Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Aug 13, 2007

Happy Birthday, Markeroni

My other website, Markeroni, is four years old today.

The site has come a long way since then. It started off life as a blocky, ugly HTML design with garish, I-have-no-sense-of-what-fits-together colors; luckily, my graphic designer friend introduced me to the concept of white space and colors-that-do-fit-together. In the beginning there were no maps, no search, and the Catalog entries had to be added by hand.

I got over that real fast. I find that my programming skills, haphazard as they are, adjust rapidly to take care of things like that.

Most fun of all, though, has been the journey. It’s not just discovering what I can do. It’s the people, and the places they visit. It’s the sense of satisfaction when a bug gets squashed or a member says “thank you.” The relief and delight that people are willing to volunteer with the data entry (I’d have quit years ago without the volunteers.) The smile when a member gets their first kudos star.

It’s everything. I get a kick out of runing Markeroni every day because every day I learn something new.

It’s not perfect–nope. There is plenty of room for it to change, grow, improve. But I’m still happy that it’s four. I still imagine that it will become five.

For those who have no idea what I’m on about, Markeroni is a site which provides information about historical markers and historic landmarks so that you can find them. Once you have found them, you can come back to the site to log them and share the data with others. I guess it’s a bit like a wiki in that regard. And a treasure hunt. And a romp through the countryside with a stuffed penguin.

It’s deliberately kept light-hearted and tongue in cheek. Nowhere else can you wield monkeys and pandas and other mascots in public without getting funny looks.

Oh…did you just give me a funny look?

Come visit. We have a blog, too. Oh and finally, since this is Tell Everyone About Markeroni Month, if you’re so inclined, perhaps you could tell everyone about Markeroni. :)

(Blogging works, too.)