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QRSC Website


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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
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Location: Brisbane, QLD


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QRSC Website

http://www.qrsc.org.au/

I have started updating the last website. I am trying to restore the other one to a location where it is viewable. Might need to restore it temporarily. (other server still exists its just the domain name has been pointed elsewhere) If anyone wants admin privledges or to write content for the site let me know.

Also suggestions welcome. I am hoping to have just some basic info up there. And something which only needs to be updated once or twice a year. And looks better than a wiki.

Steve
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Steven Martin
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http://www.botbitz.com

Post Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:54 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
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Location: Brisbane, QLD


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I have a basic simple skeleton of the website up.

If anyone would like to help out with adding content. PM me a username, password and email address.

I think we should keep it as simple as possible. As the old wiki site quickly got dated. I would also like to take some time to add event reports with videos after each event.

I have done some stats and stuff from our last event but needs all the videos added.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Mon Jun 10, 2013 2:21 pm 
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marto
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Miles has done us up a banner.

Getting there. Just need to populate a bit of a History on the QRSC and some contact details.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:40 pm 
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marto
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Location: Brisbane, QLD


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Ok added very basic about us. And Contact details. If anyone wants to proof read or do up better stuff please do. I can set you up an account or just post it here and I can upload it.

Miles is going to upload some photos to the gallery and I will add in the nationals Teaser/Promo video when it gets done.

Hopefully we can make it pretty easy to upload event reports in the future. Considering I completely replaced the old one in half a day and I don't think it looks too bad.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:48 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
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Location: Brisbane, QLD


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The QRSC site has been down for some time now. Does anyone think its worthwhile putting back up?

Personally I don't think it serves much purpose now we can update the front page here. I still have a copy on my server but its just there as more of a backup than anything.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:20 am 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia


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Butting in a bit (sorry steve). If you guys want to do more with the rest of the RoboWars website, Im open to giving you access to more than the front page as well.

The existing site is certainly getting a bit dusty, but I havent seen anyone produce any content that looks like it is worth rebuilding the html pages for.

What Ive been reluctant to do is let someone whos only been around for a short time, or strikes me a bit of a website newbie embark on a major revamp, or installation of a CMS system without my believing that they will be in it for the long haul.

Any idiot can push the "Install Drupal/Joomla" button in Cpanel and fiddle with the templates. But understanding the backend well enough to be able to deal with PHP and SQL issues, and keep it up to date, back it up, and upgrade it when necessary to deal with the (regular) security issues that dynamic pages suffer is actually quite a lot of *work.

Additionally, the RoboWars server, some email accounts and domain are used by me for other cient-related jobs, so I cant just hand over the keys to the whole server. But I can grant access to selected folders and databases, so if anyone really wants to do more than just update the front page and is prepared to commit to making a serious go of it, I am open to suggestions..

Just thought Id throw that in there incase any of you really want to see any particular additions or updates other than just front page updates. for example, A videos page with dynamic links to youtube event and tutorial videos would be nice.

If you want, feel free to boot this message out of your thread into its own steve. didnt want to hijack the QSRC thread, just thought it was appropriate to mention here
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Post Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:41 am 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
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Location: Brisbane, QLD


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Nah thats fine brett. I think its very similar question.

Thanks for the offer but I think the old website is fine. Its hard enough to get around to update just the front page. If someone wants to volunteer to create a full site with new content then sure it would be great but I personally don't have the time . Nor the time to maintain it and I don't think many others would either.

As long as we have the next event up there on the front page and maybe some basic information that would be fine.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Sat Jan 10, 2015 2:29 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
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Location: Brisbane, QLD


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Further to this disucssion I now own. Robowars.com.au (Robowars.com is a premium domain which is a pain) I did mention to Brett about buying robowars.org as I had forgotten the points above.

My current plan is to get this site to an acceptable state before making it public. If you go there now you will just see a coming soon placeholder. Probably just going to use a CMS. I am slowly working on getting some content up. Currently its just wordpress but I am not sure if thats the best option yet. I am not a big fan.

Key points which it needs to address:
- Consistent branding for all events
- Next event
- Current rules
- Current Contact information

Yes this could be done on current server but:
- This way I can't break anythign
- I can install whatever I want
- This will be my site.

It will be primarily used to promote events I organsie and run. This may end up with a slightly more commercial flavour to it. (One can dream)

It was meant to be done for launch of nationals but hasn't happened yet. For branding I would like to sort out some nice logos which are printable and placeable on all our shirts, banners, arena, facebook etc... This may also involve consolidating email address and Facebook groups.

As for as forum goes I have done a bit of research and it looks very difficult to export and reimport phpBB2 to v3. So will just leave this whole thing for the moment. I don't really want to create another place for discussion as there is already many but I would like something slightly newer which can integrate better with social media, youtube, etc. I am yet to find any good options and I am not sure if forums have got worse (http://www.esp8266.com/) or if I just got too used to this.

Anyway

<watch this space>
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:25 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
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Location: Melbourne, Australia


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I did a fair bit of research into forum software a while back.
Simple Machines seems to be the nicest current piece of open-source code.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Machines_Forum

There are converters, but there are also heaps of posts from people crying because the database didnt convert properly. Given the lack of amazing features of new forums, and the customisations done to this one to cut down on spammers and stuff, it just didnt seem worth it to go to all the trouble for a ~2 to 5-post-per-day forum.

Watch our for Wordpress, its easy to get going, but its often hacked, because so many people use it. Requires regular patching to avoid the frequent vulnerabilities. http://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-2337/product_id-4096/ - add in a few plugins and you will be working hard to keep on top of it.

It also tends to thrash the memory and disk cache i/o on low-end hosting packages making for poor performance. Once you start loading it up with content, you usually have to tweak some of the php config files memory limits up (past what most shared hosting deals will let you), or you will be looking at 10-15 second page load times. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=wordpress+phpbb+memory&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=J6GfVZGrHKWhmgWau4WwDg

Theres a reason Robowars has stayed static HTML for all these years Smile

Everyone thinks that cos Cpanel has a magic "Install WordPress" button, its easy. Its easy to *Start. Its *hard to keep it going. I had a client running a hosting reseller company offer me a job to help out his clients keeping their CMS powered sites hacker free cos it became such a problem and he didnt know enough to keep things patched up properly (without busting the clients sites on occasion).

Anyway, good luck with it, Im happy to link across to you, but I'd give it 6-12 months of stress testing once the crackers scan, find and start probing your site before you can feel confident youve got it dialled in.

and keep your rolling auto-backups up to date ! Smile
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Post Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:48 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 5459
Location: Brisbane, QLD


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Yeh still working out what to do. Wordpress is quick and quite nice looking which is the advantage. I already ditched the one click install as it was a version behind. And there have been a bunch of updates in a month. Need to look into more options.

That simple machines forum looks quite nice and very familiar.

Unfortunately this may not exist for some time yet as I just am still lacking time.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:04 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 5459
Location: Brisbane, QLD


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http://www.robowars.com.au/

I could keep playing for hours but its enough for now to keep it live.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Post Tue Sep 01, 2015 12:44 am 
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