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.
History
On 10 May 2003, I decided to open a fanlisting for actress Rachael Stirling, as I thought she deserved some recognition. I'd noticed that there weren't really many websites about her, so it was a start.
When I discovered there was quite a lot of interest, I decided to register the domain Rachael-Stirling.com (which I did on 29 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 to make one for Rachael. After months of hard work, Rachael Stirling Online finally opened on 1 November 2004, and received a great response from visitors around the world.
The website continued to grow and on 6 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 and some of the members even put together a list of questions for Rachael, which I then sent to her along with a letter I had written. Remarkably, on 6 May 2006, I received a written response from Rachael herself, which was an amazing experience. She wrote a lovely, long letter containing plenty of praise for the website. It really was incredible! You can view the letter by clicking on the image here.
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 6 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 The design had become tired and outdated too, which didn't help to motivate me.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 7 June 2008.
As of this very minute, there have been 494,375 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 public, 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 26 years old, and I currently reside in East Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. I began designing websites back in 1997 (they were dire!) 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 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 partner Claire, who also helps out with the website sometimes. She is very good at finding new photos and articles, so I often ask her to help me out when I need information about a new project Rachael is working on. We both work in information technology for the National Health Service, and in our free time we enjoy web design, reading, films, home renovation, computer games, theatre, and writing.
Rachael Stirling Online is currently my only website, and certainly the biggest and most time-consuming website I've ever run single-handedly. I really enjoy working on it, though.
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 19 individual plugins:
Look forward to the US release of both films.
