
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admin@catalyst-highlands.co.uk