[SLUG] Meeting Reminder

[Gavin Baker]

hola,

Sorry for topposting[1] guys but the thread has already been destroyed
and I don't have time to fix it. ;(

Another 2p worth on this website thing:

As far as I can see, the current website performs its purpose perfectly.
i.e. It displays the who, what, where and when of the SLUG.

The increase in functionality provided by the proposed use of a CMS like
geeklog[2] (or slash[3], or phpnuke[4], or the other 6.4323 billion)
seems to solve problems that we just *don't* have. This redundant
functionality would be clearly visible to visitors of the site, some
examples would be things like:

	1, Articles: "This article viewed 2 times, 0 comments", or even 
	   worse, a few hundred slashdot[6].like comments.
	2, Voting: "1 person voted A, 2 people voted B, 0 people voted
	   C or D". Millions of sites have useless vote things 
	   anyway[6].
	3, Who's online: "There are currently 0 members and 1 guest 
	   online". Another useless vanity stoking device like 
	   displaying the page views of your site. If you want stats, 
	   get a log analyser like [7].
	4, Calendar: "Nothing this month, One entry next month; a 
	   meeting. Do we *need* a pretty calendar? I think not.
	5, "Ewwww" They've used that thing that www.foo.com use! Lazy 	  
b%$t&*ds!" (I have heard this after showing someone geeklog)

If we don't use the specific, popular parts of most CMS's such as these,
what will be using from them?


2 things *do* stand out as useful are:

1, "A Template Engine"

A template engine would enable the adding of new pages, or the altering
of existing ones to be simpler, quicker, and less error prone. 

template-toolkit[5] would be a good way to handle this. Nothing on our
site needs to be dynamic, so the the simple ttree(1) utility could be
used, and the produced pages uploaded. The webmasters job would be a
doddle. 

tt2 also plays nice with mod_perl[8], which the slug server does have
installed, and can also use all our favourite perl modules like CGI/DBI
etc as plugins, should the need for dynamic content creation ever become
needed.

We don't need any collaborative features, so this or something like it,
does seem like an elegant way to handle it.


2, "User Submitted Articles"

Enabling users to submit articles straight to the site doesn't seem like
a good idea to me at all. What if the article was incorrect? What if it
was inappropriate? What if the article was riddled with errors? What if
the article was just plain wrong?

While the on-website submission of an article does seem useful, it is
useless without some way of being reviewed before being displayed on the
site. This decision shouldn't be up to 1 person either. If I was the
webmaster and had to answer a yes/no to post an article who's subject
matter I was unfamiliar with, what could I do?

We already have a forum for article review. The mailing list. If anyone
wants to put an article up on the website, about anything at all to do
with Linux (you know what I mean), then I propose the correct channel
for submission should be the mailing list. All active members could then
review, and perhaps correct or add to the article before being approved
and added to the site. (perhaps with some way as simple as *1* above).

The other way would be to use a community based CMS like scoop[9], where
community members do review, and vote on articles submitted by other
members. Only when an article gets X amount of votes will it be posted
to the front page, or a section page.
 
Anyway, I'm in a rush, so I will save the other points for tonight.

See you later all,

Gav

[1] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Why+top+posting+sucks
[2] http://www.geeklog.net/
[3] http://slashcode.com/
[4] http://www.phpnuke.org/
[5] http://www.template-toolkit.org/
[6] http://www.slashdot.org/
[7] http://www.webalizer.org/
[8] http://perl.apache.org/
[9] http://scoop.kuro5hin.org/
-- 
Gavin Baker <gav at supercowpowers.org>


On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 11:56, Ian Eade @ IGM wrote:
> Food for thought regarding discussing the website at tonights meeting:
> 
> 1. Have a 2 page website
>  - Page 1 - Home page with everthing on it, contact, meetings etc
>  - Page 2 - The software library
> 
> 2. Use a database driven CMS
> Geeklog goes some way to this but appears overly complicated. 
> So what about a nice simple one?
> 
> http://www.phpweblog.org/
> 
> I have used this for years, basic outline:
> * No user accounts, 
> * Public article submissions
> * Plug ins for polls, links, stats etc
> * Can do manual pages
> * Easy to format and scale
> 
> 
> 3. Use a manual CMS
> It has been suggested to manually add articles as they are submitted and
> maybe take articles from the discussion list. Who is going to do the
> manual posting and whats the criteria for what articles are to be
> submitted?
> 
> 
> I personally favour Option 2.
> 
> These 3 options are derived from comments received during the last
> couple of weeks so at least the option list is getting smaller. At the
> end of August a final decision can be made and something can (finally)
> be implemented.
> 
> 
> 
> Ian
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: scarborough-admin at mailman.lug.org.uk 
> > [mailto:scarborough-admin at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of 
> > Adams, Jamie
> > Sent: 19 August 2003 10:17
> > To: scarborough at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > Subject: RE: [SLUG] Meeting Reminder
> > 
> > 
> > We are having our regular monthly meeting. It's at Chris's 
> > house tonight because the Cask is being refurbished.
> > 
> > Im not sure what the agenda is but I think we are going to be 
> > discussing the website. There should be a couple of computers 
> > there to play with.
> > 
> 
> <snip>