11 years ago I discovered RouteGadget, developed by Jarkko Ryyppö from Finland, and installed it on the EckO and Southdowns websites. People started asking me how they could do the same for their club, but many lacked the technical skills or the access to their server. So 10 years ago I launched RouteGadget UK as an option for those clubs who needed help setting it up.
Within a few years a big chunk of British orienteering clubs had an account. Initially I asked for a donation of £20 year to cover the hosting costs. When the number of clubs got to about 60 the time it took sending out contribution requests and then chasing up non payment and bounced emails etc. I decided that it wasn't a good use of my time and suspended asking for contributions.
I had thought that I would find a better and less time consuming way to fund the costs, but never did. At the same time I was being asked to build more and more club websites, so the income and the server infrastructure needed for those was was used to subsidise RG UK.
In 2013 Simon Errington released his version of RG that wasn't dependant on Java, but used javascript instead. He offered to install it on RG UK and get all the existing account switched over to use it and then continued developing it.
The last 3 years have seen Simon taking on more and more of the support queries, to the extent that I feel a bit surplus to requirements. This is good though, as it means I've been able to concentrate on building club websites and hopefully improving the image of orienteering across the country.
So recently I asked if Simon would like to be the official owner of RG UK, as it seems wrong for me to be recognised as "Mr.RouteGadget" when he is doing all the work and development. He agreed, and as of 10pm on the 23rd the site is now in his control. Nothing should be lost in this transition, all those routes will still be there in the morning.
I'd like to thank Simon for developing RG2 at a time when it looked like the RouteGadget UK and all the routes/maps would be lost due to all the Java issues.
RouteGadget UK under new management
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Re: RouteGadget UK under new management
Firstly I need to thank Paul on behalf of the whole UK orienteering community for what he has set up. I was one of the early adopters back in 2006 when I set up the HH routegadget site for a night event at Whippendell. The combined forces of Routegadget UK now has over 7000 events with nearly 150,000 drawn routes. Much of this comes from Paul's vision of seeing the potential and making it easy for people to use.
In 2013 as it became apparent that Java was not a viable way forward I somewhow ended up in discussions with Paul and he somehow convinced me at having a go at a new version. I put together a prototype, and the rest is history.
As far as the transfer of ownership is concerned, all that has happened is that Routegadget UK is now running on a new server, and the ownership of the domain name has transferred from Paul to me. The main message is that nothing should really have changed as far as the user is concerned.
You may be affected if you are the manager of one of the Routegadget UK club sites, or have been asked to set up a new event:
Please contact me if either of these applies to you, or if there are any other problems that arise.
In 2013 as it became apparent that Java was not a viable way forward I somewhow ended up in discussions with Paul and he somehow convinced me at having a go at a new version. I put together a prototype, and the rest is history.
As far as the transfer of ownership is concerned, all that has happened is that Routegadget UK is now running on a new server, and the ownership of the domain name has transferred from Paul to me. The main message is that nothing should really have changed as far as the user is concerned.
You may be affected if you are the manager of one of the Routegadget UK club sites, or have been asked to set up a new event:
- If you want to use FTP then I will need to set up a new account for you. I didn't fancy setting up 100 FTP accounts one at a time, of which 90+ probably won't be used.
- I have completely removed all of the Java versions. Very few people were using these, but there are still one or two clubs who are using the Java manager. I'd much prefer you to move to the RG2 manager. I can reset your user account password if needed.
Please contact me if either of these applies to you, or if there are any other problems that arise.
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Simon E - green
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Re: RouteGadget UK under new management
Thanks both. Routegadget has definitely enhanced my orienteering experience over the years!
Orienteering - its no walk in the park
- andypat
- god
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Re: RouteGadget UK under new management
Yes, thanks to you both for an excellent service to orienteering.
To oblivion and beyond....
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buzz - addict
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