Hey,
Some how I was convinced to be a webmaster for the American Society of Civil Engineers asu chapter and I was wondering what is a good web hosting place that is well priced and offers good selection of tools. I have no experience with php/mysql (though I am trying to learn them), so i was wondering what are good tools that will let me create and easily administer (or anyone for that matter).
Thanks
Nadim
PLUG-discuss mailing list - [...]
then On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 about 3 huors later, Mike S. replied:
for no overhead, and extremely close to zero effort on your part, you can create a "group", and/or a "fan page" on facebook -- (and the only tools needed, are a web browser -- e.g. Firefox -- and an internet connection).
Of course then [I "think"], the viewers would have to join facebook -- but I guess if they wanted to [remain sorta anonymous], they could make their profile page invisible except to friends, and not confirm (nor invite) any friends. I think they can even make it invisible to search engines, etc. Technically I think doing this is only allowed by the TOS (or whatever it is called) if they do not already have a "real" profile page on that web site.
Aside from that, LinkedIn dot com also has groups that you can form. Very convenient, -- and cheap ($0.00 as in beer). I am not very up on the "pros" and "cons" there. Having an obligation to join LinkedIn dot com [free] might come with the territory, but that is like being advised to learn English -- (that is, it "would be a good idea" anyway.)
When the "AZ ex-Honeywell" group was started (I am one of the moderators of it), circa Feb. 2006, we didn't know about [the advantages of] facebook, so it was just formed as a group on
yahoogroups.com. Everyone has to have a Yahoo ID (no big deal, those are free), (not a big drawback, IMHO) and there are some pretty cool features there. But I think if I were doing that now, I might lean towards making it a facebook group. Just my 0.02 . YMMV.
Also ASU might have some kind of hosting for student groups.
You probably know more than I do, about the situation at ASU. They [
asu.edu] used to be the landlord and ISP (and one of the major donors, of HW, SW, and [some] free tech support) to the AzTeC Free-Net. For the first 5 years or so, (1994-99) that was a really good deal for AzTeC. Then later, AzTeC parted ways with ASU -- (probably to the great relief of both).
Best wishes, for success,
whatever you decide,
--
Mike Schwartz Glendale AZ
schwartz@acm.org