Re: Replacing Squishdot

[Christian Schaller <Uraeus linuxrising org>]

Hi Michael,

I am CC'ing this message to Dave Mason at Red Hat (I also excluded the
Squishdot list since we are not getting into more internal admin issues
mostly.)

Dave, could you give Michael an administrator account on Gnotices?
Michael is an Zope and Squishdot export and has volunteered to help us
fix our remaining issues with it. Also Dave who do we need to contact to
get Michael a shell account on the server running Gnotices?

Christian

Michael, see below for answers to the questions you posted.

On 25 Aug 2001 15:53:56 -0700, Michael R. Bernstein wrote:
> On Sat, 2001-08-25 at 13:23, Christian Schaller wrote:
> >
> > On 25 Aug 2001 12:50:46 -0700, Michael R. Bernstein wrote:
> > >
> > > On Sat, 2001-08-25 at 11:56, Christian Schaller wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > I am aware of the next generation Squishdot (Swishdot), but the problem
> > > > on gnome.org website is not the lack of great visions it is the lack of
> > > > implementation of those visions. And while I must confess not being
> > > > aware of the timetable for Swishdot, my general feeling is that we
> > > > shouldn't postpone doing anything with Gnotices today because something
> > > > may become available in 6 months (random time period).
> > > 
> > > Have you tested the Swishdot currently in CVS?
> >
> > No, I haven't, how far away from being production ready is it? (days,
> > weeks or months?)
> 
> I'm not sure. Can I get back to you on that point? In any case, an
> upgrade tool for Squishdot -> Swishdot doesn't exist quite yet.
> 
> > > > As for details, well for moderation the need is simple. If the current
> > > > system in Squishdot actually worked and not posted any comments on the
> > > > page before they where approved by a moderator that would be fine.
> > > 
> > > Hmm. I've encountered this myself (randomly). I'm uncertain if it's been
> > > fixed in the current squishdot codebase (1.3). If so, you'll need to
> > > upgrade again. Perhaps someone on the squishdot list knows?
> >
> > According to a mail from Chris Withers this was a bug he was not planing to fix 
> > in Squishdot. 
> > 
> > Exact quote from Chris was: 'This, sadly, is posting_html bogosity that
> > I'm nto gonna fix for Squishdot. Wait
> > for Swishdot, when I get a chance ;-)'
> 
> Hmm. It's not listed as a current known bug in the release notes for
> 1.3. I'll let Chris answer this (since this is still being crossposted
> to the Squishdot mailing list).
According to the latest mail from Chris you should be easily able to fix this :)

> > > > b) A sidebar for birthdays. People are not happy about having birthdays
> > > > displayed in the main news area, so moving birthday posts into a sidebar
> > > > might be nice.
> > > 
> > > You mean a separate subsection for birthdays (like slashdot's
> > > 'Interviews' section)?
> >
> > I mean like a separate sidebar which we currently have for software, older 
> > stories and GNOME events. Would be nice if this could be handled by just selecting
> > the birthday subject in Squishdot, but moving it into a separate system
> > is also an option. Look at the example sidebars at news.gnome.org to see
> > what I mean.
> 
> Hmm. So you want 'Birthday' subject articles to be excluded from the
> front page, but listed in a sidebar so that they can be clicked to, is
> that right?

Yes, thats it.

> > > > We also need time controlled posting. We need to be able to approve a
> > > > story and set it to be published at a later time. (Important in order to
> > > > time press releases etc.)
> > > 
> > > An interesting requirement. The CMF supports this, but I'm not aware if
> > > the current swishdot does.
> >
> > This is actually quite important, cause with the current setup we need someone to be
> > available at the right time with the right access to do this. And it
> > also is more error prone since that person needs to remember posting
> > this stuff.
> 
> This is something that would have to wait for a move to CMF + Swishdot.

Well, considering we have survived this far without it, I guess we can wait with 
this point, but I hope you can look at the moderation issue short term at least, 
especially since Chris said it was a piece of cake <g>

> > > > So if you think you can help us the needed functionality on
> > > > Gnotices
> > > > using the current Squishdot setup Michael that is great, since it
> > > > solves the archiving problem also. 
> > > 
> > > What is your time-frame? I am currently under the gun to complete a
> > > first draft of a book on Zope(scheduled for february publication), so I
> > > can't commit myself full-time, though I can probably help out quite a
> > > bit.
> > 
> > Well the timeframe isn't set in stone here, I guess what I need to see
> > is actuall progress being made, so if you could start fixing one problem
> > at a time as your time permits that would be enough for me, even if it
> > would be some months before the last of the requested features is
> > implemented. If you don't have the time to start looking into this at
> > all until february, we either need to have someone else volunteer to
> > work on Squishdot now, or accept the offer to have a PHP4 based setup.
> 
> My deadline for the first draft is actually the end of September, and
> I'll be fairly busy until then.
> 
> I can *start* looking at these issues now, and begin making progress
> (not much, but some). Presumably I'll be able to get some input and help
> from the Squishdot and Zope communities.
> I'll go post that query on the CMF list now...
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Michael Bernstein.

Thanks for doing this Michael, I really appreciate the effort you have
offered to put in so I hope I have not come of as a demanding bastard :)

Christian