Re: Web site maintenance by non-technical users

[chix linux <linux_chix -at- yahoo -dot- ca>]

 Good morning!
It looks like you are facing the same problem that
I've been struggling with for the last few years. I
have eight vice presidents scattered throughout the
country who know nothing about HTML yet need to post
information to our web site.

I've investigated a number of possible solutions (many
of which I have seen others here suggest to you), a
blog, SSI etc. What I finally settled on was a portal
interface.

I tested several of the open source portals (most of
them based on PHP) until I settled on Max WebPortal,
an ASP based portal. (My host switched my site to a MS
server and setting up the PHP portals became almost as
painful as chewing on tinfoil) Using Max Web gave me
the opportunity to learn a bit of ASP which has been
fun and is now something I can add to my CV.

Anyway, here's how it works:
Users must register to access the different parts of
the site. This allows me to capture their email addys
for future follow-up. Once the user has registered,
they may read articles, post in forums, download files
and visit related off-site links.

The forum section is the section I have found most
useful for allowing my Vice presidents to add their
own content to the site. I've created a few sub-topics
such as Health & Safety or Tracking BO cars, and they
may post to the appropriate sub-topic. The forum
feature also allows users to post News which can be
viewed from the default page.

Entering information in one of the forums is as simple
as filling out a web form then hitting the Post
button. All of the forum posts can be archived and
searched and the web site administrator can see how
many page views each topic has received.

It's all pretty cool, has been well-received by my
members and has made my job so much easier.

If you'd like to see the site, contact me off-list and
I'll send you the coordinates.

Best of luck, Barbara Z.



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