The Encyclopaedia of Portland History (original) (raw)

Website statement (25 October 2024)

It is with sadness that I announce my decision to permanently retire the Portland History Website.

The website unexpectedly went offline at the beginning of April 2024 after general maintenance work by my website's host inadvertently brought the website down and left me unable to reactivate it. My intention was to get it back up as soon as possible, but no easy solution was found and, in the passing months, I began to enjoy not having all the hassle involved with running the website.

Firstly, due to the host issue, I have had to essentially delete the website and start from scratch. To manually reupload every single article and the content of each would be quite a task in itself and very time consuming. Regrettably, this is not possible as I now have new priorities to focus on in life and far less spare time available than I used to.

Secondly, I am reluctant to return the website as it has unfortunately been exploited all too often over the years, particularly by those for commercial gain in some shape or form. My aim for the website was always to provide a non-commercial and educational resource free of charge to promote Portland's rich and interesting history. Sadly, content on the website was frequently being stolen or plagiarised, with my simple request of seeking permission and providing credit for any reuse completely ignored.

Over the years, I have found unauthorised use or republishing of my work, whether it be big chunks of text, photos or even entire articles, in all sorts of media and places, including websites, social media, books, newspapers, magazines, planning applications, local information boards, local museums and YouTube videos. In turn, I've had to spend time chasing after people to reach a satisfactory solution (something I've still had to do even months after the website went down). A certain assistant editor at Dorset Echo, who was only recently described by an online reader as a "plagiarist of the first degree", was probably the biggest repeat offender over the years and she ignored my requests not to take from my website without permission. Such incidences were frustating, not least because by providing a simple credit, these individuals and organisations would have helped promote a non-profit local resource rather than just abuse it.

All in all, this recurring issue has left me disheartened and questioning the worth of continuing my efforts. It began to feel like a thankless task with only a load of hassle and expense at my end. The painstaking amount of research and writing involved was very time-consuming and then there were the costs out of my own pocket to keep the website active, as well as travel and accommodation when visiting the island as I no longer lived locally.

I am still proud of what I achieved with the website and believe that I reached my goal of providing an in depth study of many sites, places and buildings of interest across the island. It was launched in 2014 as the Encyclopaedia of Portland History and I continued to expand and improve it for the next ten years. Towards the end of its life, the website covered virtually all of the island, with over 150 articles, and was usually receiving between 150 to 200 visitors a day without any promotion.

I know there were a lot of people who found the website informative and interesting, and will be disappointed to read my decision. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who helped and assisted me with my research over the years. I recognise that it would be a shame to forever 'lock away' the huge amount of content that was on the website and I am considering the possibility of self-publishing my work in book form at some stage in the future.

Ashley Smith