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Once upon a time, in fact two decades ago, two young web-savvy designers named Rick Jones and Mike Potts built a website. That website was DoverWeb, which also spawned the original DoverForum, both of which were drenched in healthy local spirit and digital ambition. DoverWeb has now long gone, swallowed into the deep digital graveyard of the dark web, perhaps only existing on crusty old archive servers waiting to be discovered by future digital historians. But it was a grand website in its day, packed with local businesses (many of which had their very first exposure on the internet because of DoverWeb), community pages, tourist info, and of course our very cool Time Machine. It also featured a big, comprehensive virtual tour of Dover, including the Castle, ferry trips, and almost every interesting stopping point in the town. Basically, this virtual tour was Google Street View, approx 7 years before Google thought of it. Both the Time Machine and Virtual Tour are now dead, with barely a server online that is capable of operating such prehistoric software.
Once the Boland advertising team became involved, led by PaulB, DoverWeb started to make a bit of cash which allowed for bigger servers and better features. Paul, Colette and Barry were instrumental in the progress of the "business end" of DoverWeb. The forum expanded, a live chat app was built, on which local luminaries would have live conversations with the community, and DoverWeb formed a tight bond with the Dover Express. Many news stories that ran in the Dover Express actually broke on DoverForum. DoverWeb got involved in a few local controversies, including a campaign to stop a pointless ten grand clock being purchased for one of the local streets. Nobody wanted it, DoverWeb helped stop it. The site may have run on advanced (at the time) technical prowess but the community was at the beating heart of the whole operation. I expect some of you may still remember the legendary parties that DoverWeb used to run, often attended by all manner of local dignitaries and trouble makers. Great days.
It was a monumental portal in its day, even though now it all seems so quaint and fanciful. Today, of course, corporate social media has taken grip of all the digital "town squares", twisted with divisive politics and out-of-control censorship and flame wars, an ugly picture of online life. DoverForum was such a simple creature by comparison. These days most Dovorians tend to vent their spleen on Facebook's Dover for Disgruntled Dovorians group, which seems to be the natural ascendant of the old DoverForum. Yet here I am, 20 years on, in the midst of the giant Silicon Valley corporate takeover of digital free speech, typing a posting on DoverForum. Who would have thought it? Who would have ever believed a forum - ANY forum - would survive 20 years? Given the low life expectancy of most small scale digital property on the fast moving networks, that is one hell of an achievement.
DoverWeb is dead. DoverForum is still alive. Very alive. It has changed beyond all recognition, but it's heart is still beating.
Congratulations on reaching 20 years old.
- Rick
One of the original architects of DoverWeb / DoverForum
