[SGVLUG] A modest proposal (for the SGVLUG website)

[Lan Dang]

I agree with James about the basic functions of the club website. It frustrated me as a newcomer to the LUG that I couldn't tell from the website if it was active or when the next meeting was. I've become accustomed to getting all my news from the mailing list, but Jesse's email reminded me again why the club website is important.


This club is a functioning anarchy. There is no one person who is designated to do something. We do it because we want to, because we see a need, and because it is convenient (or not too inconvenient).
Though I long saw a need to update the club website, it had been way too inconvenient to do so.

The current club website is hard to edit. Joomla is completely unintuitive to me. It took me a while to find an old meeting notice so I could see the template, and then I could only post one item, because when I tried posting more, I couldn't get it to show up in the right place. This took way more time than I really wanted to devote to it, and I really didn't want to touch it again.

James' suggestion sounds like the right approach to me and if it's as easy as he says, I plan on adding a lot more content to it.

Lan
 

________________________________
 From: James McDuffie <mcduffie at pitfall.org>
To: sgvlug at sgvlug.net 
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 9:41 AM
Subject: [SGVLUG] A modest proposal (for the SGVLUG website)
 
I have a modest proposal for what should be done with the SGVLUG website. I know that Matt and Miguel put effort into putting together a Drupal website, but I think I have a idea that is more maintainable given the structure of the club.

Firstly, I do not believe that our club needs a dynamic website for its own sake. I believe the purpose of our club website is:
1. To let people know when and where we meet
2. Post description of upcoming topics
3. Archive presentations from past meetings
4. Link to the mailing list

All of this can be done with static pages given the frequency of updates needed.

Now that being said, these do not have to be hand edited pages or pure HTML. There is a growing trend of using static website generators.
http://inessential.com/2011/03/16/a_plea_for_baked_weblogs
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2378237

So with this in mind I investigated and found that using one such combination of generator and open source friendly website: Jekyll + Github we can get a pretty nice website for free. Here is why I like this combination:

1. Its free, no one has to shell out for hosting
2. Can utilize Github for user management
3. Can use Git for version control and essential mirror the website to whoever clones the repository (free backups!)
4. The entire website can be deployed pretty much anywhere should Github drop into the ocean
5. As long as enough people are admins there is no single point failure
6. Even if all the admins for the Github page suddenly disappear, anyone could clone the website and redeploy elsewhere
7. Anyone can fork the website and contribute (sending a pull request) without waiting for or needing direct repository access
8. Its pretty easy to use (IMHO)
9. Non-programmers and more web design centric people can contribute more easily
10. Our website is also open sourced!

Stated another way I think this works best with the semi-functioning anarchy of the club.

It requires a minimal amount of effort to be able to contribute:
1. Install git
2. Fork
3. Edit
4. Push changes
5. Issue pull request

Even less effort for people who don't want to use Github
1. Install git
2. Clone repository
3. Edit
4. Email a patch to someone

So if your still reading, I have already set up an example club website here:
http://sgvlug.github.com/

I think its ready to use and just needs additional stuff pulled from the old Joomla website.

Need more information? Well here is a more detailed guide to getting started using a Jekyll website:
http://jekyllbootstrap.com/lessons/jekyll-introduction.html
http://jekyllbootstrap.com/usage/jekyll-quick-start.html

And for people who want to skip straight to the reference material, I found these pages more useful for knowing how to change the bootstrapped website:
https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/YAML-Front-Matter
https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/Template-Data
https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/Liquid-Extensions
http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax
http://github.github.com/github-flavored-markdown/

Did I mention I already have a working example, that just needs a CNAME pointed towards it :) ?
http://sgvlug.github.com/

Now please discuss.
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