How long have you had this website? -Submitted by Carissa Scroggins

Now here's a question I really enjoy answering because it doesn't involve any research! In regards to The Odyssey Scoop's existence, the website began on December 22, 2000. For days, maybe even weeks, I was conjuring up ideas and a desire to start some sort of website on the net. I didn't yet have a topic for the website. Would it be a website about me? A website about me with random stuff? This was around the beginning of December if I remember right. Finally, I decided upon a website topic I could work on: The Kisses (If you don't remember what the Kisses are, it is a small production company my sister, cousin, and I created about "The Love and...CHRONICLES," a series of dramas featuring Jon Dinkleberry and Marsha Jonworthy - more info and listening links). So I began work on that. With my lame Yahoo! Geocities Pagebuilder on screen, I experimented around with text and cheesy images. At the time, I thought I was a good web designer, however I strongly disagree now. That site was only about half finished when I became bored with it, and around the fifteenth or sixteenth of December I realized my true calling: Adventures in Odyssey. The ideal topic was entering my ears every day and I didn't even realize it. So on the twenty-second specifically, I got to work.

I pulled out my trusty Yahoo! Geocities Pagebuilder, something I would never recommend now, and did the same thing I had done earlier that month. I began experimenting with text and cheesy images. I even made my own logo. Looking back, it had to be the worst Scoop logo I have ever created, but still it was a logo I could call mine, and I was very proud of it. There was already one lesson learned: don't use Microsoft Paint to create stunning logos. I've provided the logo below so you can see it:

Trial One
(click thumbnail to view larger image)

In the process of creating a logo I had to think of a name. I finally came up with "The Odyssey Scoop" as the title, thinking it was original as can be, but I found out months later that it was already taken by a children's publication by Focus on the Family, Clubhouse. Uh oh. Fortunately or unfortunately, I left the name how it was and created the site based on the name. I became tired of Geocities and moved up to a program called Trellix Web. Once again, I was limited with the program's capabilities and decided to move on to bigger and better things after about three months of using it: Microsoft Frontpage. The site I created there was based on a black background and the logo was definitely a step up from the previous. You may or may not be familiar with the logo below.

Trial Two
(click thumbnail to view larger image)

So there I was; the initial design all in place. Now the previous content on the website had to be re-formatted to fit the new design. I put up a basic ad I had created in a great program called Ulead PhotoImpact 6.0 and everyone was starting to talk about the release date of the site. On November 10, 2001, I "opened up the doors" and kids came rushing into my proverbial Whit's End. I was surprised by a large number of e-mails thanking me and encouraging me for redesigning. I was ecstatic. I was pretty content from that point onward. I updated with new information weekly and had a generally good fan interaction level. However, webmasters tend to become restless when they see kinks in their designs, and that is exactly what happened to me. In April and early May 2002, I began re-creating the site on a white background, the design you see now. It's taken on a few revisions along the way but has the same initial look. It didn't take too long to do because the release date was May 11, 2002. The doors of my proverbial Whit's End opened back up once again and the visitors came rushing in. The comments on the white design were even more phenomenal than before.

Trial Three: Final Decision

With the release of the current design, I don't think I can ever be more content. It's been a while now and I haven't grown "restless" or anything. I have become tired of certain things, but those minor details can easily be solved with a redesign of sections. Every now and then a section undergoes a new design, and it's up to the webmaster to decide what stays and what goes. What will he come up with next?

There. I've been meaning to explain the history of this place for a while now. Hopefully you'll keep walking in through the door to get the proverbial "scoop." Now I just gotta figure out how to make it edible! The Odyssey Scoop "Top Cone" has some work to do...

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