Question Category: ANY_Village.co.uk
How do I update my Picture Gallery?
 
Question Category: ANY-Village.co.uk
What is your ANY-Village project about?
Shouldn't community websites be run by Parish Councils?
What will all this cost my village?
How are you going to make money out of all this?
Why have you not completed my village's site?
I would like to help you with your project. What should I do?
What sort of material are you looking for?
How are you going to help local organisations?
Are you going to pay the local people who help you?
How do I advertise my company on your websites?
 
Question Category: Domain Names - UK Villages
Why have you registered so many domain names?
Are your village domain names for sale?
Why would you be interested in the domain name of my village?
But my village is tiny and the only shop is about to close!
You have registered our surname. Can we buy it from you?
You have registered our school name. Can we buy it from you?
Can I buy my village's domain name from you?
Can our Parish Council buy our village's domain name from you?
Come on! Aren't you just domain name speculators?
 
Question Category: Web-Hosting
Can I have an Email address at this domain name?
Can I have Web Space at this domain name?
Will you sell my Email details to other people or organisations?
 
Question Category: Company
Are you a legitimate company?
Are you looking for venture capital?
What are your long term plans?
Where can I find out more about you?
 
 How do I update my Picture Gallery?
To update any picture entries you have made go to a Picture Gallery, say: http://www.any-village.com/UK/England/Wiltshire/Oaksey/picturegallery.aspx, and then click on “Picture Manager” on the gallery menu.
Here you can log in to your contributor area (username: your email address, pw: jola01). When logged in click on “Maintain Pictures” on the contributor menu. This will open up a second screen with all of your pictures displayed. Click on a picture you wish to edit or delete and you will be presented with a pop up window where you can make the changes.   Back
 
 What is your ANY-Village project about?
Our basic mission is to give each UK village a voice on the Internet - regardless of how tiny a community may be.
The Internet presents an outstanding opportunity to rekindle community spirit through newsletters, notice boards, email facilities and other features we hope to provide over time. It is also a wonderful tool for archiving people's memories and stories of life as it was before all this technology existed.
Our project will ultimately provide information about every UK town and village in a form that is standardised - and hopefully easy to use - across the country. Forget about trailing through search engines to find information piecemeal - simply use www.ANY-Village.co.uk. That is what we want to achieve.   Back
 
 Shouldn't community websites be run by Parish Councils?
We feel strongly that Parish Councils should create their own websites to let people know what is going on. We will always display links to community websites from our own sites free of charge once we know the web address (URL).
We also welcome any contribution that Parish Councils would like to make to our websites. Additionally, we are interested in things that no Parish Council or "serious" body would include on its website, such as poems about your village, frequently-occurring surnames for family research, or famous people who have visited, etc.
We are a non-political organisation and believe in free expression.   Back
 
 What will all this cost my village?
Nothing. Your village can only benefit. Other companies charge for hosting village websites, we do not. We want to act as a free pinboard for your community, financed by national and local classified advertising only.
Free Email addresses are now available, Free web space for the Parish Council will follow. We even accept Word documents and turn them into websites free of charge, to make it easy for anybody to send us contributions.
The more people use this facility the better our service will become.   Back
 
 How are you going to make money out of all this?
We are convinced about the potential success of our business. Our daily visitor statistics show an encouraging trend - with a lot of visitors having come to our sites 10 times or more. Our revenues will ultimately come through advertisements placed on our sites, as well as the classified ad section. Most of our classified ads will be free, but we will introduce premium rates for special services to our customers (inclusion of pictures, link to websites, etc.).
The potential of advertising and classified ad revenues far exceeds any domain name sales we could ever hope to achieve. But it is the domain names we have registered that are bringing new visitors to our web-sites on a daily basis.
The village domain names are the backbone of our business, and therefore not for sale.   Back
 
 Why have you not completed my village's site?
Our sites are intended as "gateway" sites, where people can find any links that could be of interest to a particular community. It has never been our intention to run individual community sites ourselves - this would be an impossible task.
All we do is to provide the infrastructure: The facility to submit contributions as Word documents, Free email addresses, Free web space for the Parish Council, a classified ad section, as well as regional and national links found by our researchers.
The rest is up to YOU. This is YOUR community website, YOUR village portal. You can use it as a noticeboard only, or use it at a proper community website (see Headington), or not use it at all. Wherever you choose to base your community website, it will only be a short time until everybody remembers the address or has it stored as a favourite link.
But any outsider will first try to look up the .CO.UK name of your village, so make sure that you let us know the URL of your community website.   Back
 
