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What’s Happening with the YWAM IT Web Site
This is my fourth attempt writing this post, my computer has crashed all three other times …
I’ll be honest, when we lost all of the old YWAM IT site last year due to hosting / billing problems I became extremely discouraged and lost my motivation. This has resulted in the site you see today, one that is pretty dead and needing a lot of help. The last site started out being driven by myself, but very quickly a community developed, which is what brought life to the old site.
That community is what I would like to build here again.
With my current situation I feel like I can not contribute as much as I once did to the last site. I would love for input about where this site should go, how it should develop, and I also need people who are willing to moderate the site, and even administer and help to develop it.
Let me know your thoughts on what we should do here, and how you would like to contribute. Without new life here from others I’ll probably just continue to leave it alone.
What's happening...
I wanted to write something for the longest time. So, now I better get into gear and do it.
Here is my theory of things. When the original YWAMIT site went offline and it took quite some time to get this new one online people who were actively writing moved on to other projects. Does actually everybody of those "oldies" know about this new URL?
In addition to that, some might have come on here and thought to wait and see if it's worth getting into the new YWAMIT site again. Of course, if everybody thinks that way nothing will ever happen.
I am definitely one of those rather careful and observing people myself. And, yes, I know that by this there wont be a community formed. So, I can stand in front of a mirror and point at myself for doing that.
I guess what needs to happen is some form of encouragement for those registered to start/keep writing stuff. E.g. via email. I don't even know how many are registered and how often people are checking the site for updates.
Then, some advertising might help as well. Writing to Bases/IT Ministries, those who were registered before but not any more.
I also assume that there is a lesson learned with backup? Database and Drupal files?? Speaking of that, I need to double check the sites I'm monitoring, as well...
As far as content for this site goes. I would love to see a kinda IT Testimony area. A section where people can write what did and did not work for them and why. What Software did make a difference, which System and/or Configuration did make a difference, etc.
For the Blog itself, it only works if we all get in gear and write something.
Besides writing stuff, I personally could contribute by moderating, for sure. Administering or even developing, well, I have a Drupal site myself, so I sure find my way around the administration part. It really is more a matter of time. In other words, yes, I can help. But by no means should anything depend on me.
--~~~~~
Cheers,
Steve
Disclaimer:
Grammer and spelling mistakes are provided free of charge. Fell free to keep them and reuse them at will.
If you have complaints, please send flowers to my wife. She knows how to sort me out. ;)
a few more comments
Hi,
I have a few more comments in regards to:
[quote]Let me know your thoughts on what we should do here[/quote]
So, here are a few things that we could do. Provided it would help the majority of folks.
This list is in no specific order.
1)
During the last few comments I wrote I noticed that every time I save it a little red message box at the top of the page says something along the lines of: email could not be sent, contact administrator.
I don't know if that is just me or a general thing here that everyone sees. I have a screen shot of that and can send it in an email, if needed. I didn't find a way to add or link a picture here.
2)
When a new comment is added to a post the newest is always on top right under the original Blog post. I don't know if that is desired. But I personally would add new ones at the bottom. For regular readers it might not make such a big difference, the newest entry is right there at the top for them. But for someone who comes in at a later stage, or after holiday or what ever other reason a regular reader couldn't follow a conversation on the spot, has to scroll down, then up, potentially down again on comments to a specific post, and up and down etc, to have some sense of reading the post in an order as the belong.
I personally find that rather inconvenient. But, of course, that is my very personal opinion. What do others think about that?
3)
It would be nice if it would be possible to either add pictures or link to them. It sometimes helps to make a comment more accessible to others.
4)
Is it possible to quote others? If so, that is another thing, like linking images, that I couldn't find how to do it. But that also might make discussion easier.
5)
Advertisement. How do we spread the word of YWAMIT?
Can someone create a Business Card like for YWAM Knowledge Base (YWAMKB Promo Business Card)? Everyone could print those at will/need. At least that is something that seems to work well for YWAMKB.
I'm sure I would print some for myself.
6)
A poll about IT (YWAM related or general current IT topics) or site related issues might be a nice option. Just to add a little flavour every now and then.
--~~~~~
Cheers,
Steve
Disclaimer:
Grammer and spelling mistakes are provided free of charge. Fell free to keep them and reuse them at will.
If you have complaints, please send flowers to my wife. She knows how to sort me out. ;)
Thanks again
Thanks Steve for your feedback:
1. I have that problem too, but lack the knowledge to fix it at the moment. Any help would be appreciated, but I will look at it again.
2. I didn't like that either, so have changed it.
3 & 4. I will work on a finding a basic WYSIWYG editor to add to the comment field and the main post field. Right now it's pretty basic.
5. I've been hesitant to do that so far because it's been slow, but it's a catch 22 isn't it, which one first?
With the old site before we lost it we were getting ready to advertise it in the International YWAMer and more internationally. But then that got all screwed up, so we need to look at it again at some point.
6. With the poll what sort of questions were you thinking, and how do you think that would help us to better serve the mission? If it's something that you think would really benefit then we could talk more about it.
My biggest problem is time, like many of us. The last site was driven a lot by the community, but I was still administering the site. Unfortunately I need help to do that now, so if anyone knows Drupal and wants to help then please get in touch with me.
Screen Shot of e-mail error
Could you post a link to the screen shot, or e-mail it to me so that I could see what the problem might be? I am having a heck of a time trying to get it sorted at the moment.
email error and images
I think that I have fixed it if you want to test it out. It works for me, but I need to know if it works for non-admin users.
I have also changed the configuration for the image module so that I think authenticated users can now add images to comments and posts.
YWAM IT
I am really glad to see YWAM IT coming back to life.
When the old site went down, I wasn't sure what was going to happen with it, and was worried that we might lose an important forum for us IT guys.
I recently started www.ywamwebmasters.com and don't know if I'll ever really have the time to make it what it should be, but I feel that it is important for YWAM to have such sites. I don't consider myself much of a writer, but I love the administration side of Drupal, and I'd be happy to contribute what administering or developing skills I have to the YWAM IT site too.
I know that the more chefs you get in the kitchen, the more complicated it can get, but let me know what you're looking for, and how much of the site you want to open up for others to tinker with.
Nathan Johnson
YWAM Perm, Russia
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