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View Full Version : MTRC.org website and maintenance


andywe
04/03/2009, 07:16 PM
Who is responsible for maintaining the site?

fallinapart
04/03/2009, 07:57 PM
Maintaining the site is being reviewed by the new board of directors, but if you have suggestions, or want to help, send chuck (ocd-mariner) a pm. or maybe he will jump in here:)

ocd_mariner
04/03/2009, 08:00 PM
Platax was taking care of it. There are several web savvy people in the club, so Im trying to form an e-posse so we can take it to the next level, yo... and stuff.

andywe
04/03/2009, 08:21 PM
Ok. I recall talking about it at the last meeting, and then someone referred me to it for contact information and it was (and is still) completely out of date. So I figured I would ask what was going on :-)

platax88
04/05/2009, 05:47 PM
Yes, I was supposed to be the one to give it a complete make-over. My wife recently lost her job, so i have been working 15+ hour days. Unfortunately, I dont think i will have time to take this on any longer :( Anyone up for the task?

NeveSSL
04/05/2009, 05:55 PM
Dang man... sorry to hear about your wife losing her job. That sucks, needless to say.

Brandon

MVlk
04/05/2009, 06:30 PM
I am sorry to here that about your wife...

I do software development, but mainly on the SQL/Database side. I could probably do simple maintenance such as updating the membership list.

platax88
04/05/2009, 06:32 PM
Thanks everyone ... I am sorry to have to flake out.

MVlk
04/05/2009, 06:35 PM
Family First! Let me know if you think I can be of assistance.

ai-reefer
04/05/2009, 07:03 PM
It would be nice if we had our own forum there.

Mobikob
04/05/2009, 07:14 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14766893#post14766893 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ai-reefer
It would be nice if we had our own forum there.

That would be easy to achieve with phpbb, and a good SQL DB admin.
looks like you already got one.

I may be able to assist in the Install/ config setup of PHPBB. been there dun that.

Mobi
:D

NeveSSL
04/05/2009, 07:26 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14766893#post14766893 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ai-reefer
It would be nice if we had our own forum there.

This has been covered over and over again over the years. ;) We just don't need to. There's no point in the increase in bandwidth (cost) and upkeep while RC provides us a great space here. At least that's been the consensus so far. :)

Some people have disagreed with RC for various reasons through the couple of years that I've been here... sometimes it was fair, other times possibly not.

I think ETRC tried to and have abandoned, but maybe not. They may still be using it, I'm not 100% sure.

Brandon

ocd_mariner
04/05/2009, 07:45 PM
Platax -

Im pm'd you my number a few days ago. Give me a ring when you have a chance.

ai-reefer
04/05/2009, 07:46 PM
You could have each members profile and tank pictures, that would be pretty cool

andywe
04/05/2009, 08:08 PM
Platax,

I a very sorry to hear about your wfe's job. My wife lost her income a year ago and I know how muh that sucks.

I have a potenial solution. MVLK is a DB guy, and I am a systems god. I ahve a very high speed link here and several servers (yes servers). We can have forums, and our own community if we want at very little, if any cost. ZachB also has some background here, so maybe he might be able to add som help as well.

Ceegee is a graphics guy, and maybe he can tie in the ui peice?

My resume includes being the systems architect behind Microsoft's windows update, and Windows Genuine. Believe me when I say we have whatever we need at our disposal. Count me in for helping.

I am not a web developer, but between mvlk and I, I ahve an idea for a great, yet free solution to use.

Food for thought.

Andy

gsusfreak
04/05/2009, 08:20 PM
and if i could be of any help....i am also a DB guy...no professional experience, but i would absolutely help if i can

NeveSSL
04/05/2009, 08:23 PM
Very, cool Andy. We need to get all the geeks together and talk shop one day. :) I'm in adaptive technologies, which means I'm nowhere near a systems god, but I love IT none the less. :)

As far as a forum goes, why would we want to, though?

Also, the other issue is longevity. What happens when you have to leave to take an awesome job somewhere else or similar? Know what I mean. :)

Brandon

andywe
04/05/2009, 08:27 PM
Of course. I ahve hosting connections (thats the almost no cost part. 4 bucks a month at go daddy. So if needed, xfer there.

Meanwhile, I am here for a long while. I bought a house here, my wife is getting ready to enter school here....no plans on leaving.

