I'm several hundred messages behind in my reading (my but we've been
talkative this summer!), so I'm sure the discussion has gone way
beyond what I've read, but like everyone, I've got a couple of
thoughts on the subject.

We webmasters and many in the community have been thinking about
making the site database driven for years. Here's an example of the
sort of form we have in mind (some of you long-time letterboxers may
recognize the old-style fomatting):

www.letterboxing.org/lbna/creator.htm

We've admired Jeremy's phenomenal geocaching.com site for its
usability and seamless presentation for a long time. The whole
approach is doable...we just don't have the skill to make it happen!
I tried for a while, checking out a couple of books and studying ISP-
based database programing, but it fried my brain. I'm more a life
sciences guy...

As far as a current status page for letterboxes, I fall on the "con"
side. I know from long experience how frustrating an unsuccessful
hunt can be, especially if everyone in the universe knew the box was
gone but me, but I think one of the charms of letterboxing is its
aura of mystery. (For the same reason, we took down the detailed
tracking notes on hitch hikers). I also know this is not necessarily
the view of the majority.

We're certainly open to ideas on status-ing, volunteers to help who
know ISP, and to change!

My most concrete suggestion today is to encourage folks to make their
own web pages and keep them updated as they see fit. It's really much
easier than you might think: I use a $10 program from Staples that
works just like a word processor. One of our founding principles is
that box authors are owners and retain copyright of their work. Write
them how you want them! Update your boxes' status and revisions as
you see fit. The pages stored on the LbNA site were originally few
and far between and intended only as "courtesy" pages. Candlelight's
offer to host other folk's clues on her site is one of the many
creative and refreshing new ideas I've seen: wonderful idea! We
webmasters are still quite willing and happy to update your
letterboxes in any way you wish: currently it's done manually but
that could certainly change.

So, I'll keep working through the hundreds of posts this last week
and see what great ideas and artistic approaches you're coming up
with.

Enjoy!
Jay in CT