Most of the astronomical societies in the FAS operate their own websites. So the FAS Council decided to review all the member societies websites and pick what it thought were the top 3 websites. We did not tell you about this in advance because we wanted to judge the websites as they currently are. The winners (and prizes) of the website competition are as follows:
1st prize (£150) goes to Blackpool & District AS
2nd prize (£100) goes to Derby AS
3rd prize (£50) goes to Stratford upon Avon AS
Our congratulations go to the winners but it was a very difficult job to pick the top 3 as the standard and quality of society websites is generally very good indeed. Our evaluation of websites included the following criteria:
• The aesthetics and general appearance of the website, was it welcoming or daunting
• were there sensible and clear menus and was it easy to navigate the pages and quickly find the information you wanted – when and where the society met, what happened at meetings, what the society did/offered to its members.
• did the website allow society members to display their astrophotography and/or articles. Could one download past newsletters of the society.
• were any additional services or information offered by the website e.g. ‘how to’ articles for newcomers, what’s on in the night sky, choosing a telescope.
• were there links to the BAA, SPA and CfDS websites. Was there additional information about light pollution on the website.
• was there a link to the FAS website (additional point scored if on the society’s home page!) No such link meant disqualification!
• was the link on the FAS’s website to the society’s website up to date and working. If not the society was eliminated from the competition – hey it’s up to your nominated society officers to provide and keep this link up to date!
• no clashing colour schemes or small fonts or weird animations that made it harder to find and see the info on screen
We have not yet decided if and when to run the competition again but if you want your society to be in with a chance of winning make sure your society’s website manager checks the website content against the above criteria