11 Years Later

Way back in 1998, two friends and I put together our second effort at an entry into a major website design contest sponsored by an organization called Advanced Network and Services, Inc.  It has since been taken over by the Oracle Education Foundation, but the basic premise is still the same: kids design a website and win stuff (now, though, it's down to lame stuff like laptops and cameras instead of scholarships).  (Actually, I could comment more on the changed state of the ThinkQuest competition, but that another long, boring post for another day.)  Our site, Math for Morons Like Us, didn't win in 1998, but it eventually won something called the GEM Award, which was awarded to sites that hadn't previously been awarded anything, but were still visited often and generating feedback from Internet users.  The $10,000.00 scholarship I earned because of that award was one of the greatest blessings I'v experienced as far as education is concerned.

Since that time, the site has taken on a life of its own.  In the early days, my classmates and I received frequent e-mails asking for help with various math problems.  We answered if we could.  We always figured the requests and suggestions would die off after a few years, especially when we were no longer allowed access to our site, which was put in the archives.  It didn't happen.  To this day, I received requests for math help, suggestions on improving the site (my favorite is the occasional request to rename the site because the suggestion that anyone is a moron is somehow offensive to people — my response: lighten up), and requests to use the content (some people, though, just steal it).

I guess I have to admit that I'm kind of proud of the site.  What I like the most, though, is that the site is proving useful.  It's still generating tons of hits.  So many, in fact, that Google's results page divides it up into sections like many of its heavy hitters like news sites or computer company sites.  Even better, it's been included in numerous best-of-the-Web guides, the latest being 100 Amazing How-To Sites to Teach Yourself Anything.  Although I can't fix the mistakes on the site, can't improve it, or anything like that, which sometimes makes me feel like it's not my site, I think it's awesome that our work is still garnering high praise and recognition.