Below: |
One-Person Web |
We're Not The Tourist Office
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Beyond is Unfunded |
• Beyond is a one-person web.
• Beyond is not part of any government, group, organization, town or tourist office.
• Beyond is a completely private Web, and for the most-part unfunded.
One-Person Web
Beyond is a one-person web. Two people were involved in the idea that created Beyond (see Birth of Beyond), and two people are on most of the "research" trips in Beyond country. But the one person does all of the research, photography, photo preparation, writing, web page building and site management.
The Royal We.
Your Beyond host, Russ, writes with the royal we rather than the personal I. We decided in the beginning that the flavor of the writing should be about Provence and not about the writer.
Beyond Information is First-Hand.
If you're reading it in Beyond, we've been there, we've seen it and sampled it, we've photographed it, and we're talking about our own impressions. We do include reference information from outside sources, such a population and historical facts (we weren't there ourselves in the Middle Ages). We occasionally include partial information from Beyond Readers and even the Wikipedia now and again, and we're careful to acknowledge each instance of "outside sources".
Size Does Matter.
We have received comments that Beyond is too big to have been created by one person. Well, we've been at it a long time since 1995. Oftimes working night and day for days, or weeks, on end. And sometimes slacking off, even skipping days at a time. But generally we're hacking away at new content, revising old content, improving navigation within Beyond, improving the "look-and-feel" of the site. One html-coded word at a time, Beyond just grows and grows.
Size doesn't matter for its own sake, but there's a lot to know about Provence. As it is, we have to restrain ourselves from getting too deep into any one subject (there's always more to be said) and move on to the many other subjects and sites of Provence that we want to tell you about.
We're Not The Tourist Office
And we're not the bus company, or the railway station, or the town hall.
Because of things like our bus schedules and railway schedules and detailed travel information, Beyond often gets email requests for more details — thinking we must be the official source. We've received official complaints about bad bus drivers, late trains and lost objects.
We try to keep our schedule information up-to-date, but we're not the source and we don't have time to re-verify everything frequently. The real bus companies and railways are getting better nowdays at providing information on-line, and Beyond more and more is sending readers to the source instead of displaying schedules that we got from brochures.
In the early years Beyond had more information on a town or village than the town provided. And in a few cases, the town used Beyond's URL (website address) in their brochures. Even the Michelin Green Guide for Provence had a reference to the Beyond website.
Now, well into the 21st century, more and more towns and villages have their own websites. But many are still lacking. And many are in French only or overly glowing in the "qualities" of the place. While we make an effort not to "bad mouth" the places we like the least, we do give an honest view of our impressions and a visitor's view of the places we visit.
Beyond is Unfunded
We're not part of a larger site, a corporation, an organization or any other sugar-daddy. We started out as a hobby, but since we've grown (accidentally) to a full-time occupation, we're trying to make Beyond at least pay for its costs.
Our only Beyond income is from our Google Ads, hotel bookings through our partners Venere and Booking.com, and a very small amount from our Amazon book sales. The income is "fair" but not great (almost enough to live on if we cut back on the grocery bills).
While our motivation is still the pleasure of constantly learing more about Provence and sharing it with the rest of the world, eating and maintaining a roof over our head is still important. So if you click on our ads, buy your books via Beyond or book your hotels via Beyond, you'll be helping a really good cause.
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