Cryptosmith

The scoutmaster for my son’s scout troop just asked me about the troop web site. Several years ago I’d set up a site for the troop and, after a couple of years, found someone to take it over. Now the site is rudderless again.

The problem is that it’s an HTML site that relies on HTML tools and skills. While such tools are easy to find, not everyone has the skills. It’s obviously more practical for a site like that to have on-line editing. I suppose they could set up a site at Yahoo! or some such place. Or I could give them some space on this site and set up a content management system for them.

I spent a few hours fiddling with Joomla, which provides some nice features:

• multiple layers of login so we can distinguish between troop members and the general public
• type in or upload text articles or pictures
• supports some calendar add-ins, since so much troop activity involves scheduled events

However, it’s clearly going to take a weekend to get such a site designed and operating.

For a moment I also considered using Joomla instead of WordPress for this blog. But Joomla doesn’t appear to support the trackback sorts of things one has in blogs, and that seems an important part of the community.

I’m also thinking about replacing my Cryptosmith site with Joomla - it desperately needs a face lift.

Posted under Household Tech |