skymanhonor - 7:14 am on Feb 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

Thanks ccDan and vkaryl

I have started the process of contacting the local bestowers of officialness. One is the chamber of commerce, the other is the county tourism program.

The research I have done supports what you both have said. Mainly that officialness comes through recognition by an established official entity -the more official they are the more legitimacy they can pass on (sort of like page rank :).

My current strategy now is going to try and become the website associated with one of the visitor centers recognized by the county tourism program. There is one that does not have a website yet but only an location.

I have also learned that often the offical website for an area (in terms of travel) is run by either the city or the chamber of commerce. The tourism program for the county however is the one that recognizes the chambers or cities as holding the official site for that area (ie they have superceeding authority). So it may be possible to deal with the Tourism Program to make a bid on being the website for the region. Because if they are run correctly (which most are) they will have taken precautions against cronyism.