Rangatira’s New Site

Finally, after many promises of a new and better website I am pleased to announce, and you can plainly see, that it is here. Ta-da!

Well, we’ll see if everyone likes it anyway.  The new site features registration for all Club members that we currently have email addresses for. Anyone can register whether they are Club members or not and, once registered, users will be able to leave comments on most articles, events and photos as well as provide their own member items such as Ski Reports (what’s it really like at the mountain), Lodge Reports (anything interesting happening at the lodges), Car Pooling (need a ride, want to share petrol costs), Member Spotlight (members in the news or doing something interesting such as getting married), Trade Me (buy and sell) and Anything Else (anything else).

Registered members have their own control panel (“My Account”) which allows them to set their own preferences such as email address, screen name, picture and avatar and whether or not they wish to receive emails form site administrators. There is also a note pad where users can record anything they like and a private messaging system so that members can email each other through the site without knowing each others actual email address.  Users can also subscribe to articles that they wish to keep track of. Finally, users can set their location so that the times and dates shown on the website are correct according to where they are in the world.

There is a Member List that registered users can view which shows all registered members.  You can email anyone on the list (unless they have set their preferences not to receive messages from other members) or view their website if they have listed one. Note, users’ personal email addresses are not shown on the list, only the private messaging link as noted above.

A another new feature is the Rangatira Wiki which all registered Club members are able to edit and add new content to.  Club members are encouraged to add content to the Wiki which might be anything from Club history to a tutorial on waxing skis.

For the technically minded, We are using Expression Engine as our content management system and we hope to integrate this with an on-line membership and booking system in the future.

I have used a template for the visual appearance of the site.  The main reason for this is so that I can concentrate on figuring out how to implement Expression Engine without having to come up with a new design as well and therefore delay launching this new site.  Having said that, the template is quite complex and has taken a bit of tinkering with to display some things the way I wanted to.

If there are any talented graphic designers out there who would like to contribute a better title graphic please feel free to send .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your ideas or jpeg files.

Feedback on the site is always welcome.  Preferably, sign in and leave your comments below so others can see them and establish a discussion.  Alternatively, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Cheers,

Rob

Posted by Rob Yallop on 12 August 2007 at 04:23 AM