PLN site getting done

[aries]

I'm trying to decide what more the site needs - anybody have any suggestions? I don't want to go overboard, but I don't want it to be stagnant.

Right now my top goals are to finish writing a blog program, and use that instead of blosxom, and give people other than myself, who are more up to date about the goings-on access to add posts.
I think that for now, I don't know enough about databases to write one that uses mysql and comments, so I'll probably be using a flatfile, and maybe, for select posts (ie - ones that discussion is likely to occur about) have a "talk about this in the discussion area" link, rather than integrated comments.. That might even be better than comments, as it keeps discussion more focused on the subject of the entry, rather than on the actual text of the entry.

So - improved blog system is a must, probably still without a comments feature (I have ideas about how to implement them but no plans yet).


An RSS feed should probably also be available, for those that like getting automatic updates on their news. Again, I know how I would go about generating one for blog posts, the problem is really just the time/effort of learning what they should look like - that is - exactly what the XML (RSS=~XML, right?) should read.

With a more controlled RSS feed, important topics - ones in the blog - would appear, but less important topics, and blog discussion, would be in the bulletin board.

So, in a nutshell - ideas, anyone?

[CNHT]

As long as you can alert the public to what is going on in their town and when and how to defeat/support it, that is the key.

A mailing list to which they can self subscribe is nice because you can send out important dates and activism needed appeals.

[error]

Right now my top goals are to finish writing a blog program, and use that instead of blosxom, and give people other than myself, who are more up to date about the goings-on access to add posts.

Yes, I have an idea. I suggest that you don't waste your time reinventing wheels.

[CNHT]

Right now my top goals are to finish writing a blog program, and use that instead of blosxom, and give people other than myself, who are more up to date about the goings-on access to add posts.

Yes, I have an idea. I suggest that you don't waste your time reinventing wheels.

I love Word Press! Why would anyone want to WRITE blog software when it's there for you? There are a bajillion templates as well.

[error]

And, it can manage all of your static content, too, like any decent CMS. Plus, if you know where to look, you can see my name right there in the credits.

[aries]

I'm already in the process of writing my own blog program.

I like to write programs. I'm not reinventing the wheel, I'm just making a tiny wheel rather than a monster truck - Wordpress does a lot that I don't need it to. Right now blosxom is working okay, I just want more control over the code. I don't speak perl so I get a bit nervous when I start to edit the code. Well, not nervous, just not "at home."

Writing the stuff myself helps me learn and become a better programmer. Plus, I get to put it to good use.

[error]

So you are reinventing the wheel.

I wouldn't even attempt to write my own blog program, and I'm almost certainly more capable of it than most.

[Vote Tyler Stearns]

Hey Aries. I just went to the forum at PLN and attempted to post a thread.  I guess it worked.  I'm not into the computer/programming/technical stuff.  Not much of a forum dweller either.  I'd like the opportunity to post on a PLN forum, so appreciate what you set up.  It was a little confusing for me, though, and not particularly user friendly.  But, maybe that's because I'm a technoidiot. 

[aries]

So you are reinventing the wheel.

I wouldn't even attempt to write my own blog program, and I'm almost certainly more capable of it than most.

I dont think it'll be that hard. I've written a tagboard system, at minimum a blog just needs to be that, with the display reversed to most recent is displayed at the top. I want to do it to learn. You might be happy to simply know that you could but choose not to, but I have to prove things to myself. That's why I wrote a book - I know anyone can, I wanted to prove to myself that I could. That's why I do most of what I do, because I need to make sure I can do it

Also, I have a passion for extremely optimized, tiny, secure software, damn near an obsession. There aren't many blog scripts that I know of that are, say, under 10k zipped.

[CNHT]

So you are reinventing the wheel.

I wouldn't even attempt to write my own blog program, and I'm almost certainly more capable of it than most.

I dont think it'll be that hard. I've written a tagboard system, at minimum a blog just needs to be that, with the display reversed to most recent is displayed at the top. I want to do it to learn. You might be happy to simply know that you could but choose not to, but I have to prove things to myself. That's why I wrote a book - I know anyone can, I wanted to prove to myself that I could. That's why I do most of what I do, because I need to make sure I can do it

Also, I have a passion for extremely optimized, tiny, secure software, damn near an obsession. There aren't many blog scripts that I know of that are, say, under 10k zipped.

That is very impressive Aries....
The rest of us regular geeks just take other people's software and make it work, but you actually write it.

[error]

There aren't many blog scripts that I know of that are, say, under 10k zipped.

I know of one, but nobody in his right mind would ever run it. The guy who wrote it -- and its only user -- is a Grade A first-class asshole. And to top it all off, he wrote it in perl!

The other issue here is that, in theory, you're supposed to be putting together a Web site which is actually useful. Writing your own code might be fulfilling, but it will introduce significant delays in this process.

[CNHT]

Yep, I'm the queen of quick and dirty. :-)

Actually quick a clean....for time is of the essence.

[aries]

There aren't many blog scripts that I know of that are, say, under 10k zipped.

I know of one, but nobody in his right mind would ever run it. The guy who wrote it -- and its only user -- is a Grade A first-class asshole. And to top it all off, he wrote it in perl!

The other issue here is that, in theory, you're supposed to be putting together a Web site which is actually useful. Writing your own code might be fulfilling, but it will introduce significant delays in this process.

What's the name of the program? If it's blosxom, that's what the PLN site is running, but I doubt you mean that, since it's relatively widely used. I once tried running this - http://www.83p.unitedti.org/bfm/ but it proved rather troublesome. And the PLN site is as useful as it needs to be as it is now - news/updates, links, discussion, and a contact form, which I doubt will see more than 5 uses in its entire lifetime. I'm not worried about delaying the process of creating the site, because it's already what it needs to be, and what the end user sees likely won't change if I implement my own blog system, versus the currently used one, I'll just feel better about what's running somewhere inside me, because I'll know the ins-and outs of every line of the code, I'll be certain that it's secure, and doing its job in the most efficient way possible.

Is there anything that you find not useful about the PLN site as it is? I'd love it if it had a "real" blog, with articles and long tirades with large numbers of user submitted comments, but as it stands, we don't have an editorial team writing weekly essays on local topics. As the community grows, so grows the website.

[aries]

Hmm, haven't heard from Jason yet, he was keen on getting a discussion board up on the site, I think he'll be happy that I've added one.

error - reading back over my posts I think I might have had a confrontational tone so... erase that, didn't mean to. I am actually working on writing a blog system right now. I think I did manage one bit of ingenuity in it - it writes to a flat file in append mode, every entry is a line, but it reads the file back in reverse, and displays only the last $X lines (entries), backwards, so the most recent is first. It's in my favorite format too - one big PHP file with a lot of if/elseif/elseif statments to cover every function.
Working with Arrays is a challenging yet rewarding acitivty. I'll probably publish it on my own site once it's complete enough for general release.

[error]

error - reading back over my posts I think I might have had a confrontational tone so... erase that, didn't mean to. I am actually working on writing a blog system right now. I think I did manage one bit of ingenuity in it - it writes to a flat file in append mode, every entry is a line, but it reads the file back in reverse, and displays only the last $X lines (entries), backwards, so the most recent is first. It's in my favorite format too - one big PHP file with a lot of if/elseif/elseif statments to cover every function.
Working with Arrays is a challenging yet rewarding acitivty. I'll probably publish it on my own site once it's complete enough for general release.

That's scary.