I have been logging onto the forum through our front page for the whole time I have been in London and I have noticed that it never changes except for the COTM picture and active threads. How about we actually put something into the area that says "Whats New". I mean, we could put something in there about the T-shirt order going in (although it seems its wrapping up) or maybe something about peoples recent travels to the Ojibwe Rally or the sweat shirt thread (Is that even going on anymore?)? I mean that same thing about re-activating your pass word has been up there forever (and should stay, but on the bottom). If you want someone to do some literature work for the front page, I wouldn't mind trying to piece something together. Even if its only updated once a month, I think that would be better than just leaving it how it is. Our club is becoming very active throughout the year and anyone who would stumble across our homepage wouldn't really get that feeling. This is just something I have noticed and I am sure some of the webmasters have been trying to update and keep active. I think that if we want to look active, to the occasional person who stumbles across our website and even to the occasional member who stops by once a week, this is something we should stay on top of and continually update.
I agree, the front page isn't horrible, but it looks like the work of a 9th grader...its so simple and bland
Yeah... I had big ideas for it. Then I graduated and realized: getting paid to program > not getting paid to program.
I am not talking about reprogramming anything, I know what a pain that is. I am just saying the information on it and what is written on there could use a update.
some prime examples of other Subaru Sites... http://bbs.scoobynet.com/ http://v3.ozwrx.com/ http://www.rexnet.com.au/forum/index.php?act=home http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/ and one many know - other than nasioc http://www.awdpirates.net/phpBB2/portal.php I personally like the scoobynet one, but I am sure its a lot of work and I have no idea what is involved for that.... (wish I did) lets get some Nerds who know how to do this stuff to do what Dream said.... Volunteer to update our site and make it the sexy....
I would really like to see this happen too. I've brought it up in the past, but I think what we need is people who are willing to write content that is suitable for front page news on a regular basis. Anyone is welcome to write up a news item for an event, etc, get some details, some pics, maybe a few quotes. I would say just make a new thread in the event section with the article as the first post. Then on the front page we can display a photo and a certain amount of the article, and then have a link to the thread. I think we can pester the admins enough to make that happen (us regular mods aren't able to modify the site like that.). I'm glad to see people are still interested in improving the site, it's easy to get discouraged sometimes. I would be willing to help if some programming was needed, it's been a few years since I've done much php, but I could pick it up again.
it is easy to bitch about it not getting done, it is quite another thing to actually do it. Until we actually get someone to step up and do it, it won't be done. Just like every other thing that happens on this site, everyone bitches about it, but nobody contributes. Russ
ummmm.... there are alot of us who would be more than willing to contribute....but we don't know how, or can't. how hard is it to change the info under "What's New"? (actual question...). if there was a thread somewhere where people could submit a short writeup about an event or something. the admins (whoever that might be these days) could just copy paste it in there.
Well thats a craptastic attitude to have man, wtf. If Steve cant do it, why not simply try to find somebody who will? I would rather see a better site then making hoodies and t-shirts all the time. just my $.02
OK...firstly I dont think anyone was bitching about it not getting done. I was simply stating that maybe an update is in order as that front page has been static since the whole webmaster fiasco went down during last year. Alright so now on to the next step then so we can try and by pass this "bitching". Who is currently in charge of the web development and the front page? If that person is no longer willing to put in the effort we should start to seek someone else in our club to be in charge of the webpage. We dont need daily updates, maybe just something added whenever the COTM picture is changed. Next is contribution. All we need here is one person per event or just a regular on the forums, who has good english, to write up a paragraph about the recent events and how they went. Maybe do something like NASIOC does and only show a short description and then link it to a forum discussion where others, who attended and those wish they had attended, can contribute their experiences. I know that wrxboy2003 has a good intentions when he suggest we change the layout but that is looking a bit to far ahead of ourselves. We have a good set up for our club right now and there is no need for a change. My last suggestion would maybe be a meeting of the minds (web masters and moderators) to discuss the club and forum so that those in charge stay connected and on the same page. Many members on here don't even know who is in charge of the club, short of russ, and who the moderators are. I just think there are some simple posts and updates that could be added to the website to make things flow better and also to let people know that people are working on this website and club to keep things fresh. So lets have the moderators create some posts and see if they can find somebody, who is serious, to update our website and work on it a bit because apparently steve-o is too busy to keep contributing to it.
Here's a perfect example of something that could go on the front page. http://mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18764 We could take a smaller version of the picture and the first paragraph and add them to the front page "What's New?' section with a link to the thread.
