Posted by Keith Hurst on June 9, 2008 at 10:42pm
Hi again,
not really sure what happening with this group at the moment but I'm needing some face to face advice from someone if they have some time. I've been messing around with blocks and tpl files but still a site I constructed still has Drupal written all over it and I want to break free of that mould.
I'm messing around with Zen and need someone to handhold me in forming the initial layouts and styles, so any CSS people who have used Zen would be ideal.
In return... well I'm sure something can be worked out, contact me here or privately.
Thanks
Keith
Categories: zen theme
Comments
Meeting Up
Seems to have gone quiet in the meeting front. Please let me know who would like to meet up and preferred location.
Meet up
I'm more than happy for a meet, don't know the best places in Edinburgh or Glasgow though but sign me up for anything that can be organised.
KH
new scotland drupal site
Very quiet here...discovered this new Drupal site http://www.edinburghguide.com/ so more people in Scotlands are using it.
Scottish Users
Yes there must be a few of us out there and I would still love to revitalise this group.
KH
well Keith
after arranging about 4 meetings iin four months, which some came to and most didnt, as it took a lot of hassle trying to get the rooms free, then on top of that being told to go post elsewhere when asking for advice, its hardly suprising that its quiet in here?
Just wanted to thank you for all your help Keith, just built a new drupal site which I am quite chuffed at.
I know Kerry, at one it was
I know Kerry, at one it was just you and I and the next one I completely forgot about.
KH
oh i managed
to get upraded to drupal 5.10 by the way
Good to hear that... any
Good to hear that... any problems on route.
Sorry for not making it over been busy on a site.. just released www.hillfootsrfc.com
Taking the rugby officials though it's functionality tomorrow evening.
KH
P.S. Its not IE6 friendly and never will be.
no worries keith
got a guy from the usa to upgrade the site for me, didnt take him very long
Is that your animation site
Is that your animation site ?
KH
nah the scarybirds one
have just built the animation site using 5.10 and just tweaking some of the stuff
yes, I enjoyed the first
yes, I enjoyed the first well attended meeting but not sure what happened to the guy that organised it. Looking back it appears that it was Duvien and Martin-Johnstone then KerrySanto did all the leg work? A venue with projector and a few people to organise the event would be good.
I still feel that an online presence would be better in the short term as I think we are all busy people with little time to meet up. It would also allow more interaction so that if we did meet we could split into groups according to interests.
Well I have a projector if
Well I have a projector if we ever do manage to set something up again.
Keith
Mentoring
This may be my one and only post to this group. To be honest, I don't recognise much of interest to me in its discussions so far. That is not meant as a criticism of anyone, rather a sense that my goals and expertise maybe don't coincide with those of others here.
I'm a pensioner who has cobbled up a couple of basic/static websites using Dreamweaver and I'm looking to Drupal as a means of making one of them more interactive without having to master php and mysql. I'm sincerely, if sadly :), NOT interested in promoting Drupal to the wider world, or in adding anything to my cv or client list, or in hearing (or presenting) the latest gee-whizz feature that has been incorporated into a Drupal website. Nor do I fancy driving an hour each way to Glasgow or Edinburgh for a social evening in the Scottish winter unless I return having learned something very practically useful to my own project.
That 'something' could be what I would call mentoring, ie help/encouragement in solving specific problems which arise from my specific goals. The Drupal learning curve seems to me quite steep and one problem always seems to follow another. Drupal documentation is not always easy to find or to be pitched at the right level for me, the forums can be quite helpful, if a bit slow in responding, and the support irc I have not yet had the courage to try. But to be able to email or phone and discuss a problem with a more experienced mentor or post something to the group board would be very useful.
dond
welcome
"NOT interested in promoting Drupal to the wider world" - me neither. The learning curve is high and I ended up buying the online books to understand the basics. An online forum would be useful and something that would allow people to connect more easily than driving to Edinburgh/Glasgow. I suggested this would be a good thing to set-up at the first Drupal, meeting as it would allow each of us to contribute at their level and irrespective of busy schedules. I am happy to "mentor" people with what I know but only in a public forum so that we share knowledge across Scotland. Setting up a Scotland drupal server would allow us to share knowledge and get hands on towards a defined goal.
Someone at the first meeting suggested we use his web server to do this. Is Duvien or Digital Spaghetti willing to co-ordinate taking this forward? With 33 members we should be able to get one of the drupal host providers to provide something at 2ドル a head? I'm willing to chuck in 10ドル - people like www.siteground.com would charge 42ドル for www.drupalscotland.com for 1 year and use Fantastico to install drupal. I've used them for three years and they seem good according to this; http://drupalhosting.net/
What do others in Scotland think?
Hosting
I have registered drupalscotland.co.uk and will host on my server, I will ultimately add a paypal donate feature... if people wish to donate then all well and good if they don't then that's ok too.
I'll set up user profile, forums, messaging etc... so if any of you have any ideas then let me know.
So it could be used as dond and andy suggest where there's a forum area for helping / mentoring. Also forums could be set up for those who wish to meet as and when they are able.
Let me know your ideas on what should be available and I'll try and make it happen, it'll also provide me with a digital playground to experiment by drupal skills. My time is limited so don't expect something by next week.
