Hi all

Ideas for redeveloping this site, which is long overdue:

community (jomsocial)
paid biz directory memberships (can stick with sobi)
events - calendar, invite, guest list/attending, two-way email comms (jomsocial)
twitter, facebook & co (jomsocial)
forum (jomsocial)
video + photo gallery (jomsocial)
mailing list (ymlp)

Andrew suggested also that we split the major events site ({location.}joomladay.org.au) from the community site (joomla.org.au)
which I agree with.

Please add your own ideas here and we should come up with a blueprint that hopefully works for all.

We also need our facebook, people.joomla.org, community.joomla.org and twitter to be more organised, active and integrated.

And lastly if you would like to volunteer your time, enthusiasm and skills in this redevelopment, please do!

cheers
Dex

Sorry I missed out on Tuesday night....

Sounds like lots happened.

Anyway, I think the JomSocial path is the best option for this site as well. There are reasons for me not wanting to use it but as an overall package it is the best out there I think.

For ease of implementation and integration it is definitely the go.

I'd also prefer MailChimp over YMLP but I think that comes down to personal preference of the mailing systems.

I'd love to dedicate some time to the project now that I do have more spare time.

Peter

More spare time Peter? OK, you're on.

Yep could consider moving from ymlp.com. I use ymlp out of habit and because it's cheap, reliable and easy.

yeh give MailChimp a go.

Its cheap as well. free account if you send less than 3000 emails a month.

One feature I really like is the RSS to Email. Very easy publishing especially from a blog

Hi Dex,
Looks like I also missed a big meeting, I'll definately be coming to the next one.
I'll put my hand up now to volenteer to help implement the redevelopment ideas.
I'm assuming the redevelopment includes a new site template,
have you starting thinking about which one we should use?
Are we getting involvement from the other Australian JUG's?

regards

Tim

Another Mailing System to consider - Campaign Monitor. They offer free email credits for user groups (and potentially pizza/beer/prizes for meetings.) more info

Looking forward to discussing the redevelopment at the next meeting.

mmmmmmm I've been using Campaign Monitor for a very long time now and didn't know that they did the whole free pizza thing! That would be awesome to take advantage of free pizza. Everyone chips in a little anyway for the food.

1) Other things on the site i'd like to see is a really good level of social media integration. I'd love to see conversation threads get pushed to Facebook Joomla Australia page, Linked Joomla Australia and a various twitter accounts for around the country.

A lot of automation in that whole process I think is best.

2) Would anyone like to open this site up to more blog/article submissions? Have an Australian based network that submits Joomla news and information on the site? I think it will be a good way to build traffic on the site and give members of the site creditability as Joomlamites.

Peter

I agree with your number 2. Peter

Dex - I will not be able to be at the meeting on the 10th, but if anyone wants me to help with the redevelop of the site "template or graphics" I am willing to assist.

Elfra

Mailing List: Interesting you're all still considering an external mailing service. Acajoom's now matured into JNews, and is certainly adequate for the site.

Unfortunately, the issue remains with the hosting's email limits, but apart from that, I would be leaning towards having an integrated joomla solution on a joomla site.


Forum: I've not used jomsocial forums enough yet to decide to move away from Kunena, so would be interested to hear whether people's experience with jomsocial forums is better than kunena.

There's a few features in kunena that are missing (but are in development) such as being able to watch a forum area for new posts (rather than just a thread), but overall kunena's offering is suitable for most forum needs.


Joomla 1.6 I think is going to be the way forward for Peter's #2 suggestion. So perhaps it's a case of holding out for 1.6 Stable?

@Partic Yep it's the hosting issue. On top of too many years trying to get Acajoom to work under such restrictions. Mailchimp seems like the best option to me personally. Also there is a potential security issue with holding user data in Joomla.

@Elfra thanks!

@Peter yep I agree (1) and (2)

thanks all - it should be a great discussion. We will post here after the mtg for further input.

cheers
Dex

Thanks Dex and Elfra,

@Partic: the hosting limits is the only reason why I don't use AcaJoom/JNews. I have my own dedicated server where I can change the limits but opening my own IP to being black listed isn't a good option. Especially when I have clients continually sending out emails wondering why no one is buying any of their products. (Off topic)

The AllTrader guys in Adelaide have a module that integrate the user registration in Joomla in to MailChimp mailing lists. It's a step towards a more seamless integration there.

