The future of the site - IMPORTANT

[phil]

Hi guys

OK, I now have a basic strategy for the future of the Too Much Coffee site. Some of you will have already seen the prototype environment. I've been working towards getting the roasting notes section (roasting database) and equipment review section sorted. I've been trying to avoid too much custom development - my strategy is based on Open Source tools that are already usable enough, and I've placed a premium on getting an integrated look and feel to the site.

The trouble with the Open Source approach is that the tools I have chosen (and definitely wish to stick to I think) do not give me a perfect solution to every problem, just IMO a good overall framework to start off with. That said, the part of the toolset that will publish the reviews and roasting notes will be able to do what I want in a fairly imminent planned release - just not yet.

So for the moment I propose the following :

I will publish a draft layout form in MS Word, one for each category. I expect you guys to approve the forms, or to tell me what's wrong with them. After getting the content and layout agreed, I will put the forms in the downloads section of the site. If you want to submit a review or some roasting notes, I would ask you to download the form, fill it in and mail it to me for uploading to the site for publication.

I would like this to be a tactical solution - I definitely want you to be able to enter the stuff into the site directly in the long term, but I want to get this up and running and the 80/20 rule gets invoked. If I have to do some conversion when the better solution arrives, so be it.

Are we all OK with this? I need to do a bit more prototyping to confirm the details, but this is how I think it will be for now.

The other plan I have for the site is to integrate the forum in to the overall structure (so it'll be an option from the navigation menus) and to add the capability to add attachments to postings. Both things are easy enough to do.

Oh, and btw the same capability that gives us the reviews and roasting notes gives us article publication, complete with multimedia. Anyone wants to write an article, just do it and send it to me for publication. I'm not going to get all editorial, don't worry! It's a shared site and this is a democracy, at least as far as membership and content goes. I claim the right to have a bigger say about the software solution though as I have to make it work.

OK. I'm going to put this on the forum for the record, and you might want to reply via that mechanism. I just wanted to get this information under your respective noses so I'm sending it out by email as we all visit the site as and when we can, but perhaps we check our email rather more often.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Phil

[Steve]

Phil your the man. You've made the forum a success so I'm sure the roasting notes section will work well.

If you want me to help with anything then I'd be pleased to help. I'm sure I could russle up an article or two.

[Raf]

I could use my job skills and do an interview with all you guys

[Sunnyfield]

Where can I find this prototype environment?

I am happy to help you Phil. I have (limited) Unix experience. (I have an IT degree in the end).

I like all of your ideas/proposals. I think we should expand gradually from there. I think we haven't reached critical mass yet. And most of us do not have time to spend an hour a day on the forum (unfortunately).

[phil]

http://www.toomuchcoffee.com of course!!!!!

[Steve]

He had to explain it to me too

[Sunnyfield]

Steve, are we so smart, or are they so stupid?

Phil, what login should I use? pop.eward, eward.pop? I completely forgot!

[phil]

Actually only I have a login for the site at the moment. That's because there's nothing to see but the frontage. Kind of like a Wild West film set in the desert.

Also I want to implement an alternative user function I have. The standard one allows registration either without verification or with only verification of a valid email address. Administrator approval (like we have for the forum) is not supported in the standard registration, but is supported in the xuser module. This type of approval allows us to achieve the "membership only by invitation" approach without locking the whole site down with web server password control.

I'm moving on some of this stuff, but I've been away for a bit and last night roasting coffee was a higher priority. I refuse to buy roasted, even Steve's!