[SLUG] Geeklog and the Lug Website

[Al Girling]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 09:38:39PM +0000, Jamie Adams wrote:
> Okay, I know the deadline it just about up but before anything is done I would
> like to add my final 2 cents.

I think I've made my opinion clear on this subject, but as we are making
a decision soon I wanted to add a couple of points.

> I have been looking at geek-log again and these are my thoughts:
> 
> It *still* looks terrible. Somehow it still looks like a prebuilt out of
> the box CMS. Which in my opinion gives the impression that not much work has
> gone into it. And it looses any individuality the site had.
> 
> It also looks way too busy. The fact is that the CMS capabilities are not going
> to be
> used that often. Even the mailing list dries up sometimes. Half the categories
> are going to stay empty for a long time. If you have a cms like geek-log it gives
> the impression that the site is going to be updated often. That will not be the
> case. In my opinion we need something more simplistic, that can fit into a
> simple clean theme. Maybe a bit more like the page we have now. A cms is
> certainly a good idea, but I dont think Geel Log is the package we want.

I appreciate the value of CMS, certainly sourceforge wouldn't operate
without it.  But for us with a total mailing list subscription of 30 odd
folks. Two thirds of whom are lurking, CMS is way OTT.

I also appreciate the empty categories were made to give an idea of how the
site would look rather than presenting us with a blank page. But the
point that CMS presents a busy active site and repeat visitors will find 
that actually not much happens there is still valid.  I still say the simple 
approach is best.

Paul T raised an issue a while ago about being unable to post messages to
the list from work.  CMS seems to offer a solution to this.  But I think
it will divide the group between those who have unlimited day time
Internet access and those who don't.  It will also split topics in two.
I certainly don't won't to have to visit the site just to keep up with new 
postings instead of receiving them as mail.

Without trying to sound like I have shares in SDF.  A shell account as Mark,
Jamie and I have should enable you to post during the day.  I believe
Jamie is able to bypass the works firewall like this so he can ask
important work related question in IRC through his account at sdf-eu.org
:)

> Currently the pages do not render well in all browsers. For example the DHTML
> navigation bar does not fit the screen in Mozilla (unless thats my font
> settings). Also, and (I know this will be irrelevant for most people) it does
> not render well in text browsers.

I've looked at the site with Mozilla, Phoenix, Galeon, MS-IE, Links,
Lynx, w3m and for me the best was Links.  I think the only browser in
which it rendered as intended was MS-IE. Which is a sad state of affairs
for a lug site!  The navigation bar Jamie mentions doesn't fit with any of 
the open source GUI browsers I tried.  So it's not your fonts Jamie.

> I showed it to my brother yesterday and the first thing he said was 'ugh'. I
> took it that he did not mean that in a nice way.

This was the reaction I got from a friend last week using MS-IE.  It's
the reaction I've had from virtually everyone I've shown it to.  A total
contrast to the way people reacted to the old site.
 
> I could probably go on picking faults, but I wont.
> 
> In short, I hate it. I think it would be a huge let down to the group to have
> this serve as the website. It makes us look unprofessional and amateurish. But
> thats just my opinion. :)

It seems to me CMS solves a problem we don't actually have!  Namely to
allow a busy interactive site to function with little or no assistance
from a web-master.  When Jamie said he wished to step back from the group
a little I recall the maintenance of the website was the only task that
attracted several volunteers.  Surely we can keep the old site up to
date between us.

I know that a fair bit of work has been done to create the Geeklog site,
but I can't help but feel that it's throwing the baby out with the bath
water.

Sorry guys.

Al
-- 
Linux user #290080

Debian GNU/Linux