Do you know how to program PHP?? Thats is my whole point. There is always people who say we need to make changes. I say fine, lets make some changes. Then nobody sets up to help out with said changes. If I knew more about PHP I would be all over trying to update the front page. It is not a drag and drop thing to do. IIRC everything is hard coded. The next things is who is willing to step up and help out with the web site?? Alot of that has to do with some trust issues from getting screwed over last time. Like Steve-o posted, it is hard to find good help cheap. I asked around, and for someone to just come in and re-vamp things, some of these people cost over 1k a year. And we don't even want to start talking about the last "free" site help we received. Again, talk is easy, but finding these people that are all over the place that can help out for cheap (read can be paid for good work) and are trustworthy is not as easy as everyone thinks. There are some serious security issues that come up with letting some random play with the site. So if you know someone that can program vbulletin and php send them my way. Russ
No I dont. But I never said that I did that I can recall. Just seems like "if steve cant do then were not doing it" and I think thats the wrong way to handle it. And being negative about it is the wrong too. Maybe creating a thread asking if anybody can do it would be ideal? Maybe telling them exactly what to do and not giving up all right's to the site would be the best idea, learn from your mistake from the last experiance? Shouldnt be rocket science.
The way my site works is I have a sub forum setup so that whenever a new thread is posted in that subforum, the front page of the site shows it as a new article. The front page parses the articles in order of thread creation and not last post made, so things stay cronological. You could do something like that, and then make a user group for front page updates. Then give permissions to that subforum to that user group.
It has been brought up many times and still nobody steps up to help out. I am not being negative about it, I am just being realistic. Like I said, if there is someone that contribute, by all means contact me. Russ
I have a pretty easy answer that doesn't require alot of upkeep, just the initial setup, after that the modules will update themselves based on forum activity. It's called PHPNuke, and it puts out a webpage like these http://v3.ozwrx.com/ http://www.rexnet.com.au/forum/index.php?act=home So depending on this websites server, that may be an option, and a pretty easy one. I am not volunteering to do the work as I have plenty to do with my new job and I already maintain one other website, a forum and 2 MySQL databases, but I would be able to help. Sound interesting? Take a look here... http://phpnuke.org/ And yes I said new job, so long Geek Squad...... Edit #1--I wouldn't mind doing up a little part of the front page in Flash, I wouldn't need access to the site, just the template. Could do up some changes and send it back to the webmaster. Nothing fancy just some eye candy.... Edit #2--In case you wanted to see some of my work... www.straight-shooters.net
yeah "events are things we do" no events listed i have to be honest, i don't even have the front page bookmarked, just the forums. because it never changed ...
Ok, as someone that has dealt with PHPNuke personally, let me say that it isn't a cakewalk to use at all, and there are ways to program in PHP to do the exact same thing without all the overhead and clutter that PHPNuke brings with it. PHPNuke is code heavy for what it does. If you look at my front page, www.t3hw00t.com, that is a very simple page that makes calls to a couple php files that pull the data from the database. Total overhead for all files is around 100k TOTAL. That's including the load of the top navi bar and banner which would likely not be much, especially here with the bland graphics and text up there. Plus, with the setup I have, the whole thing makes calls to the phpbb database and thusly, all user permissions and such remain intact. Plus, by using the forum posting style instead of PHPNuke's content adding system, you ensure that any idiot can post a decent looking front page article without having to learn a bunch of new commands and such.
RS25 is a bloated mess, moreso than my site is. For all intents and purposes, all MNSubaru would need is to keep the "COTM" pic, add in a content area for site news, and then have a 'recent threads/posts' section. One that goes for the most recent posts instead of recently created threads since that doesn't really reflect what is currently being discussed. That is pretty much all this site needs, all that member's online, pictures posted, linky linky linky crap just clutters the hell out of the front page and is exactly why 99% of the users have the forums bookmarked instead of the main portal.
And my site's portal is a prime example of why NOT to add all that crap to it. With all the crossreferenced php files, it is LAG CITY. By loading the portal, you'd think I hosted it on dialup, but if you go directly to the forums via a bookmark, it is alot faster.
