PRA site design thread

I have some ideas about the proposed website. I don't know if they are dooable or even desireable but I thought I'd toss them out. It seems there is a leaning towards a two part site with members only sections. One way I've seen it done is to have a new password every month (or every issue of the magazine) giving the current password. If you stop getting the magazine you stop getting the current password. The members only section could contain a database of the articles in the mag. as well as stuff like calculators, and things casual surfers wouldn't need. I think that section would especially include anything about flying gyros that might lead someone to think they can do it without training.
 
I extracted my following 2/21/05 post from another thread since the proper place for it is in this one.

Brian Jackson said:
Quick question. What is it about the current site people are so angry about?.......
Well, I can't say I'm angry but the screen looked much better before it was tinkered with. Jamie did a good job with it. Also, for us old guys, get rid of that dark border and use the area to make everything larger, especially the text! In fact get rid of the dark colors on all the screens and brighten the site.

Hmmm, just doing some random thinking which in the past has got me in all kinds of hot water but.......

While you guys are at it, give us a download area for some of the spreadsheets that we use to have available to us on Norm's Conference. The EAA reference downloads in their magazine(s) whenever an article uses a spreadsheet. I don't like the fact that they are almost impossible to find on the web site (they have some problems also!) but it is nice that they are made available to members.

Speaking of members, has there been any thought given to a members only area where the real goodies are displayed. It might serve as an incentive to join the PRA. Glimpses of what is available to members could be displayed on the home page. There were several other items on Norm's Conference such as ones from either Peter Lovegrove or Jean Fourcade that would be nice to have available again.

I know several people have talked about a database for PRA mag article topics. If one were created could it be part of the web site? Membership database? How 'bout a 'Meet the Expert' where a short profile, including a picture, of our more respected members could be displayed. The same with the BOD. How 'bout an area for PRA convention award winners pictures. Maybe a PRA hall of fame for past Man & Machine winners? I like the idea of the tributes page but can't something be done with it instead of just links. How 'bout pictures of the people and link from that? A BOD candidates rogues gallery?

What about providing links to help pilots such as flight services and weather info? I see many sites that display the local weather/temp, could this be done for different chapter areas and etc?

Any thought given to aviation related ads (tastefully done so as not to overwhelm the screen) for the purpose of at least paying for the web site?

I just extracted the following from the PRA web site.

(Classified Advertisement Policy

Ads for these homebuilt rotorcraft items for sale or trade are purchased for publication in Rotorcraft magazine. They are published in Rotorcraft magazine prior to publication on this WEB site in order that PRA members may have first access to the ads. To receive Rotorcraft magazine and get an early look at what's for sale, click here to Join the PRA. To place your own ad in Rotorcraft magazine, click here. Rotorcraft magazine is presently published 8 times per year, those issues are: February, Mar/Apr, May, Jun/Jul, August, September, Oct/Nov, and Dec/Jan. Ad orders to Rotorcraft must be received in the PRA office 7 weeks before magazine issue month.)

You see where it says to click here to join the PRA? Well, there ain't no clicker place!

What about dating the classifieds? When they are submitted they are only published for two issues initially. This is according to the web site. If that is the case, is there a way to have them expire from the web site at the end of that time unless they are renewed.

I find that at least half of the pages displayed, when clicking on the menu items at the top of the home page screen, display very little except another menu on the left side. Isn't there something interesting the rest of the screen can be used for? Seems a waste not too! I'm sure someone here can think of something that won't conflict with the prime purpose of the display.

2/22/05 - Would links to FAA docs such as the Rotorcraft Handbook be useful?

Okay, are we about to run out of storage space and/or programming energy yet?!
 
PW_Plack said:
Didn't the old PRA site have a forum, which became smothered by PRA political and liability concerns, and ended up breaking away into Norm's old forum? That forum vehemently disclaimed any direct connection to the PRA, so I'm guessing there was a reason.

The 2003-vintage PRA site offered a link to Norm's forum. The new one could link here. If it ain't broke...
Paul, Norm created the site (Rotorcraft.COM) because as a gyro newbie he needed a place to get info and when he couldn't find one he started the Conference. It never evolved from, or was affiliated with, the PRA in anyway at any time. Norm did sell server space to advertisers and setup separate conferences on his server for the PRA board and some chapter to use for communication. I don't know about the Board conference but the Chapter one was not used to any extent. Norm did not charge the PRA for this although the chapters that participated did kick in a nominal $10/year.

