WebSite Office

PCUG WordPress Website Administration

The main PCUG committee has made a number of decisions regarding how the PCUG WordPress Website is to be administered. These have been collected here for easy reference, detailed below.

In summary, these decisions have resulted in the following agreed process:

Summary of Procedures for Actioning Website Updates

nb. these procedures apply to all except editorial changes to existing page content, which may be actioned immediately.

    1. To obtain approval, requests be emailed to the website list for discussion.
    2. The request then be approved by majority of the Subcommittee + Executive,
    3. The Website Admin Sub-committee + Executive decide on who will action the change.
    4. The change is first trialed on the test site – www.pcug.org.au/wptest/ to check for any issues, before being implemented on the main site.

These procedures are current.

Summary of Committee Decisions on Website Management

At the November 2011 committee meeting, after extensive discussion on how best to structure and manage PCUG’s web resources, committee determined the following:

It was clarified that there currently exists 3 layers of website: (i) WordPress; (ii) TIP Wiki; and (iii) the native and historical html site that comprises a large number of pages, many of which are now only of historical interest, though others are still relevant.

  • The WordPress site will be used as the primary portal for authorative information on the group and its activities.
  • The TIP Wiki for member authored “users helping users” content (i.e. Help pages, How-to guides and similar).
  • The native site mainly for historical interest (and some older help & how-to guides that have not yet been transferred), as well as to store dynamic scripts that will not function within WordPress or Wiki, and also for archives of uploaded documents.”
And then the following management points (amongst others, paraphrased) were noted:
  • That site structure, editing policy & conflict resolution be overseen by a smaller  (management) group, with a larger (editorial) group dealing with the site content.
  • That members of the smaller Management group are approved by the PCUG Committee , and that the Executive is included in conflict resolution matters.
  • That Editorial group responsibility is partitioned, with no one person to manage or own a page, that members are trusted to make content changes appropriately, else their editorial privileges be revoked, and that updates are predominantly actioned by those with an interest in that area. Membership of the Editorial group is at the discretion of the Management group, including the PCUG Executive.
  • That major changes to structure may be discussed on the website email list, but will ultimately require approval by the Management group, with conflict resolution provision in place via the PCUG committee executive.

At the March 2012 committee meeting, after discussion around issues concerning appropriate care in making changes to the site, and noting the insufficient number of members on the website management group, a motion was passed stating that:

“Given the PCUG website is now in production, and that disruptions can seriously impact member services, any proposals for change to the website structure, menus or overall look must be approved by the combined website management group and executive before being actioned.”

The 23 July 2012 committee meeting confirmed that any approved changes, other than simple page content updates, must first be trialed on the test site before being implemented on the main site. The motion passed was:

“that all changes to the wordpress website, other than updates to existing page content once approved, must be trialled and checked on the test-site first, before then being applied to the main site.”

 

Website Mailing List

The website mailing list, used for discussion on issues concerning the management of the site, is a private list on the PCUG mailing list server. Any updates to the site structure need to be debated on this list before approval may be granted, as noted above. Everyone with any authoring rights to the site should be a member of this list. Any other PCUG members with an interest in the site structure or management may join the list with approval of the editorial group (including executive).

 

Development Notes and Test Areas

Some sub-pages with notes and sandbox test areas remain from the development period for this site:
[subpageindex]