[Cc-webedit] Proposal: Website overhaul

[Neil]

Hi Tim and Jon
              Thanks for you comments. I agree the website is in dire
need of an overhaul.

The website has been revamped every year at about this time. A new
website would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. As we are
using Drupal with it's infinitely varied ability to alter styles, menus
and content any changes can be achieved on the present installation.

On Drupal, I think we should continue to use it  (or another CMS ,
though Drupal was chosen as the best.) It has allowed and encouraged
neighbourhoods and working groups to participate like never before.

I'll run quickly through some of the points Jon made.

Navigation: is the key to access and needs restructuring carefully
Search: The present configuration of Drupal doesn't allow use of the
inbuilt search engine. Hopefully the new one will.
Identical titles: The title in the browser bar is set in page.tpl.php
I don't know a way of varying it.
Aliases: Generous use of aliases will help navigation and searches.
Designers: We definitely need designers for the new look. Maybe Amelia
could help here.
Editors: Finding universal editors, text editors and encouraging groups
to take on their own pages is the hardest task facing the website and
always has been.
CSS, messy tags: Another of my bugbears, we need much tighter coding.
Finer-grained access: Can't  see how we can do better, maybe I missed
your point.
Style guide. Goes with neat css and messy tags. If we work to W3C
standards and validate pages we should be OK. Producing guidelines and
examples is a good idea.
Feedback: Definitely should be facilitated.
Twitter: We already have a link to Twitter feeds, rss would help.

This is by no means exhaustive but I hope will help with discussion at
the gathering.

In peace Neil