The reason the Conference link on the PRA web site was eliminated was because of all the controversial and passionate discussion that took place on Norm's Conference. While it was good for the gyro community, (some would disagree!) there were way too many people that thought the Conference was PRA affiliated despite the disclaimers posted. And when they got upset with what they read on the Confernce; they called Mentone and gave Pam a hard time! It happened way to often so consequently the decision was made to eliminate the link.
 
LGoodhind said:
........Editorial control of content for a corporate website like www.pra.org really does lie with an editor acting as a proxy on behalf of the board of directors. The only thing I'd like as a member of an org is transparency in the editorial decision making process. This forum exists as a virtual communication area outside of the control of the PRA but attracts a large population from within the organization.

This is a good place for informal discussions but face-to-face, phone, email is probably a better place for formal/official discussions anyhow.
I agree! The PRA web site should be a one way street, so to speak, in that it should present info that indicates the position of the PRA (thats us-ins via our BOD. You'll need a redneck dictionary to find us-ins! Or old issues of Pogo!). Personal positions are presented here and any consensus will eventually reach the decision makers. It would be helpful to that process if there was a formal means of passing on the consensus but I don't know what that would entail.

This is getting dangerously close to a hijacking! So, if anyone has thoughts about my thoughts then please start another thread.

ThanX!
 
Larry/Brian,

Have you guys looked into PostNuke?
It uses a PHP/HTML frontend with a MySQL database.

The core package will allow user registration, with variable permission settings to allow content access to different classes of users (members, registed, admins, editors, etc.).

Adding new articles is as easy as making a post on this forum, or sending an email.

It has the option to mass-email users, allow story submission with moderation, a links section, conduct polls, etc.
It also has one of the largest support bases with lots of additional plug-ins for other features (Image galleries, member/staff listing, etc.).

It comes with a standard set of layout templates, but you can easily modify or create your own.

Best of all...it's absolutely free. :)

Many webhosting companies even offer it as part of their autoinstaller package, along with other CMS packages. Mine does. I clicked a couple of buttons, and the core package was installed.

Here is my site.
There ain't much on it right now, but I've been playing around with it to use for our chapter website.

I'm no wizard with it, but if it's something ya'll want to look into, I'll help where I can.
 
Mike; you're a wizard in my book; but some people infer, I don't know what I talk about?! :D :D


Cheers :)
 
If the information on the old PRA web site were just put back on the site it would then be easy to just update it and redesign as desired over time. Perhaps the PRA could provide the old information - 2000 or 2001?
 
Pra Website

Pra Website

A committee is being created to maintain and update the PRA wesite.

I have volunteered to head this up. Brian, larry, Iven, and Glenn will also be part of this committee.

I hope that this will bring the site up to speed, and provide for better use of the site in the future.

Things will be added to the site, and we hope that you will enjoy the end results.

A committee is the best way to handle this site. No one person will be over burdend, and the site will be updated more often, and more quickly.

Please join me in thanking each one of these individuals for stepping up and delivering !
 
gyromaxwell said:
Please join me in thanking each one of these individuals for stepping up and delivering !

Thanks!! U Guys Rock!
 
Hi All,

I've been sort of following this for a bit. In addition to flying gyros, I'm the webmaster for the Short Wing Piper Club. You'll find that disk space actually doesn't get eaten up that fast, but if you have a transfer limit, that can get chewed really quick on a graphics rich site.

If you guys are working on building a new site, rather than reinvent the wheel, I would suggest phpwebsite. Its free and open source. Available from http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu

I'm using an older implementation at the SWPC site http://www.shortwing.org and am about to migrate them to the newest version which you can see at http://www.shortwing.org/TestSite

I'd like to collaborate on this. The PRA site really needs help.
 
Some notes on websites --
I read through the postings and would like to just add some observations on websites learned in 9 years with Short Wing Piper Club and a bunch of commercial and org sites.

1 - Keep it simple. Avoid graphic rich content. There are a lot of folks still with dial-up. A lot of graphics makes it painful for them as well as cluttering to no really good end. A good site with lots of good information will stand on it's own without splashy bandwidth chomping content.

