- This topic has 27 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 9 months ago by
Warren B. Musselman.
Warren B. Musselman.-
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Warren B. Musselman
I’ve asked for 3 years to have someone step up and take over this website. I have had literally no one contact me who was even vaguely qualified to take the role. As of this years annual meeting, I’m done. If the website crashes, don’t call me.
Someone needs to step up to the plate and step up NOW! If someone does, I will be happy to work with them transitioning over responsibility over the next 6 months or so. If no one does, this website is no longer going to be supported by anyone.
Did I get anyone’s attention? I hope so.Here’s the deal – we need someone who can do the bullshit daily website management: vetting and approving new members, moderating forums and updating news items as well as the occasional editing of HTML-based pages. Secondly we need someone who is competent in PHP and Ajax to update the code for contests and complete the membership management system. Finally, we need someone with the gumption to clean out the user database from all the spammers.
One problem I’ve noted, repeatedly, with this club is that very very few people step up to the plate when the club need something. There are, at most, a dozen people who will volunteer and follow through – you know who they are. They’re the ones who show up, tow the trailer, set up the range, cater the annual meeting, manage the website, manage the clubs money, interface with the FAA and forest service… the rest just show up to fly. Tying this issue to this topic is that I KNOW there are at least 6 people in this club with the requisite skill set to handle this website. Do you care enough about this club to step up to the plate?[/b]
Warren B. Musselman
By the way, in case you didn’t guess – I’m cranky. I just spent 5 hours blocking a Russian spammer, doing security patches to the content manager and locking the website down a bit more. I’ve got health problems and life problems (3+ years of unemployment anyone?) that I’ve got to deal with and so rocketry has got to take a back seat. I can no longer continue to be responsible for this site and the club desperately needs someone to take the reins. PLEASE!
BEAR
Warren, I would like to jump in and help, only thing is I know less about software than I know about women. I can build a computer in my sleep, but code? What is code? Ajax, that is a type of missile, isn’t it?
Sure I can help, what do you want me to learn? If you tell me I am not qualified, then I understand that also. I have been unqualified before. I ocassionally do the other things like tow the trailer and help set-up or tear down because the skil-set is very small. I could teach my mastiff to do some of that and help. But write code, understand the stuff, get the correct protcols, and de-bug it? Not this year and probably not next unless I have a very patient tutor with a lot of time. If this is of interest to you, talk to me. 😳Warren B. Musselman
The chief job requirements are thus:
– General knowledge of website operations in a LAMP environment
– PHP Nuke content manager experience helpful
– Ability to use text editors (Notepad, Brief, Multi-Edit, etc.) to modify raw HTML and PHP files in order to update certain specific pages.
– Ability to login and check/authenticate/approve pending new user authorizations preferably daily.
– PHP/Ajax programming experience would be ideal, but not necessary for web management duties. However, if you’ve got those skills, knowledge of version control software, code repositories and sites such as bitbucket.com would also be a requisite. In my ideal world, a real web developer/programmer type would take this site over. For those that are, we’re in a PHP/MySQL backend using PHP Nuke 8.x on the server side as the content management package.Experientially speaking, I’m not much of a web programmer – C/C++ and assembly language is more my speed. So most of the specialized development (launch logs and contests being the main part general users see) has been carried out by external programmers. The main programmer for the AJAX extensions was a club member who has unfortunately drifted by the wayside. As a club we either need to find a member with these skills or give up on having contest results reported on the website.
John A. Wilke
I wish I could help – my skills are not up this alley. That said – a hearty THANKS to Warren for getting this site to where it is. He’s plowed a lot ground that many of us take for granted. First beer is on me at the annual meeting, Warren –
BEAR
dittos to what John said. I’ll buy the second one if wanted. Wish I could help with a job or other stuff. (‘course I need to know more to know how to help, but I am willing!)
Bret Packard
General knowledge of website operations in a LAMP environment
– PHP Nuke content manager experience helpful
– Ability to use text editors (Notepad, Brief, Multi-Edit, etc.) to modify raw HTML and PHP files in order to update certain specific pages.
– Ability to login and check/authenticate/approve pending new user authorizations preferably daily.
– PHP/Ajax programming experience would be ideal, but not necessary for web management duties. However, if you’ve got those skills, knowledge of version control software, code repositories and sites such as bitbucket.com would also be a requisite. In my ideal world, a real web developer/programmer type would take this site over. For those that are, we’re in a PHP/MySQL backend using PHP Nuke 8.x on the server side as the content management package.Is that english? 😯
BEAR
I am thinking out loud here, so forgive my ignorance. Where can we find such people that are capable of doing the job Warren as been doing for us for so long and so well? What does it cost to hire someone to do this, if we bring them in from the outside, since, at the time of this writing, no one within the NCR is either willing to do this task or has the wherewithall to do, or has the time to do it. At the last general meeting there was discussion of raising dues. Joe, our greatly appreciated president who is doing a yeoman’s effort, and whom I hope will willing continue this task, showed us that financially we were fine. that may not be the case now after the shunted Oktoberfest that we had, but regardless, we were fine in January. Would the memebers be willing to ante up a bit more and dedicate those funds to hire a webmaster? Just asking and looking for the reasons that say this suggestion is wrong and not needed. 😳
MikeS
A Plan ‘B’ is a great idea.
I would be willing to up the ante.
I, as many, do not have the knowledge to help.
Warren B. Musselman
Joe already does much of the content management in terms of the News feed and even knows a few HTML tags like bold and italic, but by his own admission doesn’t want to delve in deeply enough to manage some of the more technical stuff.
I should say that as long as we pay the hosting bill, the site won’t go away or crash and burn. The key is the minor day to day management issues of vetting new users, occasionally moderating out porn and other spam (infrequent since we put all new users on moderation until their ID and country of origin checks out) and just generally checking that the site is up and working. This is a daily activity and does require at least a few minutes of undivided attention by someone with web management experience.
What I’m really hoping is for someone who can take over and move the site forward into the future. Update the contest code and databases, complete the club membership management and bookkeeping module (for exec committee members only) and apply security patches and updates to the site. This sort of stuff requires a real web developer and not just someone who can use the content management system to add/update content. Jeremiah Johnson worked on the site for a couple years and did much of the code and security patching I refer to, but family responsibilities made him step back. A guy like Jeremiah or the programmer who wrote the original contest code and altitude record stuff costs over $100/hour for small projects like this. Our site would probably have cost well into the 5 figures if we’d had to pay for these guys.
I should say that in the time since this site went live (Aug 2005), we’ve had dozens and dozens of inquiries about our site from other clubs, TRA itself not to mention quite a few compliments. Very few clubs have websites of this level of professionalism and flexibility. We have been blessed with some truly professional web developers helping to take this site forward. We’ve barely touched the capabilities of this software and while I know what the technology is capable of, it takes good programmers to make those ideas concrete. I’m definitely not one of them – I’m just the guy who knew how to manage folks who do that kind of thing.
Warren B. Musselman
BEAR
John A. Wilke
Bret Packard
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