Or you can always go the all out mega bandwidth heavy version of the t3hw00t front page. This never made it to production, it was one of those experiments that never got finished. http://www.t3hw00t.com/index4.php
^^DING DING DING^^ Winner right there!! This is exactly what I was talking about. I know there were some huge trust issues but that had to do with handing over the entire website controls to someone. That is not what we need to have happen for updates to occur. I know that you keep saying to have someone approach you about this but that isn't going to happen, we know that. I would like to create a post about this and see if there is someone out there in our club willing to help, but I feel like I would start stepping on peoples toes since I am not a moderator and not around much right now. I think this is something that a head hancho needs to post about instead of someone who isn't. We need to stop discussing changing the style of the webpage or trying to mimic another forums design. That will not happen right now and is looking to far ahead. We need to take the first step and try and find someone who can help with PHP code and Vbulletin1 forum (If steve-o thinks he can continue to handle it then great, set a weekend aside and do the work but if you dont want to then speak up so we can try and find someone else). I know that you have to pay people to do work (because no one wants to work for free), but with the size of our car club I can't help but think there is someone willing to sit down for a weekend and type some code. Anyone know a kid in school who needs a grad project to work on or something for their resume? If you, and the moderators, are open to the idea of updating the front page and adding some new content to the website I think all of those in charge should get together, before the summer is over, and aim to create some goals for the website to achieve over the winter when everyone is hibernating in their warm houses. Before this is done though I believe a post should be created by one of you asking for help on the website. After there is a response from people, if there is one, talk to them directly and tell them whats up and see if they are willing to commit and definately bring them to the meeting so they can be apart of the website choices. Like I have said though, all we need is a monthly update just like the COTM picture is updated, something small and not to challenging. If that works out then we can start looking towards other updates for the website Readymix, would you be willing to help set up the sub forum idea one weekend? After that we could have the moderators be in charge of the updates EDIT: And please people, keep in mind that we are still a relatively new club. We have only really been around for at most two years now with regular events now starting to occur. These changes will take time if we want them to happen but we have to take baby steps before we start running away with new ideas for the forum, like implementing a whole re-design
Was just an idea, I am also currently using Nuke on a site I'm building, code heavy yes, laggy, not unless the modules bring content from other sites that are slow, but this is my experience, maybe you've had more. And I wouldn't change the front page either, just add content and maybe some eye candy, just my .02 /input
And I'm not trying to smack your idea down really, I just know that alot of people that aren't savvy with the website design thing typically see things like PHPNuke and think it's a great looking design. I did this early on, but quickly dropped it because of the sheer size of the thing. PHPNuke CAN be done right, but at the price of serious modification and time. And as much as I love Flash, it really is way too content heavy for a front page. I've also travelled down that route (jeez, has it really been 8 years?) And a flash portal is just way too involved. And simply destroys the ability of a non-Flash trained Mod to make changes. For soemthing like this, we need to think long term. I like the fact that on my site, all the admins can just hop in and do site related business with a very minimal amount of training. Every one of them can post front page news, and it took me all of 2 minutes to explain how it works. Keeping the front page simple, and using only things that really matter is a good goal to have on a project like this. If we clutter it up with a bunch of modules, it is going to drive people back to what they do now, and that is bookmarking the forums directory and never using the portal. Site news, COTM, Recent posts. I'd say a "current users online" block, but GoogleBot ruins that often. I could potentially do this, but something tells me this wont EVER fly. And since I'm not entirely familiar with VBulletin, I'd need to **** around with it a bit before setting up stuff like that. I'd imagine the calls to the database are very similar, but the fields are probably named differently and structured differently. And likely the file structure for VBulletin is completely different. I could look into it. **EDIT** Also, this is where the trust thing comes in. To do this right, I'd need FTP access to get at the files, possibly database access, but I'd likely be able to find alot of the info I need from the VBulletin files. And Admin access to the site so I could **** around in that...and I can say, without any uncertainty, that that will never happen. I'm sure I have a dirtpile with my name ALL over it in the admin forum, and they would probably prefer I never see it.
We could set up a subforum, like the Tech, Tips, Newb Info forums, where it is moderated. Anyone can post but the posts have to be approved by a moderator before they show up. This part shouldn't take too long to set up. Then we could use this forums like Jason does on t3hw00t and new posts in here show up as front page news items. Then once that's in place people can start writing news items. It'd be nice to see some participation/interest in helping with writing the content, that is going to be the what needs ongoing effort. Nobody wants to put a weekend or two into updating the frontpage and then see it not get used. In the meantime we can figure out who or how to update the front page. I'd be willing to help with it. It's been a while since I've done php (all c/c++ coding now...), but I still do some database work. Maybe we could set up a test server with a copy of the database (personal info removed) that non-admins could get access to? Just an idea.
It gets used...take a look, they accepted a post from me. And yes this is a a great idea but it is up to the moderators now to try and implement it or work on it. This is nothing that anyone can do besides them. Obviously people would be willing to cover the events and provide new content but we wont be able to do anything until we have the place to add them. Prezwagon since you are a moderator and are for this, please approach the other moderators and admin and see what needs to be done for this to happen. Readymix, for some reason I knew it was going to be a long shot but I figured it was worth a shot. Istoptofly, sounds like your up for helping us out. Try sending a PM to Prezwagon and see if you two can get the ball rolling and try and set up the sub forum so that others can contribute and get the front page some new fresh content
Well, the tech/tips forum was set up to have tech threads/write ups in there, and thats all that would be there. Alot of people said that they would write up some how to's, but we are still waiting for them to get turned in. Again, people said they were going to step up and do something and it hasn't happened. The reason that that forum is moderated is to keep out the useless posts, we wanted the threads in that forum to be the place that people could go search for certain things. Yes, the Unabomber FAQ's are going to be included, but they are not as easy and cut and paste. Likewise, everyone has their life outside of the group, so it is tough to get things done right away. Setting up a sub-forum is only a matter of 10 min worth of work, getting a new front page to make the sub-forum useful is another thing. Russ
Yep, as expected. Nobody stepped up. I'm way to busy and have my own site to worry about. (54 hours this week ) But all the go getters seem to have disappeared again.
Very true. I have not received anything from anyone. On the plus side, I have set up a dev site so I can start messing around with some upgrades to help the site out a bit. As the real site gets updated, I will post up the changes. Russ