2 - Distribute administration. Push updates to the site as far out as you can among membership. This co-opts folks and gives them an active stake in the site. The more folks you have working on content, the fresher the site stays. It also helps the top level admins since they can concentrate on technical stuff instead of all the administravia.

3 - Avoid static content. It's a nightmare to maintain. This dictates php/mysql for the most part and points back to #2.

4 - Keep the site fresh (see #2). There need to be daily changes to the site to keep folks coming back. Regular announcements, dynamic pictures, articles by members.

Just some thoughts from a lot of good and bad experiences.
 
Shortwing website

Shortwing website

John, Nice website, very pleasing to the eye ! Our hope is to end up with this and hopfully much more.

We are just getting started, so stay tuned.

You comments are appreciated, and we will be asking your opinion on the format in the near future.
 
What you don't see with the SWPC new site is the way that phpwebsite lets you give really granular privileges to users. For instance, users can be allowed to create new web pages but not make them available for public viewing until it has been approved. Also, they would only be able to edit the pages they created. (Specific persons could be given approval authority, but not be able to create or edit content)

Content can be set a specific lifespan after which it goes away.

The design of the portal is modular with components that control things like articles, announcements, picture gallery, web forum, so on, and so on. Each module has it's own set of permissions that can be granted.

If you guys are interested, I can have a proof of concept site up by the end of the day and you can see for yourselves how cool phpwebsite is and how appropriate for this effort.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to hijack this effort. I've got more than enough on my plate and wouldn't be able to contribute much other than techassist. I just want rotorheads to have a good site.
 
Hi John- We're all pretty much onboard with the advantages of using a CMS (content management system) framework and are planning to look at several .. there's a technical discussion about specifics and dividing up the work taking place on a group pra web website. To stay with our current ISP we need to find something built on PHP/MySQL but that's pretty ubiquitous. I would guess we could take on another two or three volunteers grinding stuff out before the communication overhead for coordination would start getting messy but we can certainly use any input you've got to offer. Thanks muchly =)
 
phpwebsite is built on php/mysql (or postgres). It originally comes out of Nuke.

Lemme know if you want help. If you want a proof of concept site to play with, I can have it up in about an hour.
 
>I can have it up in about an hour

An individual can always move faster than a herd; I think it's that F=ma thing. =)
 
Larry, Brian, and others,

Maybe you have seen this site, but if not try OpensourceCMS.com.

It allows you to see and demo some of the latest open source CMS, blog, forums, etc.

Click on the tree menu on the left to see the different portals out there, like PHPMyWebsite, PostNuke, PHPNuke, E107, Mambo, etc. Each screen will give you a demo username and password to login as an admin and modify the test site to see which one you like best.
 
>Each screen will give you a demo username and password to login as an admin

"This site was created with one goal in mind. To give you the opportunity to "try out" some of the best php/mysql based free and open source software systems in the world. You are welcome to be the administrator of any site here, allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs."

This is great Mike. It has literally every CMS mentioned so far pre-installed for futzing. The tide washes in and does a wipe/reinstall on a regular basis.
 
Man... great site! Overall, it looks like three portals though. Nuke, PostNuke, and PHPWebsite... From my experience I would strongly suggest taking a hard look at phpwebsite. It doesn't do anything astoundingly well, but does it all quite well and is easy to use and administer.

The comments on each bear this out.
 
I started poking at the top of the list looking at those that had high user ratings and lots of users. Of course this was a self-selected survey and people could pump the numbers easily. I'll go through phpwebsite next- a table it requires was missing but the tide's about to come in again and refresh the install. Looks like it has a calendar widget that wasn't in the default install for CPG Dragonfly
-L

CPG Dragonfly (aka CPG-Nuke .. a rewrite of PHP-Nuke 6.5-6.9 with features and bug fixes)

block-based cms layout mechanism with numerous special purpose widgets

features: main menu, registration & authentication with email authorization, active user counts, where are people in the site, staff online, integrated coppermine photo gallery (CPG), private message system, avatar image, forums, website search, news list, surveys, two themes provided, user defined menu option, logo image, maintenance message, news submission system, configurable content comment, autocensor feature, sponsor banners, help translate, member lists and groups, story archive, top 10 list, RSS/RDF news feed, today in history db (it's Juan de's bday!) .. uses nuke module facility so other widgets can be added

http://demo.opensourcecms.com/dragonfly/index.php

username: admin
password: Demo123
 
Top