Database maintenance on this server; sorry for that

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Hi all,

At midnight SLT, the techies on the hosting service where this forum is did a database upgrade, moving them to a set of new database servers (yes, not unlike what LL did; yes, it was a pure coincidence). Unfortunately, the manual move didn't work as expected, and we had far longer downtimes than "a few hours", which was they told me that would happen. Grabbing a techie just when he was barely awake after a quick coffee, he did the changes manually in about 20 minutes or so and now everything is back in order again — hopefully also a bit faster!

My apologies for all that....

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Cindy noticed that shortly after the previous forum upgrade, the "Active Topics" link was always showing up empty. Ack! Apparently, things changed on phpBB 3.0.6, and being on the active topics list is not the default. I've fixed that according to the instructions posted on some phpBB support forum threads, and the "Active Topics" should now be correctly displayed.

My apologies for all that

[Rose Springvale]

Who is the person to talk to about getting threads added to the forum? SEED* has met all the qualifications to be a faction in the upcoming election, and we'd like to post our candidates and platform.

Also, we really need a place to list land for sale.

Thanks.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Ah, Rose, any SC members (the moderators of the forum!) is supposed to be able to do what you requested. But well, I did add the forum as requested and added a group for SEED*. I've also moved the CARE forum to the Archives — since my understanding is that CARE doesn't fulfil the requirements to be an active faction right now.

Where ought the land for sale be displayed? Should we create a new forum? Or a page on the portal? I can obviously create a forum for land sales... but someone who has access to the portal would have to create a page there for you... or should it be a completely new site, say, http://land.slcds.info? What kind of system would work better for that? A blog? An e-commerce site? (e.g. similar to, say, the way parcels are listed on XStreetSL?) Just a static page which the Executive would change whenever it was needed? (in the latter case, it would make more sense to have it under the portal)

[Rose Springvale]

Thanks Gwyn!
Ideally i'd like a place that can be updated at will so that when land is listed or sells, it can be updated. Where not only the government could sell, but private citizens could list their land as well. Where people anyone could search and find us, with basic information about the community... where the sellers could post pictures if they wanted, or not..

but really, that's just what i'd want as a buyer or seller.. i'd like to hear what other people want.

As to where...i am a user, not a coder. I don't care where it is, i just want it to be easy, attractive and do the job. The rest of it should be invisible... including all these restrictions on who can do what, where.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Oh, I have an idea! What about simply having a Google Spreadsheet for that? It's simple to setup, it can be publicly shared, it's easily updated, and, well, although it's not perhaps the most beautiful thing to see on a webpage, it does the trick — and you can set permission rights to whom can edit it, too.

[Rose Springvale]

um, yuck?

We want a marketing tool, not a ledger.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Well Rosie dear... then you want something with pizzazz I suspect that will require a volunteer programmer...

One alternative is to use one of the many available "shopping cart" free and open source software like the popular ZenCart to sell items online (for instance, this shop). Zen Cart doesn't have the most intuitive backoffice, in spite of its widespread use. Also, to make land sales happen "automatically" (I don't think that this would be needed, though) it would mean dealing with the complexities of having a bot to mark the land for sale for an individual, etc.

Apparently there exists software specific for listing "real estate" offers: http://www.open-realty.org/. It seems to have 6 years of development and continues to be very active. One recent example of how it can work is http://www.georgiahomesdirectory.com/. It looks great, but of course I have no idea how "easy" this is to install and keep up to date. Does anyone have some experience with this? Note that there seem to be a lot of free and open source solutions out there — just search on Google for them, I found half a dozen! — so I wonder if anyone has tried them out and could give some feedback...

Of course, if you wish, I'd be happy to install one of those and let you have a go at it just to see if it does what you have in mind...

[Rose Springvale]

Wait!! i don't want to make it automated... I still believe very strongly that CDS land needs a personal touch! It just helps to have it all in one place not only to keep me organized, but to be an easy place to send folks who are interested in seeing what is available, both from the government and the private sector. With 11 sims to look through, it could make the process easier, and more likely to result in happy new citizens.

i'm thinking more along the lines of what other communities use.. slne, the steamlands, new babbage, etc. I will go find some and send you links.

smiles. I apologize for not communicating well. this reminds me of the phrase "ask me the time and i'll build you a clock!"

Thanks for your patience and expertise Gwyn.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

LOL! I didn't do anything, Rose! I just thought that if we need a "page", it could be something very simple, or relatively more complex but more flexible...

[Rose Springvale]

Does it make sense to start with a "Land for Sale" thread, which can be accessed and posted to by everyone? Be great to have a page on the portal too, but the portal is a bit behind...

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

I'd certainly be fine with that too — simple and easy! — so all it takes now is to ask our SC Chairs if they agree with a new section on the forums for that purpose.

[Rose Springvale]

Who would that be? Does this thread constitute request?