About This Website

This section is to give you a brief glimpse into the inner workings of this website and to learn a little about its history, its purpose, and the people and programs behind it.

So is this Rachael Stirling's official website, or what?

At this moment in time, it's a bit of a mixture of yes, no, sort of, and possibly. It started off as simply a fan website, however in 2006 I became aware that Rachael knew about it. A few years ago, she used it as a work portfolio to get a green card to work in the USA. I have since met and spoken to her about the website, and found that she has unofficially claimed it as her own, which she is quite welcome to do.

Although Rachael does not edit or moderate the website (she doesn't really "do" the internet, truth be told), she loves it and told me recently that every time she goes online, she gets scared in case it isn't here anymore. She needn't worry as it's going nowhere.

In 2010, Rachael and I joined forces to promote her charity auction and we at Rachael Stirling Online organised and coordinated the fund-raising effort officially on behalf of, and in conjunction with, Rachael Stirling herself.

There are some changes in the works regarding all of this "unofficial" vs. "official" lark, so please keep an eye on the news section.

Here are a couple of quotes from Rachael about the website:

I have been aware of the web site for some time now. My manager in LA alerted me to it, and I was gob-smacked by the depth and attention to detail contained therein. It is amazing, and I am so grateful to you all for it. (Being a techno-retard myself.) — Rachael Stirling, May 2006

The website is immaculate and so well informed. You are indeed a loyal woman, and I am so grateful. — Rachael Stirling, June 2010

History

On 10th May 2003, I opened a fanlisting (basically just a list of fans) for actress Rachael Stirling, as I thought she deserved some recognition. There were no websites about her whatsoever.

When I discovered there was quite a lot of interest, I decided to register the domain Rachael-Stirling.com (which I did on 29th January 2004) with the aim of building an extensive website around the fanlisting. Many other actors have numerous "fan sites" dedicated to them, so it made sense for her to have one too. After months of hard work, Rachael Stirling Online finally opened on 1st November 2004, and received a great response from visitors around the world.

The website continued to grow and on 6th February 2006, the message board opened, which allowed visitors to gather together and discuss Rachael's career in more depth. It was a great success.

By now the website was doing well on its own without the additional traffic provided by links from The Fanlistings Network, so I decided to close the fanlisting section on 6th October 2006. This was mainly because of all of the spam members it was receiving, but also because I no longer thought it necessary.

Due to time constraints, caused mainly by my work commitments and busy personal life, the website suffered during 2007 and was updated infrequently. There was a lot wrong with the scripts I was using (which I had, for the most part, put together myself!) and it became tiresome to make updates. The design had become tired and outdated too, which didn't help to motivate me.

So in early 2008 I decided to re-vamp the website from the ground up, starting afresh with a brand new installation of WordPress (which had advanced a great deal since I had first installed it!) and a thorough re-working of all of the content. It took several months to get everything in order, but I finally unveiled the new version of the website in the early hours of 7th June 2008.

As of November 2010, I am updating the website on a regular basis and really enjoying it.

As of this very minute, there have been 1,880,456 individual visits to this website!

Past Designs

Here is a showcase of the past designs of this website. Not all of these designs made it onto the public website, so you can see that a few of them are unfinished, but I thought it would be nice to display them here anyway so you can see the transformations the website has made (even behind the scenes).

About Me

My name is Bonnie, I'm 29 years old, and I currently reside in East Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. I began designing websites back in 1997 (they were hideously bad) and have gradually learnt more and more about XHTML, CSS, PHP and web standards. I try to ensure that all of my websites are accessible to all and have valid, semantic mark-up. I would love to spend some time learning more, but at the moment I just practise as and when I'm working on a project, and learn as I'm going along.

I live with my civil partner Claire, who also helps out with the website sometimes. She is very good at fiddly little graphics, which is not my strength. (She created some of the link graphics you see in the right hand column, for the message board and letters from Rachael.) She is also great to bounce ideas off and can often help with troubleshooting. We both work in information technology for the National Health Service, and in our free time we enjoy theatre, photography, web design, reading, genealogy, films, spending time with friends and family, going out to restaurants, socialising, and writing.

Rachael Stirling Online is currently my only fully-fledged website, and certainly the biggest and most time-consuming website I've ever run single-handedly. I really enjoy working on it, though, and it's very important to me. I intend to keep it going, even during quiet spells in Rachael's career.

Credits

When working on this website, I make constant use of some fantastic software and sites, which make the whole website design and maintenance process run smoothly. I couldn't have managed to make this website without the help of the following resources. If you hover over each individual link, you'll be able to see exactly how each website, piece of software or plugin helped me.

Websites

There are certain websites which have helped, and continue to help, with the design and maintenance of this website. They are as follows:

Software

All of this software is used either on my own PC, or on the server where the website is hosted. All of these applications have been of great help to me:

Plugins

One of the best things about using WordPress as a web publishing platform is that it's highly customisable. At present, this website is making use of 35 individual plugins: 35 active and 0 inactive.

Of course, this site would be nothing without all of the fantastic photographs, screencaps, media clips and articles. I try to give credit where credit is due, and no copyright infringement is ever intended, though I appreciate this is a tricky area when it comes to fan websites. I am just trying to get the word out there to promote Rachael's work and to entertain her fans, new and old alike. I make no profit from running this website — quite the opposite, in fact.

Affiliates

This website is affiliated with a number of other fan websites dedicated to actors, actresses and other things with some connection to Rachael Stirling. These are mainly websites for her various co-stars. If you run a fan website for somebody or something which relates to Rachael Stirling in some way, please contact me if you would like to become affiliates.

If we do become affiliates, please reciprocate by adding a link to Rachael Stirling Online somewhere on your site. You can add a text link, or one of the link back buttons below.