Those first emails, in July and August of 1997, marked the very beginning of the project. I was interested because I liked the idea of those handy free dictionaries, and because it was a nice opportunity to learn to build and manage a website. I had been on the net for two years already, but I spent almost all my time chatting late at night with American friends on the IRC. Frits taught me everything I should know, not concerning the building of the webpage in itself (I was using FrontPage, if I remember well, so it was not difficult), but especially concerning the indexing and the promoting of the site. Frits was mad about statistics, counters and what was not yet called SEO (search engine optimization). I was a bit reluctant, as promoting a website has always been a boring task to me, even at the time, but after a while I understood how important it was for a free website to have a large number of visitors. It was the only way the project could grow, and Frits knew it. In the merciless jungle the web has become today, Frits’ lessons are still precious, and I’m very grateful for his teaching me.
On November 15, 1997, I sent an email to Frits, announcing him that my webpage was up and running. There were about 5 pages: homepage (with a counter!), download, online dictionary, information and contact.
To be continued, stay tuned!