New FIRST community website

[Ivan Malik]

No offense to chief, but it's starting to get dated*. It is an amazing resource, but it has grown beyond its designed purpose. Chief is kind of the nexus for all things FIRST. It isn't just a forum anymore. It is the #1 way that FIRSTers get their news about the program, how they interact with each other, how their concept of what FIRST is gets shaped, I could go on and on. The point being this site is the unofficial centre of FIRST. While other sites can/will be used as tools and resources, this is where people will flock.

I know absolutely nothing about how the site is/has/will be run, but why not update it to better fulfill its new growth? That being said I know almost nothing about web development or I would be first in line to help. Something I do know is there are tons of extremely talented webmasters out there in the FIRST community. Why not band together and make the unofficial centre of FIRST worthy of its place in our minds?

*By dated I don't mean looks or performance-wise, I mean definition and feature-wise.

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by Ivan Malik

*By dated I don't mean looks or performance-wise, I mean definition and feature-wise.

I think the looks are outdated. There, I said it. Performance-wise, it works extremely smooth. Brandon has definitely done a good job keeping the server in top-notch form.

The main thing is that Brandon Martus is basically the only dev (as far as I know), with others designated as admins and mods. And Brandon has been pretty busy lately.

In reality, the site could use a software upgrade, which would give us access to more plugins/options. This site is used by a ton of people, so I'm sure that any change to any part of the stack must be carefully planned (hardware update, server config, template style, etc).

It would be really nice to try and make CD a more well-rounded resource, instead of trying to spread the community thin. A lot of well-meaning sites have popped up, but in the end, most either die off or limp on. CD and TBA, meanwhile, are pretty much invincible. There's got to be a way to get this going forward.

I've setup the same version of vB on my VPS. Maybe I can get Brandon to send me a copy of the template and whatever plugins are used so we can work from there and build it up. I'm willing to allow others to contribute, too. Upgrade it to 3.8.x then work on styles, building in tutorial systems, etc. I'm sure there may even be a way to have it use GitHub so anyone else with a vB installation can work on separate features.

[blockhead]

I’d agree, it would be nice for something new! But unless this is a community project I see many issues. Before you sit down and start coding a huge site like this you have to consider multiple things, from how your going to build it, even down to a marketing strategy and finding money to fund the servers. I say this from my own experience.

Last year I built a webcast dashboard called At The Control. It originally was a small project that only allowed you to follow my team (537). This year we decided to launch it for every one to use… the hardest part going into competition season was getting traffic to the site. Getting views or people to my site isn’t the goal. The goal is to bridge or connect a gap that FIRST doesn’t already provide, which essentially was accomplished (in my case). But without these great resources I wouldn’t have the traffic I do today. That’s what makes these sites so “invincible” as synth3tk put it, they have been through the storms and similar sites have come and gone but these stood tall and proud. Even through these storms they still had a following.

This past year At The Control was not only a project, but also it turned into my life! You can’t just make something because you have time. Passion and enthusiasm has to be there from the beginning, to sell you’re product or service. You have to show you’re users you really care about what your providing and if you don’t its not going to get a following.

As much as I think it would be great for a new site… I personally think we have a few more years left with our current resources and it will take time for the “right” site to come along to bridge the transition into the future online presence of the FIRST community.

[Amo10]

OK I have just made a website off of the ifixit software. I have not added any guides anyone can make an account and instantly start editing and making new guides. I have set up a basic organization file system but they still need to have summaries added to them but the beauty of it is that anyone can add these anyone can add tutorials. This resource can be amazing if people will contribute.

http://linkserguide.dozuki.com/

[Amo10]

I have just made a new tutorial website the thing that is great about it is anyone can sign up for it and change anything. I have set up the basic frame work but theres still a ton to be done but in opening it up so everyone can help in the making.
http://linkserguide.dozuki.com/