Looks like Shua is hard at work in the background of the NewSpring.cc site trying to get it up and running smoothing. It will be wonderful, it will be a work in progress, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it roll out.

As he finishes up his code chiseling, I thought it’d be fun to look at a brief history of NewSpring (or New Spring Community Church) previous sites. I grabbed these screen shots, some only partially intact, from Archive.org’s the Way Back Machine. Want some fun, put in “Apple.com”.

It does give you a brief visual of where we’ve come. I’m about 90% sure my facts are correct on this walk down technology memory lane, but if you were involved with any of these site, please help me fact-check and correct anything I missed. Joshua will have the most accurate picture.

Version 1.0. This was designed by my lovely wife, Meg, in Macromedia Fireworks, circa 2000. It’s when we registered newspring.cc, and also when we used a 400 MHz Compaq, and connected via dial-up.

I also has an animated GIF splash page up there, too. I think I may have fumbled my way through that. Is it possible that this blinking image was NewSpring’s first animation?

The second site was built primarily by volunteers and featured a cool sidebar that we were able to change with… gasp… a content management system. It was not unlike a precursor to an RSS newsfeed. The site also included an open discussion forum.

This next iteration was constructed by Joshua. I think I may have assisted as well as a volunteer or so. Honestly, I can’t really remember. But here it is. It featured a rotating series graphic (our first capital campaign is featured here).

Version… what are we up to… 4.0 was designed by Joshua on his own and featured an orange RSS icon, prominent series artwork, a three column layout. And a swoopy-graphic header.

Version 5.0 was laid out by Chris Dunagin with some contract assistance. It had a Flash opening page (pictured, missing graphics). I wasn’t able to get a deeper screen shot.

Version 6.0 is NewSpring’s current iteration. I believe Lloyd Gibson was involved with this, but I may need him to comment in to give more details. It is the first NewSpring.cc site to utilize a video player showing previous messages.

And finally here’s the splash you’ll see if you visit NewSpring.cc in the current present. Is that redundant? I don’t know what it holds in store, but it should be fun, amazing, and ever-growing. And it doesn’t appear to follow the previous six version in being all blue