Brett Parker wrote:
Sounds like a plan to me... So, what *do* we need from the alug website? How about:
- consistant look across the site
- simple to edit pages (OK - MJ Ray's CGI starts at this goal, but it would be *so* much easier if the template wasn't included in that edit box)
- well defined sections
Yes, all that makes perfect sense. MJ's CGI does work really well, but the problem with having the template stuff in there is that it is a little too easy for something to go wrong!
Shropshire LUG have quite a nice deign, ignoring the flash animation at the top... [ http://shropshire.lug.org.uk/ ]
Basically, I'd like to see the whole site *almost* a wiki, but more closely modelled on CMS software, with a staging area for new content, and a simple to use interface for editors/administrators. I want the template split from the actual content, at the moment creating a new page is a PITA, and takes some effort, the 'template' file doesn't really exist as such, and I believe that the current look could be improved on.
I think for adding content to the main site some sort of user admin is required to ensure that a standard of content is maintained. I think that is just something we would have to live with. Maybe some smaller areas could be a true wiki in nature. For example - why would someone who doesn't contribute to the mailing list or on any other level want to make changes to core site pages? I can imagine them wanting perhaps to contribute to a project page, or maybe a 'local' page dealing with a specific geographical area of 'Anglia'.
So, lets collect together a bunch of thoughts on this 'ere mailing list, and then lets start building something that actually works as we want/need it to, and can be expanded upon later.
Yeah, as much thought and planning at this stage will make things easier in the future. Perhaps when a few things become agreed a page could be started on the *old* wiki to document it all. Mind you, in that case perhaps we should find a way of password protecting it so that spammers can't mess things up... *aaaaargggghhh!*