Web hosting option

[Reefugee]

I want to start off by thanking the board for all the work they have done. I want to especially appreciate the hard work that Brian and Steve have put into the web site. I realize that we currently get our website hosted for free, so I appreciate what we have.

With that said - I noticed that the board is making a push to discuss club business on the MARS website. To be quite honest, I find our website difficult to use and navigate. As a result, I really prefer not to go there for discussion. On the other hand, CVR and BAR have great discussion forums that are easy to use. I am more inclined to go to use their discussion forum.

I am wondering if the BOG is willing to entertain the thought of going with an independent webhosting company (not Brian's company) who is willing to run a bulletin board type program. My quick assessment shows that the cost is about $20-$30/month for a hosting service. I don't know the club bandwidth usage, but I assume it would be relatively low. If the BOG is willing to consider going with another web hosting company, I am willing to help do the research.

Minh

 

[P.Kelly]

Minh,

I am willing to hear about any research you can come up with. I agree that our website is not user friendly. I would have to weigh that against our current ability to support the site, but would love something easier to use and more mainstream if we could work out the logistics.

Please research away. I will formally bring this up at the next board meeting.

 

[kevin95695]

I love having the MARS website, but as a total tech outsider, I find it challenging to use and up til now I wrote that off to my own ignorance -- However, I'm seeing a lot of comments lately that echo my experience.

 

[MrMikeB]

Thanks Minh for the support! This is exactly what we need - MARS members helping to make MARS better.

Anything we can do to streamline the maintenance and/or time needed to support the website is ripe for discussion. As Brian has noted, the turnover of the Board positions makes it rather difficult to keep forward momentum with the club as a whole, where most of the time we are playing catch up rather than keeping to a long term plan.

 

[Jacob D]

Minh,

Many hosts offer free BB systems with the hosting plan. For example NVR pays about $6 a month for hosting, we have access to phpBB and/or SMF. The nicer BB's such as Vbulletin aren't usually free. Once you customize them handling upgrades and maintenance is no fun. I barely have enough time to update the website these days.

Just a couple more cents for your change cup

 

[Trevor S]

I use e107 (e107.org) for all of my sites... its nice layout, with forums, etc. If needed, I could possibly run the site off one of my servers