A Public Site (2 Viewers)

[infinite.loop]

My ideal goal as I have expressed in other posts is to have a portal type site as the home base so to speak. Everyone seems to have their own Media Portal site with files etc ...if these can come together in an organized way then we would really be off to the races.

that would be realy great!

to achieve that we would need:
x a unique domain name (i.e. www.Media-Portal.info)
x Webdesigner(s), Coder(s)
x a high-performance Server with a huge harddisk
x a host who offers a high bandwith and doesnt care about our traffic :shock:
x a rock solide forum software
x subdomains (i.e. for different languages)
x the possibility that the leaders (admins) of the different teams (Developing, Skinning, Documentation, Testing, ...) have full contol about there part of the website (forums, pages, news, ect.)

a long and incomplete list with some points that were hard to achieve for a noncommercial, open source project.

 

[devo]

I think all the information is there, wiki & forums but it still needs to be organized a bit more.

absolutely correct!
thats what we try to improve.

our target is a documentation that:
x provides all information a user, who is new to Media Portal, needs to build a HTPC that is working flawless
x explains all features of Media Portal
x is easy to update and maintain
x is available online
x can be attached to the MediaPortal releases as pdf file and can be downloaded

you can find our work in progress documentation here
http://manual.elite-squad.net

Great goals!

I guess the question is now ...where should I / the community be updating and contributing our efforts for documentation.

I still see updates to the other wiki happening but not sure whats going on with it.

Can everyone access this new one? Perhaps we should move to this new one and shut the other one down?

It would be hard to get people to update documentation in two places.

I guess these are some questions that need to be answered.

 

[Mr. Turner]

I totaly agree that some structuring has to be done as I strongly believe that most of the info is already there.
My guess is that the hardest part will be finding an affordable host that allows plenty of bandwith.

I also agree with devo that multiple documentation projects will only result in people getting confused.

The best solution would be an officially supported documentation website that allows you to get the most out of mediaportal. It should be updated and merge all the info of different projects together.

Mr. Turner

 

[devo]

I totaly agree that some structuring has to be done as I strongly believe that most of the info is already there.
My guess is that the hardest part will be finding an affordable host that allows plenty of bandwith.

I also agree with devo that multiple documentation projects will only result in people getting confused.

The best solution would be an officially supported documentation website that allows you to get the most out of mediaportal. It should be updated and merge all the info of different projects together.

Mr. Turner

I have looked around for getting web hosting for myself for awhile now and found:
http://www.webhosting4life.com/

It is what I am leaning towards for some personal hosting based on price, features and performance.

They also support .net and alot of people are using DotNetNuke for their sites. I have followed and used this product(also open source) for while now and its great! Easy to setup, easy to customize and secure, and deletgate content authoring (this is key) etc.

There are other alternatives too ...phpnuke etc I won't list them all here.

Forum software - Lots of choice there ....on the .net front again there is community server which is what microsoft uses on the asp.net site. Lots of php ones. There is an integrated forum module for dotnetnuke too which is pretty decent.

A domain name would be good or just forward the sourceforge one to the web hosting.

Lots of options....

 

[Mr. Turner]

A friend of mine and I are currently working with http://www.servage.net .
Real website e.g. http://beta.htcm.org/beta/ (our little WIP cms).
You might make a deal with them (sponsor or so) and get a cheaper price.

As for phpnuke etc... I would go for something totally custom. For the forum I would stick to the current MP forums and keep the site solely for information. Eventually it is on this forum that the gurus are.

Maybe all (or some ) webdesigners and webcoders here on MP should come together and work on it first as a side project, a possible replacement for the wiki.

If you want, I can provide the hosting space to get things running.

Mr. Turner

 

[LordMessi]

Hi,

This is a discussion that also is going on at the MP Team.

We have a server that would host the information - but no decission is made yet.

 

[infinite.loop]

I guess the question is now ...where should I / the community be updating and contributing our efforts for documentation.

my first thought was to work on the existing wiki. but the generic wiki system has a few disadavtages in my opinion.

we are also using a wiki software (wikiwig) but its much more userfriendly.
features like:
x file/image handling (uploading)
x online creation of folders and files
x wysiwyg editor
makes writing the documentation as easy as using Word.
thats why i have started this new project with the target to get a online doc and publish offline versions of it with every MediaPortal release.

I still see updates to the other wiki happening but not sure whats going on with it.

a long time there were no updates on the wiki. i dont know whats planed for the future there.

Can everyone access this new one?

yes, everyone can view the new documentation at http://manual.elite-squad.net
i have restricted the permission to edit the pages because i dont want that a "funny" person deletes our hard work. :evil:

everyone who wants to help us with the documentation is welcome!
send me a email infinityloop@gmx.net

Perhaps we should move to this new one and shut the other one down?

the target of the wiki is to make informations available online in a Wiki Style layout.

our target is to write a documentation with the layout of a manual like you know it from many programs and devices.

for me its much easier to find informations in a manula that using a wiki. but thats just me.

It would be hard to get people to update documentation in two places.

you are right. that wouldnt be good.

 

[infinite.loop]

Forum software - Lots of choice there ....on the .net front again there is community server which is what microsoft uses on the asp.net site. Lots of php ones. There is an integrated forum module for dotnetnuke too which is pretty decent.

i have been working with many different forum softwares in the past 6 years. at the best one is vbulletin. its a commercial software but its worth the money!
i am using it for the testgroup. www.elite-squad.net
the great thing about it is the support and the awesome amount of free hacks (modifications) for this software.
based on my experience i can say that vbulletin is rock solid.

 

[Khris]

I personally don't think having ANOTHER site (prettied up for the less technical people) is a good idea. It means more work to manage, update, and support.

 

[devo]

I personally don't think having ANOTHER site (prettied up for the less technical people) is a good idea. It means more work to manage, update, and support.

I agree, not ANOTHER site but THE mediaportal site.

As for phpnuke etc... I would go for something totally custom.

As I web developer I can say leveraging something like Dotnetnuke or similar portal software is the way to go. These things have been in development for years by some pro people and do exactly what we want!

There might always be custom development around that but starting from scratch would be painful.

Thanks for posting the links to the web hosting ...its always good to find new affordable hosting providers.

This is a discussion that also is going on at the MP Team.

We have a server that would host the information - but no decission is made yet.

Great to hear and im sure you will keep us updated.