[Westwales] Indycymru: advice request.

[ilyan]

Hello,

I am Ilyan (1934) who sometimes goes to SWLUG meetings, and have not yet 
connected my Linux box to the web.  Got close sometimes. 

Indycymru.org.uk needs a new system.  
After the "Truth" attack on St David some say it needs the chop.
However it has been a site that publishes everything submitted that 
isn't Criminal, libel, someone else's copyright, obscene, or 
incomprehensible.  But submitters have to register their email address.
Indycymru has long intended to join be an indymedia, but has not yet 
applied properly.

The present technical man is rather busy with business and green 
politicking,  If any westwales Linuxers are a bit interested this is a 
recent state of play seeking alternatives:

>
> There are also other codes bases written for running
> Indymedia sites -- Mir is great and the ability to mirror
> sites is one of it's best features and I think it's the
> best solution for the really big Indymedia sites, but if I
> were you I'd also be looking at the other codes bases, in
> this order:
>
> Oscailt:
>
>  http://www.indymedia.ie/oscailt/
>
> SF Active:
>
>  http://sfactive.indymedia.org/
>
> Samizdat:
>
>  http://samizdat.nongnu.org/ Dada:
>
>  http://www.dadaimc.org/  *
>
>
> Make sure you have remote backups!
>
> *
>
> The key things to backup are the *database*, if's it MySQL then the 
> mysql_backup 
> <https://worldcommunity.com/opensource/utilities/mysql_backup.html> 
> perl script is good for this, then there are all the *uploaded files* 
> and the *php scripts* that run the site, rsync is a good tool for 
> using when scripting backups of file systems, finally any *apache 
> config files*.
>
> Longer term things are more tricky since the code base that runs the 
> site probably can't be maintained forever, these are the options you 
> should probably look at, in order of preference:
>
>    * *Migrate the content to a new CMS.* This is tricky, especially for
>      things like comments (the new CMS might not support threads for
>      example) and attached media. But it can be done, the UK IMC
>      content was migrated from Active to Mir and Bristol IMCs content
>      from Active to Oscailt to do this kind of thing you would probably
>      need help from the developers of the CMS you migrate to.
>    * *Archive the whole site and use a new CMS for new content.* Two
>      ways of archiving it:
>          o Hack the PHP to make it all read only -- remove all
>            functionality that allows people to post etc
>          o Run a mirror script against it to generate static HTML, eg
>            HTTrack <http://www.httrack.org/> (this was tried on a few
>            occasions with the UK IMC Active site but there were endless
>            loops that HTTrack got stuck in...)

Any advice about the implications of that welcomed.

I intend to go to the South Wales Linux User Group meeting in 
Wetherspoons in Carmarthen on Monday 13 March at about 7pm.  and will 
bring this up there.   I think this letter is going to people  who 
sometimes meet in Aberystwyth  and even live as far away as Bangor,      
I have no idea how to get past the SWLUG website to communicate with 
them.   

There is going to be some Social Forum stuff going on in Aberystwyth 
weekend before May 1st that might merit a Linux presence. 

If you are a welsh speaker looking at Indycymru, click on the language 
change button to see how desperately a welsh speaking editor is needed 
if the site is to continue.  But it has carried a quite a lot in English 
from other small nations struggling for their freedom.

Back to the Asus  trying to get a Mandriva 2006 see the A:/ floppy 
loaded from windows with the Thompson / alcatel microcode.
Have to try another Linux I suppose.    Would an ancient Interactive 
Unix be worth a try?  though I think that all on floppies and would not 
know about Broadband.  Setup with del does see the floppy and boot from 
floppy is selectable.   Interactive was rather phobic about passwords if 
I remember aright.

Regards

Ilyan