Icecast - Jun 2004 - webmaster help needed - call for volunteers

Dear Community,

Xiph.org has a serious need for some webmasterly help, and currently
no one actively involved has the time to fill such a role.  We are
hereby asking if there are any volunteers in the community who would
like to help out in this capacity, possibly as part of a webmaster
team (depending on response).  This job pays in karma only,
unfortunately.

This is a good opportunity to help make a big difference with the
public presentation of our technologies and promote open, free
multimedia technology one web viewer at a time :)

Things that need doing:

* Minor website fixes, link checks, etc.  Many problems are reported
by users, but we don't have the resources to address them
adequately.

* Maintenance of news postings and software listings.  There is an
interface for this, but no one is using it.

* Some email response for webmaster type emails.  Some of us monitor
and respond to these now, but we can't get to them all.

* Creation of some new site parts, such as FAQs, and their maintenance.

* Willingness to take some direction.  We aren't bossy, but we need to
get certain things done sometimes.

Things that would be very nice but are not necessarily needed:

* Design skills, graphics and otherwise.

* Familiarity with Xiph.org, what we do, and our software.

Considerations:

* We need someone who can commit a bit of time each week and who is
serious about helping out, not someone who will help for two weeks
and then disappear into the ether.  I expect there will be a bit
more work at the start than there will be in the normal case, due to
the stagnation that has occured.

* Our sites are basic, and will likely remain that way.  We aren't
interested in using Flash or DHTML or Java applets.  Our primary
concern is maintaining and improving what we have.

* Updates are done through version control using Subversion.  We can
train you to use this if needed.

* We have no preferences about what platform you use, as long as you
can use a basic text editor and can edit a little HTML by hand.

* The sites are using a mishmash of infrastructures, though the basic
setup is hand rolled HTML with server side includes and CGIs.  We
don't expect the web person to need to maintain CGIs, but if you
can, all the better.


If this sounds interesting and you'd like to help out, please contact
me privately at jack@xiph.org.  We could really use the help!  Please
include some notes about yourself, and if there is anything you've
worked on in the past, I'd love to see it or hear about it.

Thanks,
jack.

"Jack Moffitt" wrote...
> * The sites are using a mishmash of infrastructures, though the basic
>   setup is hand rolled HTML with server side includes and CGIs.
I just wanted to comment on this.  The biggest complaint that I hear for
websites is a lack of consistency in design.  When a user clicks a link and the
entire design/layout of the page changes, browsing becomes difficult.  At each
page the user is forced to reorient themselves to where everything is and where
they are trying to get to.  Even worse, when the terms used to describe parts of
the site are changed, you have not idea if the links are to different pages or
where you have already been.

Xiph.org suffers from this in the worst way.  Just look at the links at the
bottom of http://xiph.org
about | press | donate

Why do the pages for all of those look so different?

Whoever does start working on the website, please, please, please push for some
continuity in the site layout.


Pamel