[dissent-tech] catching up on website issue

[Space Bunny]

Sorry, since Glasgow gathering I have not had time to do all emails I 
really should, plus lots of other online tasks (such as upgrading other 
insecure CMSes). I am involved in various aspects of g8 mobilisation 
which are pulling on my time, as well as other commitments.

With the change of venue for Glasgow gathering we did not get access to 
camcorder guerilla computer and no training done. But I guess not much 
would have been done because of draw of rest of meetings.

There was a small 'editorial of dissent wide outreach' meeting which had 
me who does web stuff with Andy of Newsletter crew and someone else who 
was interested. It was the opportunity for people to hold us to account 
at gathering. We recognise that although we in both group try to act in 
administrative way, we end up functioning in an editorial way that we do 
not feel comfortable with. But unless another group of people come 
forward and get involved to put in place editorial mechanisms we just 
have to go for it as usual and people can hold us to account at the 
gatherings. It seems to have worked so far, and outreach has been done 
newsletters have been produced and website maintained that people can 
live with. And in fact many quite like.

Andy has been putting his admin access to good us since he had a bit of 
training session round at mine.

One issue was put to us that I wish to act on but with care and time. It 
was our endorsement by linkage of forum on enrager.net a comrade from 
the north of Scotland said they had looked over it and felt no point in 
posting to it due to hostility that can be displayed on there. It is 
like have a meeting in pub which includes people not particularly 
interested and even hostile to what one's group is doing, which one 
would not get if meet in dedicated space. If one looks at one sees the 
number of people doted around Scotland who start to post and then give 
up and then then give up on Dissent. I am hoping this issue might be 
superseded by a new dedicated Reshape forum, as some open has taken on 
to oversee doing much more with Reshape website.

Anyway I will come back to this issue with more examples and views on 
way forward. Also I must declare I have my own issues with enrager.net 
administration such as trading of admin access for porn site passwords, 
replacing my posts in other parts of forum with words 'fuck off you 
cock', so I realise need to proceed slowly with a chance for people to 
express views and not act too soon without debate. I myself see main 
problem that the forum is just a section of a wider forum with a 
particular political focus that is much narrower than broad appeal that 
Dissent aims for. So once people start using it and seeing latest posts 
etc they are draw between sections, which has lessen the utility of the 
forum for the G8 mobilisation.

I found that the Brighton dissent gathering according to the minutes ( 
http://dissent.org.uk/index.php?option=com_docman&task=docclick&Itemid=34&bid=72&limitstart=0&limit=5 
) actually expressed disquiet at endorsing enrager.net as 'our' forum 
for other reasons, but when link was request, none of us 'remembered' this.

> An *Online* *Bulletin Board* will be set up to house political 
> debates. There is already one on /enrager.net/ but people don’t like 
> the url (too black-block-ish). Other options include: nadir; a free 
> commercial site; or using our own website.
>





As for if web group meets in Leeds or elsewhere that is for us to decide 
as a group. If a number of use are going to be in Leeds anyway on Sunday 
I suggest we declare a web group meeting there then. Or if several web 
group people are coming up to convergence meeting in Edinburgh (and day 
trips out and about), then one could be had in Edinburgh, maybe both.



To obtaining urls to directly embed images in articles get them via:

http://www.dissent.org.uk/components/com_akogallery/img_pictures/
http://www.dissent.org.uk/components/com_akogallery/img_thumbnails/

in firefox/mozilla right click copy location and then paste in to insert 
image dialogue in article editor or do in raw HTML if you know how.

Note with new wysiwyg editor in use on site the raw HTML editor is a pop 
up so disable pop blocking for dissent.org.uk if you have it.

I may go and do this for some articles.

If people want to simplify front page go for it. I think once stuff 
there for a while can be swapped back.


Also I think Derby M17 stuff should have been created as category within 
Action Information not as separate section. If I do not hear otherwise I 
may rectify this. Also need to ensure people with admin access to be 
able to do that are on this list. Cat Tracker I found out you gave a 
very high level of access to Andy, and he has then been using this to 
grant other people admin privileges, that is great, but we should make 
sure people keep in touch and and interact on this list who have such 
access, and are give adequate training, but we should not stall 
ourselves from keeping site dynamic and moving forward.



Also apologies to those that got there webmail accounts waxed with big 
files from doordtp, it was dilemma to let them through or now, I won't 
in future, let such big files through as now got one complaint. I guess 
they cause many a person to be unsubbed, with bounces back to list 
bounce address. In future such big files can be sent direct to me to 
upload to filesystem as there is 3MB limit on upload via the web 
interface to doc manager. Cat Tracker I can give you backend access if 
you let me know where I can get your public openPGP key from. I was 
going to just wait till moved to another server but that keep slipping 
btw mine is at http://j12.org/pgp/mgpg.txt
Hopefully doordtp will be sending rest of files direct to me rather than 
list, as they were asked but misunderstood.

Also if anyone has a home (or elsewhere) computer running *nix (eg 
GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris) permanently connected to Internet, 
let me know and that maybe set up account on it to use for regular rsync 
backup of dissent filesystem and db to. Basically it will be case of 
giving me an account on it which I can ssh into (ie correct port 
forwarding set up if router in use).

cheers,

Space Bunny

Cat Tracker wrote:

> Memue items for festival and derby m17 are both temoray, as soon as 
> the dates are here they can be cut, but it just makes it easier for 
> people to see when directed in flyers etc, but yes i agree the menue 
> is full.
> There seems to be a bit of a problem with the front page, I think 
> everyone is adding stuff there, when it dosent need to be.
> I did not go to Glasgow so very much in the dark and out of sync with 
> what is going on, is there a web meeting to be had?
> or are we meeting in Leeds or somthing?
> all the best
> Gary





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