Membership database

[Kimi A. Adams]

The purpose of any website or database that is accessible from outside is 
to get to information.  Just like Google and other search engines, it's a 
database that you would search for what you need from people who 
register.  Hans stated there is something being worked on for the 
website.  I have stated I have something available that can be tweaked to 
preferences.

However you send information about the database is fine by me.  SPAM or 
not, if you don't want to read it, delete it.  We can promote it on the 
website and on the lists, including the announce list.

I won't go into whether processing time, display time, hard drive space, 
etc. would be available or would take up too much of these resources.  The 
point is that I am wanting more to find the information that I am looking 
for instead of having to email the listing and searching through the email 
responses to get what I want or need at the time.

I know there are sites out there where I can search for things that I may 
need or want at any given time, but PLUG people are who I turn to.  I want 
to know that if I am looking for this one part or this one service or 
someone who can wave this wand, that I can find it in my own time, rather 
than having to drag myself through lot's of emails and calls that get me 
off track from the "thing" I most want.

Just kinda why I brought this up and how I would like to see things 
improved upon.

Kimi Adams
Unity Wave

At 6/27/02, you wrote:
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>My thoughts on a member database.
>
>I think it is a great idea.  As of right now, we have little information
>about who is subscribed to any of the mailing lists, other than their mail
>address.  Some people might consider that a "good thing".
>
>Any membership information should be gathered voluntarily.  We should not
>require anyone to add information to the database.  We should warn them that
>we will collect at least the email address that they are using to subscribe
>to a list for the membership database.  We do, after all, consider anyone
>subscribed to any of our mail lists as a PLUG member (makes our numbers look
>really great).
>
>I bet we could get Brian to capture a snapshot of the current subscribers'
>email addresses from Mailman.  We could them mass-email all subscribers
>pointing them to a yet-to-be built web page with a form to fill out as much
>or as little information as they want in the database.  I bet we could even
>set up a mechanism to send new subscribers to get sent there automatically.
>Probably should set up a way to delete data when someone unsubscribes.  This
>is tougher because a person may be subscribed to all the lists but only be
>unsubscribing from one or two.
>
>As far a web space for members, how much space do we have available that we
>can use for members' pages?  It is one thing to search the database and
>display data about one member, but it will take a lot more space if we set
>aside even 1M of space for every member.  It will take some resources for the
>database web page that collects the data and for the database and for the
>scripts that need to be written.  It will take more space to search and
>display routines based on criteria input (sounds like a job for our PhP
>gurus).
>
>All in all, I consider this a great project.  It would be even greater if we
>release all the tools after it is done.  I am almost surprised that another
>UG has not done something like this already.  So what do we need in terms of
>hardware, software, and manpower?  Who is gonna organize it? How many members
>would be interested in participating?
>- --
>Jim
>
>Freedom is worth protecting
>
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