So you want to build an Olympics web page?
Some unsolicited advice....
[July 15, '00]

I know, all the years of preparations, construction muckups, and petty squabbling may have dampened your enthusiasm for the Games. It probably seems like $3 gazillion worth of construction is happening, all on your route from home to work. And everyone you know is planning on making a killing on the Games, except for you.

It happens. It will pass. Sometime between when they start running the torch all over the local area and the Opening Ceremonies, you'll find yourself thinking, "%@$?!, they're here!" For me, it was the moment the US Air Force Thunderbirds flew over my home in formation on their way to a rehearsal flyover the stadium, the night before the Opening Ceremonies. It was truly an "oh %@$?!" moment.

But if you're even toying with the idea of putting an Olympic diary of sorts online, it will be too late to harness that sudden enthusiasm. Thus, this page, as an effort to help get you jump started, and hopefully a little better prepared than I was in 1996.

Obviously, things will be much different in the 2000 Olympics, especially technologically. And my 1996 Olympics site is certainly no textbook example, it's a dated-looking study in how to manage an unexpectedly rapid growing monster over the course of three weeks. You don't want to do it that way. So on your way to creating your own unique online Olympic presence, take what you can use from the following advice, and maybe your monster will be more manageable.

• You're already late! - I know, you think you've got plenty of time, but you should have a page up already. Why? To feed the spiders and robots. You know, the search engines. If nothing else, plut together a page explaining what's coming, and detail your plans. Mention the places and events you plan to attend by their specific names; "In the lottery, I got tickets for 400 meter relay at the 'Insert-Name-Here' Stadium." Ideally, get out and get some pictures, even if it's just of final construction projects. Whatever you come up with, submit it to the search engines as soon as possible. At this writing (July 15), you'd have plenty of time to get indexed by the major search engines, and therefore have a good chence of showing up when people search for "400 meter relay" during the Games themselves.
• Pre-build your site - Regardless of your level of knowledge when it comes to building web pages, you will find it helpful to pre-build some form of templates to plug in your actual content from the Games as you create it. During the Games, you will be tired, and glad you did. Also give some thought to your site structure, page naming, and image organization. Once people start linking your pages, you won't want to be moving or renaming them. And as far as pre-planning some structure and organization, you don't want to end up with what I did; one huge directory with over 200 files totaling over 3 MB. At least separate your images and your HTML files, and you might give some thought to creating directories for each day or event or whatever "categories" fit your site.
• Hate the HTML Hassle? - If you're not particularly into building an entire site with all the minutia that entails, get set up with one of the free web-based tools like blogger.com. It can make the task of daily entries just a matter of a couple of clicks, and the typing of the entries themselves. In the case of Blogger, it will update your pre-existing "diary" with the new entry, and upload the revised file to your server, auto-magically!
• Just because you build it, doesn't mean that they will come - If you want people to see your site, getting it indexed in the search engines is just a start, though an important one. But you should also consider trying to foster link exchanges with other Olympic related sites, or any other type of link that might make it easier for people to find you. For me, postings in the appropriate Usenet newsgroups generated traffic in more than one way. In addition to visits from the readers of those newsgroups, I got enough notice by the right eyes to end up with a small blurb in USA Today, and later other similar articles. But the key is to pick the appropriate newsgroups. Don't spam newsgroups where your post is off topic, as that will bring you more havoc than traffic. In 1996, I posted in rec.sport.olympics, a couple of newgroups local to Atlanta, and one of the rec.photo.* newsgroups. You'll have to pick which newsgroups are appropriate for your site, but it's a method I highly recommend.
• Got Bandwidth? - If you will be placing your site within your own domain, this probably isn't an issue. But if you have a dial up account that provides some web space, you probably have some form of bandwidth limitation. If too many visitors hit your pages loaded with too many pictures, at some point your provider may say, "we've served XXX megabytes from your web space, and that's your limit for this month." Your site could go dark. It may not be an issue for you, but it almost happened to me in 1996. Just to be sure, contact your provider or web host, and make certain you understand their terms and limits on bandwidth.
• Train. I'm serious - It is highly likely you're going to have some long days. Weeks of them. Much of your time will be spent walking in the elements, or waiting in interminable lines. Stamina. You'll need buckets full. At the very least, walk a few miles (or kilometers, if miles are unavailable) every couple of days in the weeks leading up to the Games. You'll be glad you did.
• Film versus Digital - This is where technology has made a leap since 1996. Shooting digitally could be done back then, but was a far more expensive proposition than it is today, for less resolution. Besides, I wasn't yet a rabid web convert, and I wanted to have my slides to keep for ever and ever. Well, scanning them to put on the site took for ever and ever as well, delaying the process of getting pages online by 24 hours. Today, I'd go out and beg, buy, or rent a Nikon Coolpix 990, and have that day's pics online that night. And I'd be content with the resolution and digital permanance in a way I wasn't in 1996. But allow the devil on my shoulder to add, there are are advantages to shooting film sometimes. Color negative film gives you a wider latitude for exposure errors and lighting situations (widely varying at different events), and with the addition of a film scanner half the price of the Coolpix 990, you can then scan small portions of the frame to make them bigger, for those events where your seats are not, um, ideal.
• The Rings - You know the ones I'm talking about. Leave them alone. Posting photos of public renderings of the Olympic rings is fine, but don't create a web graphic of the rings to use on your page. You could draw the attention of some bored Olympic lawyer who has nothing better to do than say cease and desist. It ain't worth it.
• Keep it non-profit - The language may vary, but I'm sure the back of your ticket to an Olympic event will contain verbage similar to what I found on mine, in very tiny print: "Images of the Olympic Games obtained by Spectators with cameras, video, and/or audio devices or other means cannot be used for broadcast, publication, or any commercial purposes under any circumstances." You can't sell the pictures. In my opinion, you can't even place them on a page that has ads. And a case could even be made that reproducing images of the Olympics on an ad-free web page wouldn't be legal (broadcast? publication? Could be a web page...). In any case, while you want to attract attention to your site, make sure it's the right kind of attention. While I've received no contact from officials about my site, I also haven't been waving a red flag by offering images for sale on line, or cramming the pages with banner ads.
• People; The Chance Of A Lifetime - Sure, you want to have photos and stories about the events and places of the 2000 Games. But don't miss out on the People Watching event of a lifetime! Whether you just observe, take pictures, chat with them, or hear their whole life story, it's the people who will enrich your experience, and lead you to unexpected places.

I hope this has at the very least gotten your brain churning on the idea of creating a site. If you do, I'd love to hear about it, and in fact, will gladly provide a link to any such sites.