Shane Voci's Course Blog

When I was asked if I wanted to take this course I was hesitant, the idea of making a website was a bit daunting to me as someone who had no experience in this field. Honestly, the only thing that got me to join was, first it counted as 400 level class for me and I thought that it would look good in the future somewhere to have the experience of building a website.

Now that the class is over I can say I was happy to have taken the class, and while yes I do have the website as experience now I also gained more than that out of it. I feel that I can now better present and place into context this kind of  historical research into a more presentable format. It has also changed the way I think about things in this manner, I had no idea how much I would be thinking about things like a header image. I really learned through that that every part of a website really needs to be thought through, even the negative space. There was also more work involved than I imagined. Normally with a paper you research then write, here you had the extra step of then designing a website to fit your writing.

Another thing I had to learn to get better with was working with a partner. I’m lucky to have known Anthony since my first semester here at MCLA but I still can be a control freak when it comes to school work. When the entire class is basically one group project it took some real self control on some parts to not just work with Anthony but to take his suggestions and let him handle a lot of the website independently, with me only suggesting very basic things and proof reading. I think I did really well in not trying to be a control freak and I think it has made me a better team player because of it.

I am thankful for this class and I think I have grown in my ability to not only be more technologically savvy but also as a team player and just thinking about how visual images can work along side research to give better context.

Looking ahead for this week, I’m planning on meeting Anthony Tuesday to get our site unified hopefully and go over are grammar on it and then finishing up my pages Wednesday night. Have a very delicate balancing act at this point in the semester and haven’t been able to touch the website since our last milestone sadly. Finish line is just up ahead and I’ll muster the strength to cross it.

Started give feed back for websites in the comment sections of milestones then saw Jessica just did it in one post, so feel that is a better way to go.

desegregation: The website you came out with is pretty good considering the huge setback you guys got hit with. Even that said the pictures you got I think fit really well and mesh with the site seamlessly. I like your next page buttons, they are better than the ones I made I’ll probably borrow the format for my own page. Good job.

Pumpkin: I really like all the visuals you guys got, I think that is for sure your guys’ strength with the website, I also like the color format, it’s simple but the orange lettering works. My really own suggestion is kinda a nitpick, the drop down menu “about the creators” is in it’s own row and it causing me some OCD pains. Great site.

Fracking: I really like the format and colors, every thing is easy to read and you get a good understanding on what is in every tab. My only question is there seems to be a lot of negative space on the right hand of the website, is that by design?

Railroaded: Good start again, my one nitpick is I think you should add “IL” after Springfield, in the header. You have it listed elsewhere but it couldn’t hurt with so many Springfield’s. Like even with Shays’ Rebellion the major battle happened at Springfield Massachusetts. Hard to comment to much more without it finished, I think the impact tab has a lot of potential to be where you put the conflict and conflict resolution narrative in. Good job so far.

I sit in a lot of victory here at 3:30 am. I have successfully formatted the majority of my pages on the Shays’ website.  Backstory and the write ups for the consequences for Shays’ Rebellion are completed. To be honest I might go back and reedit some of the back story pages, I have some good letters from Washington that would give further context, I just have to work them in proper. I’m considering adding a page for the 3/5 compromise as it comes up in the Constitution Ratification in Massachusetts and I haven’t added anything to life in 1787, I’m swaying between adding something to it and axing the page completely, I’m kinda submitting myself to feedback on that one. I am much more confident in my other pages under Consequences, they are all written in and I think touches on the most important aspects in the ratification of the constitution.  I might play with the pictures a bit or maybe add more to my articles but at the moment I am happy that they are a very strong foundation with a narrative that follows all the way through the articles. I’ve also fully cited them, always fun.  I do sit in defeat in figuring out how to change the color of the background of the website, though, my googlefu did not save me will have to ask my friend over the weekend.

Whoops, totally forgot to get this up earlier, been a busy bee again. Every time I feel like I am going to have a light week it turns into a mess of work that I’m trying to keep my neck above. I got a little more write ups done at the start of the week but not a whole lot more done. I plan on doing a little tonight but I am confident I will get a filled out website done before Thursday even if it means a few sleepless nights. It’s the time in the semester.

Again, most of my work was posted this week in my milestone, been mostly unable to touch the project since Thursday. Just some nice artwork for my banners I’m looking forward to crop and this Tuesday looking forward to start rolling forward on write ups. Don’t have a much commitment to make this week in my other classes so hoping to get some real work into it.

