Announcement: New Indmas.org Site

[ejsimcox]

Dear INDMAS enthusiasts:

Our Website, http://www.indmas.org, has been redone. I strongly encourage all of you to stop by and create your member account today. Features include: automated event calendar, forums, picture gallery, and private messaging. We will be adding some new features in the near future, such as a reefkeeper’s journal which will allow you to document your tank-keeping experiences so that others can learn from your successes and mistakes.

We will also be adding the Society’s organizational documents shortly and will provide a sounding board to discuss the on-going business of the club.

When you create your account, please be sure to subscribe to the newsletter so that you can receive monthly club information via e-mail.

Please tell as many people as possible about the new site. There is a feature on the left panel of the Website called “Tell a Friend!� Please use this to let people know about the site.

At the same time, I would encourage folks from other clubs to check us out. We are interested in getting together with clubs in states contiguous to Indiana for meetings, frag swaps, etc.

If you are interested in moderating forums or writing articles for the site, please let us know.

Finally, there has been concern that creating forums on indmas.org may jeopardize our club’s presence on Reef Central. This is certainly not our intention. Other clubs in the United States have very vibrant club Websites as well as an active forum on Reef Central. The forums available to you on the club Website have to do specifically with club business, as well as Indiana topics. As you will see, there is very little overlap with Reef Central. ReefCentral is an invaluable tool for us all and we encourage our members to stay actively involved in that on-line community.

Thank you for your continued support of Indiana Marine Aquarium Society. We look forward to seeing you at future meetings and on the Website!

Regards,

Ed Simcox
Indiana Marine Aquarium Society

[Hooked4life]

Looks great--thanks to you and those who participated in that effort :thumbsup:

[The Jackel]

Hey Gang...I am getting Page Not Found Errors for the header and the body of the site. Anyone else getting them?

[The Jackel]

All Fixed...Maybe just a blip.

Thanks,
Sean

[ejsimcox]

Please let me know if you experience any more difficulties. Thanks.:)

[matt the fiddler]

will we have to enter the numbers in the box every time we login? seems liek a lot of security for a little club. lol

[reeftechie]

haha, that is because Ed doesnt want help :( he wont share...

[ejsimcox]

There have been so many well-documented hack attempts on VBull and PHP-Nuke recently that the authors have added this security to the base code. Since you are able to remain logged in via cookies, you should only have to authenticate once in a while. :)

[matt the fiddler]

oh good- :)

[reeftechie]

I am going to set one up with Vbulletin and vbPortal, I hate the phpnuke version from the 5 mins I have spent on it. I will donate a copy, I will load it on my server and then we can decide which one we want to use. We are going to have to have a couple of people with admin rights, if someone leaves then we have a backup.
Way more functions for vBulletin, its like comparing a ford tempo to the new ford gt.

RT

[DensityMan]

Have to wait until I get home to finish the authenticating. The site is much improved visually (I can read it and it looks clean).

Still looking to help out...

(Writing a little observations piece about the Inland trip as well)

[ejsimcox]

Originally posted by reeftechie
I am going to set one up with Vbulletin and vbPortal, I hate the phpnuke version from the 5 mins I have spent on it. I will donate a copy, I will load it on my server and then we can decide which one we want to use. We are going to have to have a couple of people with admin rights, if someone leaves then we have a backup.
Way more functions for vBulletin, its like comparing a ford tempo to the new ford gt.

RT

Um, RT, you are the ONLY person in the club who has had anything negative to say about the system. We have aready received many positive comments from members that are happy to finally have a site we can call home. You had four months to do something with the site and never got very far.

We have put a lot of time into this new site and we are going this direction with the site: PHP-Nuke/Coppermine/PHPBB. As I mentioned in my e-mails to you, you are welcome to moderate some forums.

We have many folks that would like to play a roll in the new site. It's not just you, RT. As I said early on, I don't plan on being an active moderator once the site is debugged and secure, so there will be many people involved in site/content other than me. I was asked by people in the organization to step up the plate and get the site done, and that is what I did (with the generous help of others such as Cory, Shawn, Aimee, Jeremy and Ken).

Oh, and there are already multiple people with admin rights to the system.:)

[reeftechie]

Ed,
Is it not possible for the Club to vote on it? I don’t understand the harsh tones bro, just stating that I installed a copy locally, nothing bad about what you have done at all, stating on the copy I installed here, and it is a lot harder to use then vBulletin. I think I am the most active on the new forum bro, no way would I bash a fellow reefer friend.

