About Me

Assertion: This section is pointless.

Why is that you say? Well, those that know me will not learn anything from this page and those that don't know me clearly couldn't give a squirrels walnut sack about all this dross. So why write it then you twunt? Well here is the beautiful self-indulgent geakery (sp?) bit. By putting all this nonsense here, when people search for my name on Google, my site should come up in the listings!! Woop woop! This next table should help things along nicely I think:

My Textual Mugshot (As it were)
Name:	Daniel Mark Rathbone
Alias(es):	Danny (impressive that one eh!?), Rathers, Rat Hairs, Mr Rathers, Rathboner
Dwelling:	Bootham, York, England
Occupation:	Software Engineer
Age:	28
Interests:	Stupidly absurdly heavy music, playing guitars and drum kits, cooking, beer appreciation, getting fucked by the powers that be, digging for worms, walking in the rain, ogling at buildings, C++, running in the rain, spring, summer, autumn, winter, jazzcore.

About This Site

I first started making webshites way back in t'day when I was at uni. Originally I started pimping myself on the web to allow people to download and listen to music that I had composed and recorded. I write less music these days, probably because I have a job now and so most of my spare time has been sucked into the abyss of employment. Anyway, I still kick out the odd tune and all my old creations are still here in the 'My Music' section. I haven't really done anything about my personal website for about 4 years as all my web development focus went on my band's website; 23 Beasts. Sadly the Beasts no longer exist, but the site is still there and working.

Several things made me build this website:

• I have learnt a lot more about web design/development/authoring in the past few years. Part of my job involves developing websites (albeit very complex ones!), and with web design moving into new exciting territory with CSS design and accessibility i felt it was time for a refit!
• All my old websites were just static sites that contained only content that i placed on there at sporadic intervals. I have developed a liking for community type websites whereby all the content is produced by the members for the members or even for the wider Internet community. This is what I aim to do with this site. Most areas of the site can accept contributions from anyone reading the site.
• I wanted somewhere to document things I have done and things that I think. So now I can record my thoughts whenever i eat a meal, listen to a new album, watch a film etc. As well as that the 'Blogs' section allows me to record random thoughts or events in my life.

Because this is a community site, anyone can contribute their thoughts to the site, but a great deal of the content can only be added by members. For example members can post reviews, have their own blog, upload pictures etc. If you want to become a member then just ask me. Go on - it'll be fun!

So now you understand a bit about what the site is trying to achieve, here follows a description of what each section is all about.

Reviews

The core of the website. This section contains a hierarchical arrangement of categories. Almost anything can be reviewed. If you want to review something but there is no suitable category then let me know and I'll add a category

Blogs

Another major area. Each member can write a blog. Now I'm sure you know what a blog is so I wont go into that, but you can view anybody's entries from here. It is also possible to create private blogs where only specific members can view what you have written.

Photos

A repository of photos. Any member can have an area for their photos on here. Photos can be arranged into albums and comments can be added by each photo. There is no automatic upload facility yet, but just email me the pics and I'll stick em on the site for you.

Technical

An area of the site that only I can contribute to at the moment. If you want to write something for this then feel free, but there is no automatic way to enter articles onto the site yet. This section contains technical articles about technology i have used or projects I have undertaken.

My Music

Still going strong! A load of music that i have written and recorded myself for your aural pleasure!

Members

Learn about members of the site, and change your member credentials.

Contact

Contact a member of rathers.co.uk

News

Announcements about me or the site.

If you still want to know more about the site then there is an article in the technical section about the design of the sight from a back and front end viewpoint. There are even code samples! For now I will say goodbye and leave you to click around.