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Who
runs this site
The short answer is
one person in Melbourne, Austalia. This site is created by a graduated
'Masters by Research' student Carolena Helderman as part of my Masters
by project taken at RMIT, Melbourne, Australia. Created is defined in
design, concept, managment and maintenance of the HIV/AIDS Positive Stories
site. All stories and material are copyright to the authors and they are
a big part in creating this site.
The Masters is over now but somehow l can't end this website. l suddenly
realised the other day that l may never stop this web site! When people
write and express how the stories have given them support, a voice and
have been so important....well it becomes hard to just stop their voice.
About
the site
It's now been over
8 years since l decided to start my Masters at RMIT and create a project
based on HIV and AIDS. Many things have changed in that time from HIV/AIDS
itself to how technology and the Web has changed.
Initially this project was to be on CD Rom with a very different idea
in mind. I'm very glad that l chose for it to be online as one of the
most rewarding things and which gives me a drive to keep it going, is
your response via email and the many stories which have been sent.
In 2004 a new part
of the site was added. Thanks to an organisation in Australia called AusShowbiz,
l received a grant to create a section targeted at youth. So many teens
and youth visit this site and l thought it appropriate to add a Quiz section
which will hopefully teach you more about HIV and AIDS. When l ran a survey
on the site, so many of you said that you wanted to see a Quiz on the
site.
The site gets over
a half of a million hits per month which averages between 22,000 - 32,000
visitors per month.
Results show that users would like mailing lists, chat and an educational
Quiz. I will be working towards granting all these wishes.
Due to the popularity of the site, the current account charges could notbe
met. This site used over 5 times it's bandwidth allocation, and fortunatly
Webcentral has responded to my requestand Sponsored the hosting side of
this site.
So thank-you to Webcentral for making this site an ongoing posibility.
Email
the authors
Since December 2003
authors of the stories have the option to add their Email address and
you can then contact them personally. During December and January l will
set about contacting all past authors to give them the oportunity to also
add their Email address to their stories.
My long term goal is allow you to give feedback at the end of the stories
so you can see what other readers have to say and the authors can also
see what you have to say. I don't know if this will ever happen, it would
mean that l would have to hire a programmer and get some funding to do
this. If you have any hints about how this can be done, please
contact me.
The
site in 2006
Well my Masters went
to examination, late March 2002. I passed the examination with great feedback
from the examiners.
After working full-time on finishing my Masters in the first half of 2002,
l then took up a full-time job. This makes it harder to work as much on
this site. I tend to work more in bursts of development and answer emails
once fortnight to month (depending on urgency.)
Because of this l have tried to provide links to other sites or services
that may be able to assist visitors.
Thanks for your visit
and keep coming back to read real stories about HIV and AIDS.
Carolena Helderman
HIVAIDS Positive Stories Web site
May 2006
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