Maca
Web Site Guidelines
|
10-23-02
|
Table of Contents
I. Mission Statement 1
II. Technology Mandates. 1
III. Restrictions of content or usage 2
IV. Advertising. 2
V. Web Team.. 2
VI. The role of the Web Team.. 3
VII. Relationship of the Web site and
Web team to the Board of Directors 3
VIII. Communication with the Web team 3
IX. Providing Content 4
X. Current Recommended programs for use by
web team members. 4
XI. Profile of current “day to day” types of
tasks 4
1.
Anyone comfortable using MS Word and can use File Explorer to
move and rename files will have little difficulty using FrontPage. This allows other people to maintain the
site after you move on or to allow you to take over when someone else moves
on. Note, it is only in the year 2002
when advanced features using Active Server Pages were introduced that anything
more than just FrontPage capability was added or needed.
2.
FrontPage allows the Web Master to set up different areas on
the site to allow other people to maintain specific areas of the site without
generally needing the web hosting provider to assist. Most hosting providers do not allow you to freely establish FTP
and directory permissions within your space.
3.
Multiple people can simultaneously manage the web site with no
worry about bumping into each other.
Having more than one person allows the work to be shared or divided
among them and provides a measure of safety in having more than one person be
able to get into the web site to make changes when needed.
In a volunteer organization such as Maca, the amount of work
that is often required for the proper attention and care of a particular area
of the organization can become so great that it is typically difficult to find
one person to remain in that role for an extended period of time. In the case of the Maca web site and member
features it provides, an additional burden of timeliness is also present. The posting of results, requests for
information and general maintenance are some of the time sensitive operations
that are required to keep the Maca Web presence reliable and of service to the
membership. In 1997 Maca established
the practice of having multiple people, the “web team” support the web
site. The members of the team partition
the work into primary areas of responsibilities among them selves and serve as
backups to each other when the primary person responsible for an area is unable
to respond in a timely manner.
1.
Web team members are appointed by the Board to serve as an
agents of the Board.
2.
Since the web team members are agents of the Board, they
individually serve at the pleasure of the Board and may be removed at any time
by the Board.
3.
Minimum Qualifications
a)Must be able to use the table features of
MS Word.
b)Must have a strong understanding of file
folders, directories and using File Explorer.
c)Will need to learn MS Front Page if not
already known.
d)Will need to become very comfortable with
the use of a program to do File Transfer Protocol (FTP) if not already so. (Not required for Specific Area team
members)
e)Will need to create a personal PGP
encryption key if not already established.
f) Must
have strong organizational skills.
g)Recommended but not required is high-speed
access to the Internet.
1.
Is responsible for the management of the web budget and
tracking all expenses, and all other fiscal matters as deemed necessary by the
Treasurer.
2.
Reports to the Board on a periodic basis required by the
board.
3.
Is responsible for all aspects of administration of the web
site answering only to the board or its appointed web liaison officer.
1.
Is subordinate to the Web Master for decisions regarding the
web site.
2.
Shall have all necessary passwords and authorizations
necessary to cover the areas normally covered by any other team member with the
possible exception of the high level administration functions which are the
direct responsibilities of the Web Master.
1.
Shall have passwords and authorizations only sufficient to
administer specific areas to which they have been assigned responsibility for.
1.
Pre-formatted HTML, ready for posting. (Note: MS Word 97 generates this quite easily.)
2.
MS Word document.
3.
Text message or document.
1.
The entire document should consist of tables with columns used
to provide horizontal spacing and alignment.
Tables when translated to HTML hold their formatting almost perfectly.
B.
3D-FTP available from http://www.3dftp.com/ This is recommended due to the fact that
they support multiple thread transfers which to date, almost no other programs
do. This reduces transfer time by
almost a factor of 10. In addition it
is very easy to use and has a good selection of advanced features.
C.
EditPad or EditPad Pro available from http://www.editpadpro.com/ This program is an excellent text editor
and has column editing features which will be of great aid in the preparation
of USCF cross tables. To date, EditPad
Lite is available free and will work sufficiently for you as a web team member.
1.
Cross tables are posted in either the scholastics or adult
sections of the site. Once the file is
posted the index of available tables needs to be updated with a link to make
the file accessable
2.
Cross tables are generally come in one of several formats
a)HTML files prepared by Tournament
Directors (TDs). Guidelines for TDs are
posted on the web. In addition, a
template file for standard tournament information is also provided for their
use and is expected to be part of the file collection sent for posting.
b)USCF emailed files. Currently, the web team takes the
responsibility of formatting the USCF files for posting to the web. This is because the understanding and skill
set, as well as a suitable program for performing the conversion of the file
from old style ASCII line printer code to current day technology is, at this
time, beyond the capability of most TDs sending the files. Instructions on how to perform this
preparation are posted on the web site.
When skilled at using a text-editing program, the conversion of a file
can literally be done in two minutes.
If multiple files need to be done, they can be temporarily pasted
together, processed and then separated with only the addition of a few more
minutes.
c)Text based results. These files if not created carefully often
lose formatting. In these situations,
the files may not be suitable for posting.
The web team may choose to assist in making it post-able or may also
reject the submission. Effort should be
made to help educate the sender on how to make it more web ready.
d)MS Word files. These generally can be converted to a reasonable appearing HTML
page but is typically not as senders seem to rarely use tables to hold the
formating. In these situations, the
files may not be suitable for posting.
The web team may choose to assist in making it post-able or may also
reject the submission. Effort should be
made to help educate the sender on how to make it more web ready.
e)Xenu's Link Sleuth available free from http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html Even though FP has built in link checking
capability, it is possible that the site will eventually grow two large for FP
to handle it. This has been observed on
a larger FP site. FP provides excellent
reporting and tools to fix the links however.
This program is recommended because it is very fast and provides
additional information to help clean links.
By the start of the 2003 term, submission of Future Events
should become a self-serve process using Maca’s custom built web based
application. At that time, the only
effort expected is to be that of creating passwords and accounts via the web
teams private interface and assisting new users to become familiar with the
operation of the service.
It is anticipated that the application may need improvements or
minor fixes over time. The web team is
Not expected to be able to do these modifications. The web master may need to arrange for any such work to be
performed.
The Pops and Mail lists are managed through a web based
interface provided by our web host provider.
It is relatively simple to use.
Most people subscribe themselves but occasionally, people request that
they be placed on the list.
Collections of email addresses are periodically sent from the
database manager for addition to the lists.
This is done by FTPing down the appropriate file from the site, merging
the existing list file with the collection sent and then FTPing the modified
file back to the site.
One long standing arrangement has been to have one person
handle the pops and email issues, one to handle future events, one to handle
past events and one to handle any and all things scholastics. Since the number of people on the team as
well as skill level changes over time, these general areas move around or are
doubled up as needed.