As far as forum, RC works well, but is limited. If you saw what I was suggesting it might help. Check out community server.org. I am not suggesting getting rid of RC, but we certainly can tie a whole lot more into it, both for members, officers, and guests.

I am just offering what I can do. If it taakes off and after 6 months everyone (or majority) are using it and hppy, then we can move it to a provider. No sense in starting it wth incurred cost when it doesn't have to.

My link here is 25mb down and 10mb up..faster than alot of cheap providers out there.

mixer911
04/05/2009, 08:53 PM
I agree andy, as I mentioned in another thread, with my previous club, a good website and seperate forum was a big part of growing the club. Also agree with the limitations of RC as a main forum (IE.... searching :rolleye1:, and finding new members) If new people to the area never find RC, then they might not even know we exist. Not t mention the overwhelming aspect of RC for the beginner. For the public stuff it is great, but for a club it is limiting. As I posted before here is an example of my last club's Website and forum Palm Beach Marine Aquarium Society (http://www.pbmas.org) Just look at how much they use RC for the club forum here on RC (they are listed in the Southeast Region here also) and look at the site. It also means that people will have to use another site, vs just this one. But for expanding hte club it will help out immensely!

Brandon is right about the need for longevity, and a backup plan. I think it is something the Board needs to address and start building the ground work on, but our help and input is going to be needed also.

MVlk
04/05/2009, 09:27 PM
I am up for whatever is decided and I can assist with. That includes offering my house for a geek meeting as proposed. I think a meeting would be best as forum postings tend to get inefficient quickly for discussions like this.

Mnemic
04/05/2009, 09:37 PM
IMO, more forums is overkill, when the RC site is pretty good and sufficient as a forum system. That, and customizing PHPBB to look like... well anything but a Stock PHPBB system isn't terribly easy. *IF* we did want to overhaul MTRC's site, I'd recommend a CMS package like Xoops, or Joomla. PHPBB just gives you forums. a CMS gives you Forums, Homepages, Wikis and just a ton of other features tied into one package, all modular.

And the benefit of NOT using phpbb, is well less likely to get hacked or exploited by some random bug in the most popular forum software (had it happen before, was not happy).

I would rather keep forums on RC, since it works for 95% of our members, and maybe do a CMS system for user Tank Pages, a Wiki, and photo gallery. Existing reefers that move to the area can just look at our post #s and know we are a very responsive group. most clubs don't have 5k posts, let alone 40k+ like we do.

Bandwidth is cheap now. one of my webhosts is something crazy like 1TB xfer/month and 1TB of storage, and it cost me 5 bucks/mo when I prepaid for 3 years.

I'm pretty good with PHP as a hobby, but not much in the Design aspect. I can do HTML, but suck at CSS. I'm familiar with SQL/MySQL as well.

I'm all about Ease of Use and minimal maintenance. Create tools that let the users do the work (Wiki) and just make a nice Theme for whatever you are using on the backend.

andywe
04/05/2009, 09:43 PM
Mnemic.

Exactly. Communityserver is about the best CMS out there and is free for us. Now that is jsut one example, and I mentioned it for anyone to look. We use joomla at work and it isn't so hot, as well as I own sevral technoligies as well.

My overall point is we can supplement what we have in RC with a much richer set of features and use.

When we can tie things together and present it in a rich way, organized, and useful, this is a win.

NeveSSL
04/05/2009, 09:50 PM
I didn't mean to meet about this stuff... I just meant in general. :)

This stuff will be up to the board ultimately. ;)

Brandon

andywe
04/05/2009, 10:07 PM
No worries Brandon. We are all a part of this club and can participate in many ways. I merely offer up my services, abilities, and technologies for use.

NeveSSL
04/05/2009, 10:37 PM
Very cool, man. :)

I'm jealous of your 25/10 line.

Do you pay per Gb or GB or do you just have a straight price?

Brandon

andywe
04/05/2009, 10:43 PM
Flat fee.

NeveSSL
04/05/2009, 11:42 PM
Nice. :)

I remember dreaming of T1's back in high school... until we found out they were $75 a month plus so much per Gb... :lol:

We went with satellite instead, but it had a phoneline for up... we couldn't afford the fully symmetrical dish... heh.

This was for a LAN room in my friend's basement... :D

Brandon