This is my spot where I'll think publicly about our website. It's been live for close to six months now, and website traffic has consistently grown. We're up from an average of 6 visits per day in OCT 2005, to 29 unique visitors per day on average! Not bad for a neighborhood of 1700.
However below is a list I'll maintain of things I think are needed, or need to change:
- It'd be nice to have a historical section - THIS CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED USING GROUPS. Anyone interested in running with this? Craig? Grace? Cynthia?
- Housing / Bungalow history
- Long Beach esp as it relates to Belmont Heights area
- Navigation reorganization
- Tutorial of how to use the site
- Easier for users to insert pictures into posts. attachements are already easy, but hard to include in post unless you know how to code HTML.
- Ability for registered users to post content via email. (simply send an email to a to be determined email address @myBelmontHeights.org)
- New design to take advantage of screen widths. I might leave the ability to allow users to pick a theme, however.
- Upgrade system backend
Please feel free to add your own comment or suggestions for improvement. What are the things you have found difficult?
How about a separate section
How about a separate section for Public Safety issues? Maybe another section for other "larger than the Heights" issues such as LNG, port pollution, etc. Then members can post links to relevant articles they find that most of us may miss do to the "busy-ness" of daily life.
Also, a real user-friendly navigation design on the home page so users can get where they want to go in the fewest number of clicks possible.
A question: I am not too familiar with RSS feeds, but would it be possible to somehow automatically link on the homepage articles regarding LNG, the port, LB public safety issues, etc.? If residents knew that they oould log-in and get up-to-date info quickly and easily without having to sift through hundreds of newspaper pages, I think we'll dramatically increase traffic - and, hopefully, membership and participation. Anyway, just a thought.
Paul
you want everything!
It seems you want everything!
but, what you're asking for sounds pretty attainable.
So to begin, seperate sections can now be created by users by creating a new content type called group. To use it, do this:
Groups have special "home pages" within the site. They also have security features to, which can allow them to be private. Therefore, groups have members. And they track postings of new content for ech memebr, making it easir to find out what's new and changed. Even beter, groups allow an easier way to send email and create group events.
Membership
I would like to have link or section that informs vistors about membership in the BHCA, as well as provide them an opportunity to print an application for membership.
Peter
check out my reply to Paul's post
check out my reply to Paul's question. use groups to create new sections.
How about phone number for city departments
IT would nice to have a quick reference for phone number, like non-emergency police, barking dogs ect.
Joining a group?
Mike,
How do I subscribe to an existing group?
Paul
It depends on the group
Groups are controlled by the member that created the group. They can be setup in the following ways:
So if a group is either open or moderated, you can simply ask to join. The other two types are handled completely by the group administrator.
This also implies groups can be either public or private. and in some cases both. Meaning, content posted in the group can be open to the public or content secured for only members of the group.
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