Also on item 2, (article submissions.... )

might be a good idea to wait for 1.6. It can be a joint project between many contributors for what might be all our first project in 1.6 and collaborative learning is always a bonus.

Personally I can't wait that long

I'd love to use 1.6, but I went thru developing this site in 1.5's infancy and it was rather painful. SO it would want to be fully cooked first!!

Good point Dex.

k2 would be a nice option as well.

toats obsessed!

OK, top meeting last night on this subj. Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful input.

Some of the ideas I managed to write down:

Events - RSevents good, but Jomsocial's new events functionality includes the invites we need, so we will probably run with that. (Peter R, Peter B & others)

Need more fluffy icons on home page! (Patrick)

Home page needs re-thinking completely, from a user's perspective. True that! (James and others)

Need a general info page about user groups (Kingsley)

Business Directory - should be free?; needs to be more integrated - can we include it in profiles, so it's directly linked from forum posts?; needs to be SEO friendly; Can we adword entries, if not free?; needs 'profile % complete' to incent people to add all relevant info and also testimonials; (Anthony and others)

- Can continue with Kunena forum

- realtime chat for support Qs? (Audra)

- Need to hook in to Facebook, Twitter, people.joomla.org, community.joomla.org, magazine.joomla.org, mailing list - publish events info and get links back in to community site

Volunteers to help with build:
Peter B; Robert F; Audra; Tim P; Elfra; Anthony; Kingsley
- if you volunteered and I didnt write your name down, please add again here

And please add your ideas below, as I couldnt write down everything.

thx all - time I set up the skeleton site for you all to get cracking?

Dex

Great! I think we should start.

Seeing that I offered to help with the template I think people can post here or email me any specific ideas that they had in mind and I will then put some concept design together for discussion?

My email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Elfra

Hey Elfra

Thanks! It would be great if we could have all discussion here on the forum, so others can join in!

cheers
Dex

Hi All,

I've been terribly neglectful here!

I only came back since I got the mail re: Perth User Group.

That said, I saw you guys were on about mail programs. I'd stay away from Acajoom/Jnews, still buggy with the server side stuff as has been stated.

But...have you looked at acbya mail? Nice to work with, and throttles nicely for servers. www.acyba.com/ Only limitations are from the host for no more than 1500 users per list so not a problem if you break down the lists.

Events, yes JomSocial for anything that doesn't require payment...if money is involved I'd say dth register. Only because it integrates with JomSocial and can take deposits etc etc.

For Directory I don't think it much matters K2/Sobi/CCK Flavour of the month. More a matter of personal preference and what integrates best with the business model of the site. Not sure K2 can take payments but I only use it on a couple of sites.

Cheers from Perth,

Rich

Hi Rich

Welcome back!

thanks for your comments. DTH Register is an interesting tip.

Re the directory we are now leaning more towards extending the jomsocial profiles to include the business card info, as it is then more visible as a link from forum posts, wall posts, blogs...etc instead of being a separate beast entirely.

The use of K2 has still been mooted for other purposes, altho we didnt get around to discussing this at the mtg, so exactly which purposes I do not know.

cheers
Dex

Hey Dex,

Interesting twist on the JomSocial profiles! Were you thinking about the addon for multiple profile types (JSPT I think it's called) to fill that need? I.E. Regular Member profile=type one, Business Member Profile=type two.

I've never messed with the JSPT Plug In, but has always been interesting to me, I just haven't had the absolute need in my latest projects.

Edit: For look and feel of the site, I've been bitten by the Gantry Bug...definitely a great framework and is the case with most RT products easy to customise.

Cheers,

Rich

Hey on the realtime chat...not sure it would fir your needs but there is a JomSocial chat component, originally it had some issues, but I just installed it on a JS community and seems to be working fine now that it's matured a bit. I'll dig up the link in my email.