Keith
Hi all, Sorry for being
Hi all,
Sorry for being quiet recently on this user group. I've been busy working on a project which turned out to be larger than expected. However, that's almost out the way and with the Edinburgh Festival ending this week, there should be time to plough into this group again. Biggest regret was not making it to the Drupalcon in Szeged, perhaps we could organised a mini one in Edinburgh, any takers ;)
A few weeks ago, i met up with Jacob (who joined this group recently) and we have expressed a keen interest in setting up a website dedicated to Scottish users of Open Source technology. It was just a vague idea as it was not the main topic of our initial meeting. I do also remember having mentioned this before some where in this user group site about developing a Scottish Drupal website after the first meetup.
Anyway, i've kept quiet about this as i said it was only a vague suggestion but the more i think about it the more i want to do this and now that someone has raised this matter again, perhaps it's time to start getting our thinking hats on and do some brainstorming. I know Jacob has a real passion for all things Open Source so i think he was suggesting about helping out on a website that was catered towards an Open Source user group in Scotland (a central site in Scotland with subsites for different user group where people can join), not just Drupal (Scottish Drupal user group site only). Whereas, i had more the idea of only setting up a site for Drupal users only. Either way, it'll be possible but it's really down to spare time we all have but if we discuss it and plan this well it shouldn't be too bad and wouldn't require too much effort and time. Please note, this is what i interpreted what i think Jacob was saying though i can't be sure but will try and speak to him again if he'll still keen on the idea.
I understand, we are all using Drupal for different reasons (self-interest) whether it'll be for gaining more commercial work, good karma, hobby or just want to make new friends because you think all users that use Open Source technology are the coolest on this planet ;) Either way, i respect that and would like to make the new proposed site a place where like-minded people can network and share knowledge (perhaps even a wee market place for the business types). However, please don't expect or demand 100% support since everyone will be contributing their generous free time and they have other commitments too.
Okay, about hosting - that's not a problem, there's already a few offers though it would be nice if it can be VPS hosting :)
I can help out on site structure and build a custom theme. I proposed that the site should be build using Drupal 6 since Views and CCK are pretty stable (and no need to upgrade when it comes the time).
It will be great if others can volunteer to help, so if you're developer, designer, marketing freak or a newbie - Let us know.
What would you get out of volunteering to help build the site? well, i would hope we all learn from each other on how to use Drupal to it's fullest and take away that knowledge to apply to your own site, find work or continue to help others with the knowledge you have gained. However, what you'll learn will largely depend on who will help to develop the site. I don't mind maintaining the site so long as we can get some people to help moderate forums, articles and etc as well.
Let's organise a meetup to further discuss this. The Cameo bar is a nice chilled place with free wifi access, perhaps that should be the location for this meetup. We could also use Skype (video) conferencing for others that can't attend.
Hopefully, with a well designed site we will attract more users and businesses to use Drupal in Scotland... that is my aim (and of course, have fun)...
Personal Blog & Digital playground: www.duvien.com
Happy to contribute my
Happy to contribute my PHP/MySQL skills to the development of the site.
Regarding V5 or V6, I'm happy either way really, have a tendancy for V5 at the moment though as there's a lot of stuff out there that already complete and not at the 'might be ready soon' stage. CCK is a must, Views less so if you know PHP and MySQL.
As I say I have a domain parked and it can be used, if not I'll make use of it somehow ;)
K
Thanks Keith, we could use
Thanks Keith, we could use your domain name.
It's a good time to start with D6 since Drupal.org is going thru a redesign and will be using D6. This should push the adoption of D6 modules quicker. If we really need modules that aren't ready yet, perhaps this will be a good time for us to chip-in and upgrade them.
I would really want to use Views as this will great simplify things for everyone and gets things done quicker (remember not everyone is into coding).
Can we arrange a meetup for next week to discuss about building this site? I think the Cameo bar will be a good place.
If anyone wishes to help please attend this next meetup once we have a date?
Meeting Next Week
With regard to meeting next week I'm up for it but to to other commitments am only available Monday or Tuesday, any place suits really but mind I finish work at 6 so need time to get there.
keith
Hey all, my first post here
Hey all, my first post here so I had better introduce myself before I start ranting about the above.
I'm from the 'sunny' west coast in Ayr and have been using Drupal for a year or so with a few sites under my belt.
My personal playground is over at www.tartanterrorist.com where I have played around with a lot of modules which should explain why the site is so disjointed and slow. The site started as my kind of blog site but has slowly evolved to include sections for everyones (most my friends) online media and 'one stop' storage.
So to the points at hand...
"With 33 members we should be able to get one of the drupal host providers to provide something at 2ドル a head?"I'm currently in the process of setting up my free web hosting company that supports Drupal (core Drupal anyway) so I'm pretty surprised to see you suggest paying for a site that would only have a few thousand hits per week (if that). I'm all up for paying for hosting but I think it might be overkill for the kind of collaboration site thats being talked about.
(BTW if someones wanting some free hosting then get in contact)
Let me know your ideas on what should be available and I'll try and make it happen, it'll also provide me with a digital playground to experiment by drupal skills.What about an web interface IRC channel that will allow online meetings instead of face to face meetings. See the example at http://tartanterrorist.com/tartanterrorist-irc-channel
I'm always up for some Drupal chat so if you have any comments about my site or if you're wanting help with anything then I can found through numerous way through my site. I am by no means a master at Drupal but I have dealt with many issues or if I haven't then I would be happy to help you find answers to them.
TT.
http://tartanterrorist.com/tartanterrorist
have signed up to your tartan terrorist site
i have been having probs with the embedded media field just lately and tinyMce, was wondering if you could help out TT