 I would like to help you with your project. What should I do?
Thanks! We need all the help we can get for this huge task.
Please start by collecting any material relating to your town or village that could be of interest to people living there or wishing to visit or move there: documents, photographs, books, brochures, etc.
Talk to your friends, neighbours and members of any local organisation you belong to, and let them know that your community website is waiting for their information.
We hope to be able to provide an upload facility for your material and local newsletters in the near future. Until then please send us everything via email and we will process it manually.   Back
 
 What sort of material are you looking for?
We aim to provide all the information people need to know or would be interested in learning about a village. There is such a range of possibilities, for instance historical data (a huge category all by itself), current issues such as speeding or dog-fouling and how they are being dealt with, future events such as the village fete or school play, times and dates of church services, accommodation available, whether the shop has an off-licence, whether there is a baby-sitting circle and who is the contact person. We hope to include photographs and maps, and fun items such as quizzes. We would like to provide an electronic notice board, where you can state your point of view on local topics and read what others have to say.
Together we have the opportunity to create something really interesting and useful – let’s do it!   Back
 
 How are you going to help local organisations?
Local charities and non-profit organisations will be able to enter links to their own sites free of charge, as will groups producing local newsletters. If they do not have their own sites, they will be able to promote themselves and any events they may be holding by using our sites.   Back
 
 Are you going to pay the local people who help you?
We are currently working on a compensation package for our local webguides (those overseeing our websites) and agents (those selling classified ad spaces and local advertising slots).
All we know at this stage is that we want to compensate people generously for their contribution to our success. This will include commission payments for direct sales and classified ad revenues, but will also mean recognition for indirect contributions, such as increasing the number of hits on our pages.
However, we are unable to pay people for adding information, pictures, articles, etc. to our sites. All we do is provide the infrastructure free of charge - it is up to the community to make use of it.   Back
 
 How do I advertise my company on your websites?
Please send an Email to Sales@ANY-Web.co.uk with a few details about your company and possibly your telephone number. We can then call you and discuss your needs.   Back
 
 Why have you registered so many domain names?
We are working on a comprehensive UK village portal called www.ANY-Village.co.uk, which will ultimately provide information about every town, village and community in the UK.
We registered 15,000 village domain names so that we could cover all of the UK. Without these names we would not be able to offer free email addresses like JamesMiller@LittleCreek.co.uk through our free personalised E-mail service www.ANY-Mail.co.uk , which is proving very popular among our users.   Back
 
 Are your village domain names for sale?
No. The village domain names are the backbone of www.ANY-Village.co.uk and cost a lot of money to buy, host and re-register every two years. Originally we were going to sell 1% of our holdings (150 names) for a minimum of £500 each - enough to allow us to reregister the domain names in 2 years' time.
We found that the negative and unfair publicity generated by tabloid newspapers was not helping us or our ANY-Village.co.uk project, and so we withdrew all village domain names from sale.   Back
 
 Why would you be interested in the domain name of my village?
The principal technical reason for registering the domain names of villages is to offer the following services:
  • Free web-based email addresses like JamesSmith@YourVillageName.co.uk
  • Free webspace for Parish Councils at addresses like http://ParishCouncil.YourVillageName.co.uk
  • Promotion of local businesses and organisations through low-cost website like http://www.YourVillageName.co.uk/YourBusinessName
We are a small company with limited funds and would not be able to offer any of these services commercially if we had not registered what we perceive to be memorable domain names. As people find our sites and we become better known, we will form a UK wide network of community websites.
Our service will improve over time, and the communities will benefit from this: they will form part of a national database, have access to free or low-cost web designers, get free webhosting and search engine submissions for their own websites.   Back
 
 But my village is tiny and the only shop is about to close!
Some of the names we have registered are those of hamlets with fewer than 20 people. The names came off a large database and we did not have the technical infrastructure to test each and every one of them against a population database.
As far as we are concerned every single community - however small - deserves a voice on the Internet. We have been running a website with regional and national links for almost every village in the UK, attracting visitors from all over the world.   Back
 
 You have registered our surname. Can we buy it from you?
A lot of village names are also surnames, so any registration on our part of a surname as a .CO.UK domain name is purely accidental. However, we strongly believe that Surname domain names should be shared by all people of that name, and not just the lucky individual who registered it first. For that reason alone such names are not available from us.
Since many village names are also surnames, our ANY-Village web portal will be providing useful links for family research (see our search tool for the name Smith) where family-related information can be shared and explored.
No. If you have registered another surname domain name and are interested in free webhosting please contact us.   Back
 
