Membership database (was Re: West Side InstallFest)

[Kimi A. Adams]

In answer....................

At 6/26/02, you wrote:
>Isn't there an announce list?  If the membership of this list were exposed
>to its members (which I see right now it isn't - only the admin can see this)
>then you'd basically have an email list.  Maybe this could be augmented
>with a database which maps the emails to some web links.  Every member
>could modify this mapping to link the email to a "my involvement with
>PLUG" type page, and some software could be set up on the PLUG web
>server to optionally host those pages there instead of on members' own
>web servers, for those who don't have their own.  Your password for your
>mailing list membership should be re-used to grant you access to edit
>your automatically-created default member page.  Sounds like a job for
>Zope or something doesn't it?
And that's the reason for my two cents or so.  That's what Unity Wave 
does.  We have programming that allows for quick duplication of a 
"template" that is then easily updated by the user rather than the 
webmaster.  I have proposed this kind of programming before.  Sometimes, 
it's the grumbling that doesn't let a project begin or finish.

>If you separate the membership database from the mailing list, then it
>is not self-maintaining, nobody will care very much about keeping it
>up to date and soon it will not be.  Witness the shortness and age of
>this page: http://plug.phoenix.az.us/membersites.shtml for proof of
>that.  See how many links you can still follow.  I believe I sent in
>email to notify the web master that my link is way out of date, but
>never got a response.  But if members can maintain their own links at
>the same time they manage their list subscriptions, then it will tend
>to stay up-to-date.  Which means of course that this ought to be a
>Mailman feature, ideally.  Every member of any list ought to be able
>to put a URL next to his name on the "member list" page.


Your suggestions are of the utmost importance to me.  If I can move forward 
with programming for something like this, then those suggestions will be 
implemented if we can possibly implement.  I only have history with PLUG 
for a year and a half or so.  I don't know what has been tried before or 
what hasn't.

We make life and changing life easy for the end user.  Personally, I don't 
want to have to go back and fix everything that a user can't.  I don't want 
to have to hard code any URL anywhere on my pages unless I have to.

If the decision were actually made to do so, we are poised and ready to 
move forward.

Kimi Adams
Unity Wave

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