Important Announcement about Pools Online

By Albatross
February 27 2006

Pools Online has been growing steadily over the last 4 years, but the time has now come for me to make an important announcement about my involvement with the site.

Way back in the mists of time - well, it was actually April 2002 - someone decided to set up a new Unofficial Hartlepool United Website. He called it Pools Online, and the first article appeared on the site on April 7th - a report of our win over Halifax that kept alive our chances of making the playoffs.

That person was not me. The founder of the site went by the name of Simian. However, he went looking for recruits to write for the site, and fool that I am in the summer of 2002 I offered my services. Initially it was a joint effort, but as my enthusiasm grew Simian took more of a back seat before eventually vanishing - his last contribution being a report on the 5-0 LDV hammering at Tranmere.

Since then, the site has changed out of all proportion. Sport Network have upgraded their design, helped out by producing some very smart-looking Site Logos, and the popularity of the site has gone through the roof. When I started contributing to the site in July 2002, it hit the heady total of 2250 page views for the month; January 2006 saw a new record for the site when more than 4700 visitors recorded just short of 54,000 views for the month. Even more remarkably, about 85% of those hits were on the site content rather than the Message Board - reversing the trend of the vast majority of fan-run sites.

All good things come to an end however, and this season will be the last that I will run Pools Online. That doesn't necessarily mean the end of the site - I would be highly delighted to hear from anyone with an interest in running or at least contributing to the site.

Let me first of all say that I've had a lot of fun running this site for the last three and a half years, and this decision is one that is entirely my own without pressure from any person or any organisation. Quite simply, my life has changed dramatically since I took on this site and it's becoming increasingly harder to find the time to do it justice. When I started helping out, I was living on my own and had just started going out with someone; now, I'm married with a young son, have more responsibilites at work, and a part-time College Course to fit in too. There are likely to be even more changes in the future, and trying to find the time to keep the site up to date is becoming increasingly difficult. My priorities are different, and something's got to give - unfortunately Pools Online is the logical choice for that something. I can carry on until the Summer, but after that it will be up to others to run this site.

I will always remain a Poolie, and will still be eagerly looking at the fixture list and planning trips to games. I have no intention of hanging up my internet connection either - I'll still be looking around the boards and sites. Who knows, if the future permits I may even look at another project - I'm intrigued by the idea of creating a Hartlepool United Blog for example - but it would almost certainly have to be at a lower level.

Once the season's over I'll make a proper farewell to the site - but in the meantime, if you're interested in running Pools Online in the future send me an email by clicking here, or directly to poolsonline at albatross dot me dot uk, or leave a note on the Message Board.

In the meantime, I'd like to express my thanks to Sport Network for providing the means to run the site, Poolie Kev for a series of entertaining articles this season, and all who have visited to help this become one of the most-viewed HUFC sites around. Let's all hope that Pools will now do the business on the pitch for the rest of the season, allowing me to leave the site with the team in a higher division than when I started!