Although precise records were not kept, the Regina Bridge Club made its first online presence in 1995 in a bulletin board system (BBS). The site has evolved massively over the last 11 years to not only become the oldest bridge club online in Canada, but one of the most visited today.
Quesnel-Lind Era
The website saw its first major run on the internet in 1999 when John Quesnel developed and released a basic html based web site featuring information on the club, its games, the costs, and where to play. It received a few dozen hits (maybe 40 or 50) a month and was ran under advanceplus.com’s domain as a subfolder.
You can view how the page looked in 1999 by clicking here. Some of the images no longer work, but it gives you an idea of how much our web site has evolved. The “IMPS vs. Matchpoints” content on that page is still used today.
In 2000, the site received a minor layout change moving away from the flashy colors and redness that it had in previous years. John Quesnel began to take on a more active role as site operator and added in weekly results that were send to the Regina Sun newspaper, as well as articles and advertising for bridge lessons for youths. John Quesnel is still credited to this day as being the most active towards gaining new and younger players.
You can view how the page looked in 2000 by clicking here.
In 2001, the site remained much the same with the exception that a new standby calendar and newsletters were added. To view what the final phase of the Quesnel-Lind era of the web site looked like, click here.
The site operations were taken care of by both John Quensel and Arnie Lind from 1995 until 2001.
Dulmage Era
The club website operations were handed to James Dulmage. Dulmage had been involved with the club since 1999 and was taken under the wing of John Quesnel. Once John and Arnie wished to stop operating the website, James took over. The website domain of reginabridge.com was created and a new site layout began.
In December 2001, the website was massively revamped offering a more user friendly, professional looking website. The website listed contact information, newsletters, tournament results, lessons, and general information about bridge. The site still continued to receive a handful of hits – somewhere around 75-100 a month.
To view what the new site looked like in its early stages, click here.
Shortly in to 2002, John Quesnel completely stepped down from any association with the website and thus giving complete control to James Dulmage and the club executive. It began to prosper in the coming months, receiving anywhere from 100 to 150 hits a day as the club’s name was “e-branded”. In September 2002, the club’s layout changed in that it began listing the “Player of the Year” race and offering an e-mail based mailing list for visitors and club members to sign up to in order to receive newsletters. This became very popular very quickly.
To view what the site looked like in September 2002, click here.
The year 2003 never really bolstered anything new or exciting. Hits to the website were now achieving an average of 225 per month. The e-mail based mailing list was changed to include not only newsletter releases, but updates and announcements as well.
In 2004, the popularity of the website was on the verge of a boom stage. In July 2004, Dulmage felt it was time to include some more bridge based information on the website. In addition to the content already available, Dulmage rounded up a few of his friends to gather information and soon the website included popular bridge hands of the past and bridge conventions. Dulmage decided the time to expand the site from a local bridge offering to a bridge resource capital was now. In September 2004, the website was renamed the Regina Bridge Club and Bridge Resource Capital. The site now offered a new section called “Resource Capital” which included bridge conventions, systems, bridge hands, masterpoints information and much more. However, the hits only moved up 32 hits to an average of 257 per month.
To view what the site looked like in pre-resource stage in July 2004, click here. To view what the site looked like post-resource stage in September 2004, click here.
In 2005, the website became a highly visited resource starting with an increase to 600-800 hits a month and upwards of 1000 hits a month by the end of the year. The website layout was changed and a “Helpful Handouts” section was added to the website offering really solid information to help any new bridge player. Barry Harper, one of Canada’s top bridge players offered to have his own section on the website answering questions that visitors submitted about the game.
The local bridge club’s game results were now available as they once were back in the early stages. However, the game results would be extracted and e-mailed to Dulmage immediately following the game which allowed Dulmage to upload the results almost immediately after a bridge game. All in all, the average number of hits rose from 257 per month to a whopping 903.
To view what the site looked like in March 2005, click here.
In 2006, the website continues to have huge success. The “Player of the Year” list now includes the “Rookie of the Year” section just below it and the layout has been cleaned up to offer an easier navigation and overall better experience while viewing the site. The website is now averaging 1703 hits a month, almost double what was averaged in 2005. The website has reached worldwide status with visitors from as close as Canada and the United States, to as far as Japan and Australia. Only time will tell what is in store next for the website.
In 2007, we brought on another milestone having reached 2000 unique hits in April and May. The website continues to expand its offerings and an upgrade may be in the works as soon as Fall 2007.
The site operations were taken care of by James Dulmage from 2001 until 2010.
Larrivee Era
Website operations were handed to Jason Larrivee on January 1, 2010. Larrivee had been involved with the club since 2005. Once James wished to stop operating the website, Jason took over. Larrivee intends to start his reign by maintaining the status quo as much as possible and updating everything as often and as soon as he can.
In 2016, Greg Hutchinson and Morgan Wadsworth updated the Regina club website to use the program WordPress and gave it a more modern look and feel. In addition, the game results section was updated to include a new “Merge” column that now gives the results of the games with the actual hands and double dummy analysis.
To view what the site looked like in March 2017, click here.
From March 19, 2017 to April 28, 2017, there were 2,782 hits to Results, 477 to Imps vs. Matchpoints and 374 to the Leaderboard.