[ real : blog ]

Okay,

I figured it was time to do away with these notions that this new super enhanced website will exist and take things back down to basics with a newsgroup concept.

Newsgroups aren’t something new, they aren’t something daring, but they do achieve one important aspect - they involve everyone in an instant, completely unmoderated discussion and debate arena which is ultimately what we wanted in the first place.

So I created the Google Group, which can be found here:

http://groups.google.com/group/realppl

I say ‘I’ because I didn’t consult John, Rob, or Alex on this, as I perhaps should have done, but seeing as we haven’t made much progress in the super site idea that always sounds so good until we go away to do things and find we’re too rushed with bigger real life issues. Which is fair enough. We’ll see if this idea works and take it from there.

The only restriction this group has is that you have to register to post, for obvious reasons (attempted spam prevention). However, access to the archives and the like will maintain open.

I don’t want to double post too much so I will leave it here. If you head to the Groups page you can access the archive there to find my first post (currently the only post) detailing a small amount about the Newsgroup and why I felt like trying it, also with a slight tangent as to my expected use of it.

Pretty soon I will probably relink the webpage to just head straight to the blog for now, and pop the Newsgroup information on here somewhere. But in the meantime, you know where it’s at and are welcome to see what you think.

Cheers

TD

Ok, so the server is online, as you can hopefully see and now I’m out of the country again… so let’s see how long before it runs into difficulties this time.

Updates still could be pretty slow. A lot of the stuff we want is on the server already and just needs config-ing by us but unfortunately my firewall machine was being a pig before I came back so its still pretty closed, basically meaning we can’t get into the server in an FTP or SSH sense at the minute. Good for server protection I guess, but crap for looking after the Project.

It doesn’t need much doing to it, to be fair, but it needs someone to be there to do it. I simply ran out of time.

Battery is about to die here so I’ll have to add more info later, and e-mail Rob…

Ta-ta for now.

TD

That’s right folks.

The [real:ppl] Project server is, as of yesterday, officially back online and presently serving up the temporary index / splash page that was hosted elsewhere for the last few months.

The wiki and the blog (this replacement) are presently installed and just going through a design and tweaking phase at the moment before making them more public, likewise when we decide on a forum structure that shall be up soon.

At the moment we are playing around with three or four possible CMS’s to choose from, all open source options but offering varying levels of integration.
Personally at this stage I envision the CMS to be the last thing we put up of this version of the site. Time frame unknown.

So, in the meantime, head on over to http://realppl.co.uk and see if the page is served for you and keep checking back to see what you can bring to the forums and wiki!

TD

Quick update for everyone.

Progress so far is steady, if not rapid. Current work situations (as mentioned previously) make rapid communication awkward at best but some brainstorming has started to occur.

I finally got hooked up to a high speed net connection for a couple of days and so have been able to try and download and get a working local server together on my laptop… now time to install and play with various options.

For me this should be interesting, as I need to try and teach myself PHP on the fly… as well as trying to understand properly how MySQL databases are working for me etc. Luckily I’m purely a tester at the moment… by the time we ccomee to final decisions my knowledge should have increased and hopefully Rob will be on hand for help

Tarra!

Ok, the first (and, as it happens, last) post I made didn’t particularly tell anybody anything, so I thought I’d try to set out a more simple to understand, point-by-point description of some of the things I want to get to with the Project.
Fairly obviously, as you read through these, you will see that a lot of what I envision is for the future.
I have made every effort to try and outline this in a chronological order, although without timescales for the minute. Those will come later.
I would also like to point out at this juncture that these are all purely my (Dave’s) visions, and do not reflect discussion with the (hopefully) other administrators. I say hopefully now because I haven’t fully established who ahs the time / ability / desire to do this yet.
Feedback, harrassments, and insults are appreciated.

*Phase 1*

- Admin team responsible for exhausting various possibilities for new website:
- Design / Layout
- Content
- Disclaimers / Legal Responsibilities
- Functional and expandable Article Database system
- Various Forum / Discussion Board Options
- Wiki Options
- Admin familiarity with chosen feature-sets. Maybe short Wiki Manuals for unavoidable
- Discuss feasibility of present / future targets:
- Community Stills Gallery
- Community Video Gallery
- Community Music Hosting
- Mailing List
- IRC
- Community Radio
- Funding
- Establish firm and realistic timeframes and target deadlines
- Publish final Project Road Map

*Phase 2*

- Fully functional website to be online on independant server.
- Website to incorporate:
1. Article Database
- Article format finalized (headers, links etc)
- Group designation finalized (allow for cross-group articles?)
- Any and all previous articles posted
2. Forums
- Expandable
- Self-moderation
3. WikiWikiWeb
- Community-Controlled
4. Admin Blog
- All current posts transferred to the server
- Allow for article submission and hosting
- Iron out any usability issues commented upon by the community
- Seek community feedback on current site, planned features, and community-desires

*Phase 3 and Beyond*

- Implement the first major update to current site setup, as dictated by physical abilities and community-desires. Result of discussions with community.
- Where feasible, implement further feature(s).
- Gather further community feedback on the changes and current site direction. Depending on community strength, appeal for community-driven help / submissions on improvements and tweaking.
- Repeat (ad infinitum?)
- Establish multi-lingual team, responsible for translation into as many languages as possible, perhaps with a view to regional sub-sites
- Support for community website hosting and mirror service

So there it is.
Like I said earlier, I realize that this isn’t particularly detailed and likes a time frame as of yet, but hopefully in the near future I will be able to update with certain updates, such as team members, full contact details, and target deadlines. Also, I must stress that these are my dreams only, which, at this precise moment in time means that it’s the Project view, but I am open to discussion with any and all persons on aspects of this.

If there is one thing I desire, it is feedback. So please, give generously.

Take it easy folks, see you online soon.

TD

Hey.

Well, here we are again, trying to plow through the mayhem of our private lives to make things work as best we can.

What I mean by that is that I’ve been thinking, almost non-stop about the Project and all the things I want to do with it, namely get it back online.

Any of you who’ve been remotely following our little ditty here will now that this in recent times is a recurring theme… but I really want to put an end to that.

We face a couple of key issues as I see it. Firstly our team, whilst in contact easily enough via email, are hectically busy in real life. Most are at Uni, and I currently am in Egypt. The server is at my house (which I’m not at) - see the difficulty?
Every time I get home with great plans to revive the server something gets in my way. Namely alcohol. Of course if I’ve been away for a few months I want to go back and have a few pints with mates, but inevitably they can’t /all/ be there at one time, so it becomes a week long binge. [NOTE: Dave encourages responsible drinking - when you fall over and sleep, you’ve had enough.]

Anyway, I do solemnly swear that next time I’m back I will set things to rights. There, I said it, it has to be true!

In the meantime you will notice we have a holder page hosted on borrowed webspace until things get sorted. My sincere regrets for the presence of adverts, but I was loathed to spend money I cansimply spend on better things for ad-free space when I want to be motivated to host things ourselves. But anyway, I’m sorry. I may put up other little things on there but will try not to.
Equally, in due time this blog will be moved (copied) to the server to keep everything self-hosted. Hopefully you’ll still be reading then.

But anyway, I wanted to give you that little glimmer of information for now. I will add more details of my personal plans (and hopefully ways to get it working in as short a time as possible, as well as introducing other members of the team to the blog.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, I am actually addicted to making this work. It may not do anything for anyone else but it genuinely excites me.

Take it easy, keep posted.

TD