click on the white arrow. I must add the words "This is a white
arrow", and if necessary when other arrows are in use "this is a white
arrow on a blue background.",THE QUALITY [ACCESSIBILITY, READABILITY, NAVIGATION, RESPONSE TIMES, INTEREST, ENJOYMENT, FUNCTIONALITY and others] OF A WEB SITE IS EITHER
A. SUBJECTIVE
OR
B. OBJECTIVE
I have written this site for fun, and as a hobby. Whilst everything on this site is authentic and from my own pen [unless otherwise stated] and I hope of interest to the many who browse here, I claim nothing other than 'it is as good as most other personal naval web sites but better than none'. If you enjoy it then well and good - I am pleased for you and grateful that you bother.
BUT, OBJECTIVELY IS IT A POOR WEB SITE, INDEED A VERY POOR SITE.
We hear a great deal about guys like Bill Gates controlling the software world through his MICROSOFT empire, but if we were more aware, we would also recognise that the USA, as a corporate entity, controls the world in hardware terms too. Little surprise then, that the Americans also play the leading role in dictating how the software and hardware are used together for INTRANETS and the INTERNET and have laid down the rules for FEDERAL websites, and federal web site are the best to which all others should align themselves.
The in-thing is INTERNET STANDARD 508! Is your web site up to this standard? There is now an on-line test where anybody can test any web site to see whether or not it is up to scratch and worthy of the Standard 508 certification. If you are interested [and remember that is any web site] let me know and I will give you the details.
When I tested http://www.godfreydykes.info and the same, but dot com [.com] it failed miserably and I am admitting to this now, just in case you come up against this testing device by accident.
However, it didn't fail because it was unprofessional or amateur [though I suppose it is] but because I haven't 'built-in' to the site all the necessary tools to allow EVERY HUMAN BEING the opportunity to view my site with ease and without encumbrance. Having said that, I tested some well known naval sites and they too failed the test. None of us are worthy of Standard 508 certification.
So what 'things' have I left out?
These include:-
text alongside coloured things for the COLOUR-BLIND MEN [women do not
suffer from this problem] - no good saying
click on the white arrow. I must add the words "This is a white
arrow", and if necessary when other arrows are in use "this is a white
arrow on a blue background.",
privacy policy which should be shown on the bottom of every page - I ask you,
what privacy policy: I am not a bank for example!,
text where only icons are shown - for example if I show the icon 
implicitly meaning a ghost, that is not good enough because not everybody has
seen a picture of ghost so they might not recognise the icon and therefore, the
implication. I must add the words 'A GHOST' also.,
My email address should be available on every page.,
Colours should not clash and few of them should be used preference given to black and white pages.,
Navigation links should be liberal - I have included 'common sense' navigation indicators, but much prefer to leave it to you to use the BACK button etc.,
Print size and font style should take into account people with impaired vision.,
Flashing MARQUEES or brightly coloured pulsating buttons are to be avoided because they may cause people to have fits.,
Word filter should be employed and caution should be taken to avoid offence - for example in Britain "I'll knock you up in the morning" suggests an early morning call to make sure one is awake", but in North America, it means "I'll make you pregnant" or "I'll make love to you in the morning".,
followed by a whole host or do's and dont's which if taken too seriously, would take away the pleasure of the hobby.
These rules and regulations, bordering on the POLITICAL CORRECTNESS are not for the likes of this web site. However, Standard 508 is being accepted by all the major search engines, and it is their 'crawling' [looking for new and updated pages for browsers to point at] which will dictate which sites get all the recognition and which sites are either ignored totally or just have, say, the Home page shown and nothing else. Many of the Standard 508 requirements call for a guarantee from the web designers that their sites are child friendly, not only for content, but that a child would understand the navigation too. The site must be acceptable to mixed gender audiences, say, in an office, where one persons screen content might offend a fellow worker who has to pass that work station. The employer is duty bound to make sure that the offending site is not accessible on company screens whether intranet or internet.
So, crack on, enjoy it, but do not take it too seriously.