The New System

[Keith Clements]

JowettTalk has been in existence since 2001 where it started as a simple message board. I may bring those old conversations into this new system so that we have everything in one place with one search facility.
Also the JowettGallery started as a 'Contributions' section on the website that started in 1999. This too I may bring into this new system so that we have everything in one place with one search facility.
There is also a lot of other useful stuff on the old website that is hidden there unless you use the old search facility.. As well as that some stuff has ended up in jowett.net that was not in JowettTalk or the JowettGallery. This can also be found using the old search facility.

Of course, the merging of the JowettGallery into the Library has also created the need to reorganise and prune some of it.

So the pressing question is how would you like this done?

First we have to look at some of the aims of the website, some of which create conflicting requirements on the structure of the website.
1. Create a community for Jowett enthusiasts all around the world.
2. Provide a repository for all things Jowett for the future generation of Jowett owners.
3. Record a history of Jowett events.
4. Provide technical information to support the maintenance and repair of Jowetts.

If you can think of any desirable aims please contribute.

As well as the aims there are some constraints.
Although there are some videos and other large files of data on the site, storing these may become an issue if a lot more are added. The back-up facility is currently straining to cope as the process that does it times out due to the hosting provider's restrictions. There are workarounds by breaking the back-up into pieces but this requires effort and monitoring. There are also limits on the number of files that can be stored without paying a lot more for the hosting. I have little faith that storing media on third party sites is a good idea as they can suddenly decide to charge for or change the access method or simply stop operating. Also your control on the media is lost.

So at some stage a decision will have to be made on how to handle large media. Currently YouTube is my preferred storage for video and the new software provides an easy facility to include clips. I am not happy about links to other image storage facilities as they frequently create broken links. Please upload images as attachments, but please reduce their size so that they are just of sufficient quality to display. Unless they are detailed line drawings or important images for the archive they should be less than 800KB.

[Keith Clements]

Whilst relaxing from some of the coding required to transform the Gallery I pondered on the future structure.
So here to help in deciding where the website ends up are these thoughts.

The website home page:
W1 Clubs
W2 Cars
W3 Events
W4 History
W5 Services

The current forum structure : with possible Gallery consolidation
F1 Tips = G1
F2 Library
F3 Buy n sell
F4 Technical = G7, G9, G10
F5 Social
F6 what is on = G2, G3, G4, G5, G6
F7 Co-operative

Current Library, previously Gallery, structure:
G1 Help (jowettalk tips)
G2 am =description copied to respective 'whats on' the n deleted with topics/forums moved to new forum and set magazine (perhaps in new forum) set permission to club members.
G3 aus
G4 nz
G5 joac
G6 jcc
G7 technical (copy club discussion)
G8 personal (remembrance)
G9 press (copy club discussion)
G10 legacy (legacy moderators) may move to F7
G11 public (jowettalk tips)

Classifications
There 4 classifications of forums (note topics and posts cannot be individually classified in JT like they can in the Gallery, But Topics can be put into a new forum with permissions set as required)
Public, = G11, G1 parts of G2, G3, G4, G5, G6 (jowettalk tips)
Users, = G8 (remembrance)
Clubs, = G10, G9, G7 parts of G2, G3, G4, G5, G6 which could be moved to G9 so would clean up library structure (copy club discussion)
Special = There are some parts of albums that are private. e.g. spares. (website maintenance )(legacy moderators)

One possible structure is to organise into Public, Users, Club, Special but this makes the structure cluttered for club members. Forums to which users do not have access are not shown. Some Forums users can see but cannot post into. This raises another question. Should users be allowed to post or reply in say the Library? My gut feel is they should not as this may clutter up that resource, but then comments might not be received. So is it better to allow and then for a curator to edit the content?
Users could comment in another forum referencing the library topic, but that might be too much trouble.

The possible Library structure:
N1 Social= G8,G11,G1
N2 Clubs = G2, G3, G4, G5, G6
N3 Cars = G7, G9, G10

Any comments?