[web-team] (forw) Re: [volunteers] (forw) Re: Problems with the meeting Web pages

[Rick Moen]

As a follow-up to the posting below, I've prepended to tba.php two
possible future speakers, based on postings to volunteers@ during this
past month.  If y'all know of any others, please do likewise.  Thanks!

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:27:02 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: volunteers at lists.svlug.org
Subject: Re: [volunteers] (forw) Re: [web-team] Problems with the meeting
	Web pages

Posting to volunteers@ for just this one more time, because I suspect
it's the best way to reach a few key SVLUG staff on this matter, but
honestly discussion concerning Web site maintenance should primarily go
to the web-team mailing list by preference, generally.

I wrote:

> Hmm, I'm just checking the state of the Web pages following having been
> out of the country for a while, and I fear there have been some
> screw-ups:

[...]

OK, I think I've now fixed everything -- but things on our
time-sensitive Web pages were pretty badly broken.  Once again, I plead
that people who're going to help maintain the site please browse the
handy tips / checklist I've carefully maintained inside 
http://www.svlug.org/teams/web-team.php for quite a few years.  Thanks!

1.  Both prevmeet.php and installfest/index.php were for some bizarre
    reason checked out of RCS, and owned by a bizarre owner name that
    should never occur.  I have no idea how this situation got created,
    but it's a bit alarming.  _Please_ check Web site files out of 
    RCS before you start editing, and check them back in when you're
    done.  Also, please use your normal shell account when you do 
    site maintenance.  Don't be user "root".  Don't be user "webslave".

2.  The installfest/index.php file was three months out of date!  Three
    months!

3.  The events.html file that gets #included as a really vital part of
    the site front page was badly out of date, itself.  Arguably, this
    is absolutely the most vital thing on our site, because it has the
    most key information that people encounter first.

4.  As mentioned, two months worth of meeting details had just been
    completely deleted, rather than copied to prevmeet.php.  The
    latter page is really vital:  It's our history!  As it was, I
    had to reconstruct the missing two months' entries from mailing
    list archives, etc.  If I hadn't done that, there would have 
    been a permanent and unexplained two-month hole in our meetings
    record, which is otherwise complete all the way back to July 1997.


I _think_ I have events.html, meetings.php, prevmeet.php, and
installfest/index.php completely up to date.  Please check and let me
know if anything still needs fixing.

Please note that events.html (the "Events" column on the site front
page) includes the July 18 "field trip", and also has an RSVP link with
the subject header Paul requested in his follow-up.

One other thing -- and I've pleaded with people to remember this before,
but I'm not sure it's made much impression:  We have a tba.php page, 
linked from the bottom of both prevmeet.php and meetings.php.  What's
that, you ask?  It's a "tickler" page about _possible_ future meetings
that haven't yet been confirmed or scheduled.  In other words, it's a
repository for storing _ideas_ for (or leads on) possible future meetings.

_Please_ use that.  That means:  (1) Read it when you need inspiration for 
whom to hit up as a possible speaker.  (2) Update it when you think of a
possible speaker, or a lead on a good speaker, or just an idea for what
might be a good speaker.  (Why?  Because the only other "collective
memory" we have is mailing list archives, and those really suck at that
particular role.)

For example:  Lately, there's been talk on this mailing list about
Cricket Liu coming to speak on some future General Meeting date.  I'm
about to catch up on this possibility, by adding a related entry to
tba.php -- but my point is:  Why hasn't someone stepped forward and done
so already?  C'mon, folks.  If such things are mentioned only here on
this mailing list, they're more than likely to get lost, especially if
there's a flurry of other traffic.

OK.  _Please_ do chip in:  If you see something outdated on the site,
please at least mention the fact.  Thanks.


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----- End forwarded message -----