I like the functions of vBulletin a bit more, easier to add functions, hacks, etc. You did a wonderful job bro, not basing you at all.

It is a lot better that’s for sure, I was just offering to donate a free copy of vBulletin. I just wanted to make sure that we as a club had the option to see which one functions better.

vBulletin is the best out there, as you can see Reef Central Use's it. I am not worried about moderating anything, just wanted to let others see the power of vBulletin, people already use to it by coming here, so I was just thinking why change. If people know a certain thing why change.

I am for the good of the club, I was going to set one up, then "We as a Club" decide which one was easier to use, etc. With vBulletin I have a lot of hacks for it, so people can have fun while playing around and learning.

If you want me to not worry about it as a group then I won’t bother anymore. I will just zip it and not worry about it.

RT

[ejsimcox]

RT,

I really hated to even get into this, but I felt I needed to respond.

When we were choosing which system to use, I specifically asked what functionality VBull had that PHP-Nuke did not. You didn't answer me. The answer (IMHO) is that there is none that we require. So, why waste money on Vbull when you can get an excellent platform from PHP-Nuke? Plus you can LEGALLY modify all aspects of PHP-Nuke. Plus, all mods are free. Plus, there are many more registered mods available to do the things we need to do. (But I digress)

The last thing I wanted to do was p1ss you off, RT. :( Especially because you could probably kick my butt!

[DensityMan]

Yeah my money's definitely on RT in a butt-kicking competition... when RT wins can I take Ed's Canon? *grin*

Back to everyone's respective corners now... ;)

I still don't care which code we jump through, I just like having a clean site with a private area where I can make and referrence an online list of members with names, faces and contact info... ;)

[coryc]

Ed,

The site looks great, thank you. I for one appreciate the time and effort you have put forth, not to mention the server space.

I vote we stick with the current scheme and move forward. I never had time to work with site, and I gave the site to someone back in March and apparently they (sorry can't remember their name ...sc4r3d??) didn't have much time either. So it's great to see what Ed has accomplished in a short period of time.

Cory

[reeftechie]

lol never bro. I understand about the free thing for sure :D. Its all good bro, we will just run with this and if we outgrow it or want to change, I will donate a free copy. We are cool bro, no need to get mad at each other, I am here to help in any capacity needed bro, you just ask me and I am there. You are still more then welcome at my home anytime :D...

RT


ps
being big has it advantages :D haha.. you have my email let me know if you dont have my number and I need yours as well. I will be in indy in a few weekends and want to see your tank.

[justgettinstarted]

maybe if you guys want something to look at you should check out

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/

If i remember correctly it is run by the Puget Sound Aquarium Society and is an awesome site.

They have forums similar to reefcentral but with 1 huge difference.... The majority of the people on there are not know it all, or total idiots (where as there are many people on RC that are). And as for people asking questions i am more likely to take my time (which is quite limited) to help someone that is in the same club. I think that there are several people in the club that know a whole lot of stuff that they could help out with. Because i know for sure that 90% of the questions people ask on RC i dont answer just because it is a waste of my time.

My push would be for 2 things... getting sponsors to donate stuff... and pay for the website (as they have)

and then having monthly raffles or whatever (as they also have... this month it is for a $200 give certificate to a sponsors site)

but thats just my opinion

[matt the fiddler]

one other thing- can we have PM boxes that hold 100s and 100s of messages? deleting every other day and loosing info here on RC gets annoying :)

[ejsimcox]

You can have 200 messages in the inbox, 100 in the sent box, and 300 in the save box.

[matt the fiddler]

:)

[reeftechie]

Originally posted by ejsimcox
You can have 200 messages in the inbox, 100 in the sent box, and 300 in the save box.


my god I dont know that many people.. Guess its time to fill up eds pm box :D

[Hooked4life]

Wow!!! 53 people have registered already :eek2: :eek1:

I'd say there's some interest :D

Is there a way to access a list of members?

Great job Ed!!!:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[ejsimcox]

We are working on it. We should have that set up pretty soon.:)

[justgettinstarted]

my biggest beef with that setup on the site is that it doesnt take you back to the forum after you post... kinda a PITA.. but o well