German news website ArcSite is celebrating its 10th birthday this weekend. A frequently updated website for RISC OS and Acorn users, ArcSite has published news and features for free for the past decade - and its maintainers have vowed to continue.The website began life as the Internet home for the Arche Acorn User Club, and included links to other homepages and a simple forum. In 1997, the site offered webspace to Acorn users. ArcSite as we know it formed when Carlos Michael Santillán moved the links list and forum to a new website, arcsite.de. The name is a reference to programs that start with the Archimedes abbreviation, such as ArcWeb and ArcTerm.
An FTP search engine was later added as well as German adverts. With the help of Michael Gerbracht, the site began running news stories in 1999 and a features article section was later opened.
Carlos said: "The forum was a lot of fun and an important place for German discussion of the RISC OS platform. The day with the most posts was September 17 1998 when the Phoebe project was cancelled.
"After the launch of the Iyonix there were two streams of RISC OS and the discussions between the RISC OS Select and Omega and RISC OS 5 and Iyonix parties turned sour. I stopped enjoying the discussions the moment it became heated. In 2004 I closed the discussion but forum.acorn.de is a very good substitute.
"The good times of Acorn have gone and a lot of people moved away from RISC OS - the same has happened in the UK."
But Carlos called for help in running ArcSite to see it through the next decade.
He added: "After 10 years I won't stop working on ArcSite. My next plan is to update the links, write more articles for the magazine section and, of course, post more news. And of course, I'm still waiting for help, articles and other ideas for ArcSite."
Links
The ArcSite website
The 10-year history of ArcSite auf Deutsch
About RISC OS auf Deutsch