Are website at this point is pretty well skeleton’ed out, but that’s about as far as we really got. The entire website went from basically nothing to broken-up into topics we think will we cover our topic completely. We have “back story” which we wanted to act as a glossary of sorts to help anyone who is unsure if what’s going on before Shays’ Rebellion. Parties involved works to give an more in depth look at who is who, Shays’ Rebellion tab is of course for the entire event of the Rebellion itself. Finally, the consequences tab is for non-rebellion conflict with the constitution and the resolution of the conflict I did get some artwork to use that I still gotta crop to use on the website, got a really nice image for the banner. As for write ups I started to really go at them Tuesday, but I had to rethink pretty much everything I was doing. Anthony pointed out even the original title I had for the website was too research paper like, which has caused me to rethink everything I’ve done to this point. I guess I’ve been drilled for the past four years to do research papers I have a hard time not writing analytically.  Got killed the rest of the week with a midterm, but I plan on reworking and getting write-ups this weekend.

Week went a bit slow but not without progress. We had to figure out a few general things that probably make us look technology inept. We figured out how to change our homepage and change the title, though we are still very lost on how to embed timelines like some of you had done on your blog posts earlier.

We started playing around with our tabs and plan to have them fully developed by tomorrow. I just wanted the time to review my materials before figuring out how much over everything I wanted and where I wanted it. I’m also still waiting on some possible artwork for banners and backgrounds that I think would look good and fit the theme.

Most of my progress this week was covered in my milestone one post. I have sucked up a lot of information and processed it to the point where I feel me and Anthony can now still giving more focus to making the site. My goal for the week ahead to meet with Anthony and start putting together a skeleton for the website, and to start gathering some images. Hopefully on the other side of the week or website will resemble something that looks like a website.

I’ve been through a bunch of resources at this point including what I consider my backbone:

The Crisis of the Standing Order: Clerical Intellectuals and Cultural Authority in Massachusetts, 1780-1833 by Peter S. Field

Shays’s Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle by Leonard L. Richards

Shays’ Rebellion by David P. Szatmary

Shays’s Rebellion by Dean Condon

A great resource written at the time by The history of the insurrections, in Massachusetts, in the year MDCCLXXXVI by George Richards Minot. Even better so because it was written by an anti-shays author but he surprisingly remains pretty fair to the people in the rebellion

Primary sources we have about a dozen Hampshire Gazette and Worcester Magazine articles, reporting everything from Shays’ attack on the armory to the court cases against the rebellion.

We are well covered for the who, what where and why the rebellion happened, any one of those books could have covered that. But I focused on the after where that grey area happens and in Richard’s book he articulated something that I feel really goes with the theme of this class, which I was able to backup with my other readings. After the rebellion takes place we are left with a Massachusetts that is deeply divided and to make matters further worse we needed to ratify the Constitution and everyone was afraid if it failed to be ratified in Mass that it would set an example for further states during their ratifying steps.

While most of the delegates in Massachusetts more wealthy towns/cities were for it almost none of the rural areas were and many of the representatives picked from these areas were either in the rebellion or supported it.  The fact that many citizens of Massachusetts where forced to take an oath of loyalty did not help feelings of resentment.  But other big names were also against the Constitution but not as supports of Shays, like Elbridge Gerry who feared a centralized government, John Handcock and Samuael Adams were all hesitant to support the Constitution.  

So the pro-federalists in Massachusetts had an uphill battle to mend ties between the rebels and the wealthy Mass residents, sway the opinion of Handcock and Adams, and get the Constitution ratified at the state level. This where sources kinda split on what worked, what changed minds and what didn’t matter.  What I’ve come to the conclusion through the different readings is the most important being how forgiving the government was on the rebels, Handcock throwing in support for the Constitution and George Richards Minot’s take on the rebellion all worked together to bring the state back together. The biggest irony being, despite the rebels fearing the more centralized government would lead to more taxes, it would in fact lead to Massachusetts’ debt being forgiving; what the rebels wanted from the start.

I realized I sort of just wrote a thesis statement for a Shays’s Rebellion paper… I guess it’s just how my brain works now. But this conclusion will be great for the website and on direct topic for the class. I think information wise, we are in great shape for this milestone, I will probably still keep an eye out for any other sources just in case, but I’m confident we have enough information to flesh out the website.

My only setback is despite really wanting to take photographs myself of the Springfield Armory I have still failed to find the time needed to drive up there and back in good daylight hours, I think I really need to just talk to my boss and lose a weekend day pay, because at this point I do not think I’ll get up there otherwise.