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{subhead}Amiga.org temporarily out of action{def}
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Amiga.org{p}
June 22nd, 2001{p}
Feedback so far....
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So far, here is a general idea of the feedback we've received, in order of responses.
tutorials, reviews, and "stuff for newbies"
status -- we're going to do this, but have to devise a way for people
to contribute content. We can't do this alone you know. [nudge, nudge,
wink, wink, say no more]
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{bold}News{nobold}
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It surprises me that this isn't #1, but we're going to work towards
getting it back online first. Without news, the rest isn't necessary.
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For Amiga.org to "stop sucking up to Amiga Inc"
Anyone making this request either doesn't know us very well, or hasn't
bothered to look at the site in a long, long time.
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A dead tie in the number of requests. 50% want smaller, faster
pages 50% want more graphics.
These two requests always astound me. Which
do you want, a smaller, faster page, or a better looking page?
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{bold}Bring back the Amiga Web Directory{nobold}
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We at Amiga.org actually miss the Amiga Web Directory, but we have always
been driven to provide more than the AWD ever did. I don't know what
to say about this request, except that the AWD is gone, may it rest
in peace.
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{bold}Make Amiga.org compatible with Amiga OS 3.9 browsers.{nobold}
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Wouldn't it be better to make Amiga OS 3.9 browsers compatible with
HTML Standards which have been in place long since the year 1998? To
the best of my ability, Amiga.org will be fully HTML 4.01 compliant,
meaning that you will need to find something that supports the standards
that the rest of the world has enjoyed for over two years. Sorry, I
know some of you will get truly mad at the idea that I'm not going to
"dumb-down" the site for the Classic Amiga, but in less than
a year, the new Amiga OS'es and Amiga DE will be readily available.
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They -- hopefully -- will be able to support real standards in HTML
programming. If not, there is no point in writing them. Rather than
rewrite Amiga.org again in a year to make it usable by Amiga DE and
OS 5.x, I will rely on the authors of Amiga browsers to do the right
thing and actually work to make their browsers compliant with the rest
of the world.
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All in all, I want to thank each and every one of you for your support
in this time of reconstruction. As always I do welcome your comments,
questions and concerns.
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Wayne Hunt{p}
Site Manager{p}
Amiga.org
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{bold}Where is Amiga.org?{nobold}
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PHP-Nuke -- The great experiment.
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About 8 months ago, we decided that considering the changes in our
real lives and workload that we needed a pre-packaged solution for Amiga.org
to continue. After evaluating several great all-in-one portal packages,
we decided on PHP-Nuke. After all, it had everything our users ever
wanted in one easy-to-setup and easy-to-administer package. News services,
forums, comments engine, you name it, PHP-Nuke had it.
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The fall
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The one thing PHP-Nuke forgot was stability under heavy loads (such
as Amiga.org puts on a server/service).
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For the last several weeks, the continual load on our database has
brought Amiga.org to a corrupted stand-still. We can probably fix the
problem, but the question is, would we really gain anything by doing
so? Eventually, be it two days, or two weeks, Amiga.org would kill PHP-Nuke
and we'd be back to square one. Decisions, decisions. comments?
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The Plan
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Over the next several whenevers, we plan to rebuild Amiga.org, from
the ground up to serve the Amiga community itself, not as a generic
portal package. After all, the Amiga is unique, why shouldn't Amiga.org
be just as unique? First, we will establish a new news engine, as news
has always been key to the community. Following that, we need to build
a comments engine, then the forums. This won't be easy, and I know most
of you are probably tired of the problems we've experienced. All I can
do is to apologize personally and work to continue the site.
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Ladies and gentlemen, lend me your tongues
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What we need from you is your opinions. Considering the new Amiga.org
will be built from the ground up to serve the Amiga community (users,
groups, developers, and dealers), what do YOU want to see in a new site?
What tools would help you as a user, or a user group to succeed? What
did you, didn't you like about the former PHP-Nuke powered Amiga.org?
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Please give us feedback as soon
as possible so we can incorporate your ideas into the next generation
site.
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{bold}Where do we go from here?{nobold}
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As I mentioned, news is first. Please check back here as we work to
get news back online. The rest is up to you.
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