 You have registered our school name. Can we buy it from you?
We have discovered that some of our village domain names are also the names of famous schools or universities. We have only registered the .CO.UK version of your name, the suffix which is mainly used for websites with commercial content.
Educational institutions can register a domain name under the .AC.UK domain, which is administered by UKERNA. The Government has created a special domain suffix for schools at .SCH.UK, which is administered by NOMINET.
We plan for our sites to include links to all schools, so please contact us with your details and you will be listed free of charge.   Back
 
 Can I buy my village's domain name from you?
No. There really is no need to purchase this or any other domain name for your village. We aim to be a portal site for your village and will list any village-related website free of charge - just let us know the URL.
Perhaps you should consider registering the .ORG.UK version of the name you desire (e.g. YourVillage.ORG.UK) or the hyphenated version (e.g. Your-Village.CO.UK or Your-Village.ORG.UK) ?
You may also find that there are several organisations or individuals wanting to run their own community website, each with a different focus. We will list them all on our gateway site under "Town or Community". The sites and information will all be linked over time and presented in an easy-to-use standard format, which will make accessing data much quicker across the UK.   Back
 
 Can our Parish Council buy our village's domain name from you?
No. If Parish Councils would like to set up their own websites, they are entitled to use a .GOV.UK domain name, which has been specially created for government bodies (see London.GOV.UK, Oxford.GOV.UK, Ipswich.GOV.UK, etc. - compare this with what is available at London.CO.UK, Oxford.CO.UK, Ipswich.CO.UK).
Parish Councils can apply for a .GOV.UK name by contacting UKERNA.
We very much hope that Parish Councils will use our websites to publicise their activities. Minutes of PC meetings can be emailed to us as Word documents and we will display them as websites free of charge.
We are happy to provide Parish Councils with free webspace at addresses like www.ParishCouncil.YourVillageName.co.uk. Please contact us if you are interested.   Back
 
 Come on! Aren't you just domain name speculators?
No. We see ourselves as content providers. Have a look at our websites, e.g. ANY-Web.co.uk, Headington.co.uk or CharlesDickens.co.uk to name but a few. They are the result of years of hard work and research, and are constantly updated.
Do you really think we would go to all that trouble if we just wanted to trade in domain names? And do you think we would refuse to sell them?   Back
 
 Can I have an Email address at this domain name?
Yes, please!
Free email addresses are now available at most of our domain names. Please be advised that our service is still new and that we are likely to have teething problems during the early stages.   Back
 
 Can I have Web Space at this domain name?
Yes, but not yet. We are still testing our server infrastructure to allow us to offer web-hosting at all our domain names.
Parish Councils and local charitable organisations will be able to get some free web space at addresses like www.PC.YourVillageName.co.uk or www.YourCharity.YourVillagName.co.uk.
Commercial webspace will also be available soon, but no rates have been fixed yet.   Back
 
 Will you sell my Email details to other people or organisations?
Absolutely not. Your Email address and any other personal information we become privy to will be treated as strictly confidential. It will not be sold or distributed in any way.
Your email address will initially be added to our mailing list for our quarterly ANY-Village newsletter. You will be able to unsubscribe at the simple click of a button and your name will be removed with immediate effect.   Back
 
 Are you a legitimate company?
Absolutely. ANY-Web Ltd (formerly Webhound Ltd.) was founded in March 1999 and our UK Company Number is 3730786. Our VAT Registration Number is 732 1991 35 and we are a member of Nominet, the Domain Registration Authority for UK domain names.   Back
 
 Are you looking for venture capital?
We would ultimately like to find an investor with a track record in the community website field, and a similar approach to ours. Until this happens we prefer to remain independent.   Back
 
 What are your long term plans?
Our dream is the ANY-Web – a web portal offering comprehensive guidance about ANY topic under the sun, anywhere, in as many languages as possible. It may sound a bit on the ambitious side, but then again we have the vision, the determination and the programming skills to make it all happen.
Our UK Village portal was conceived in June 1999 – now the back bones are operational and communities are beginning to come online. A further year should see the ANY-Web firmly established in the UK.   Back
 
 Where can I find out more about you?
We have had a lot of publicity over the years – not all of it good and not all of it accurate. We plan to add a page of press cuttings soon, so please keep revisiting our website.   Back
 
Thank you for your interest in ANY-Web and ANY-Village.

Angie Barrow
ANY-Web Founder
01/08/2014