[PLUG] pdxlinux.org site remodel online for comments and review

Nathan W nathan at nathanewilliams.com
Mon Jul 5 00:43:51 UTC 2010


On 07/04/2010 07:40 AM, Paul Heinlein wrote:
> Thanks for the work, Nathan. It's a nice, clean look -- albeit quite
> wordpress-y -- that's easy to understand at a glance.
>
>> regarding WordPress. it is a really nice CMS for getting things set
>> up quickly and making maintenance easy for groups that will be
>> co-maintaining. if an honest assessment of the likelihood of
>> multiple persons volunteering to help maintain and stick with it
>> seems to merit, i say go for it, if not, i'd sooner see a static
>> site with the variable content separated from page layout and
>> managed by editing a few text files.
>>
>> wordpress has a habit of slowing down after time, is subject to SQL
>> injection (though the WP team does an excellent job of trying to
>> prevent this), and is subject to occasional random MySQL
>> corruption...
>
> That's a very good discussion to have! A dynamic site (ala wordpress)
> is most appropriate when the content changes frequently and/or there
> are multiple editors. Otherwise, site-maintenance chores -- security
> updates, database cleaning, testing of templates with new updates --
> disproportionately outweigh data-maintenance chores.
>
> My assessment is that the PLUG web site has historically been largely
> static, with meeting announcements the only content that changes on a
> regular basis. I'm not sure how many folks update the content, but my
> impression is that it's only one or two over any given timeframe.
>
> If that assessment is correct, a static site seems the lower-cost
> solution. Perhaps the site could be committed to a git or svn
> repository. PLUG contributors could do commits, with commit messages
> going to the site maintainer(s) who would review the changes and then
> push them to the live site.
>
> On the other hand, if PLUG members were willing to do things like
> summarize problem-solved threads on the mailing list as articles and
> post them to the site, then a full WP implementation becomes
> worthwhile. My only warning is that few things scream "rot and decay"
> like a blog with no article newer than six months old...
>

one possibility that's occurred to me while thinking over the feedback, 
is that the landing page and several linked pages whose content won't 
likely change stay static, with either one or several persons dedicated 
to upkeep.

to complement this, dynamic pages like 'articles', 'resources', 'faq', 
'meeting minutes' could be kept in some kind of wiki, which makes upkeep 
broadly accessible, is in the spirit of open-source collaborative work 
and would promote community engagement, as well as lessening the burden 
of upkeep for statically designed pages that are more frequently updated.

my suggestion for something of this sort would be DokuWiki, a solid, 
stable wiki with diff support, that doesn't use MySQL, requiring only a 
webserver supporting PHP. (you're probably noticing a trend in avoiding 
mysql here... this comes from my work experience supporting webhosting 
customers and watching all the joy involved in saving a 
corrupted/compromised database)

if this sounds like a good way to mix static, low-maintenance site 
design with community involvement and contribution, i'm all for it, and 
wide open to discussion on alternative wiki solutions or other proposals...

happy 4th of july all!

- nathan



More information about the PLUG mailing list