OccupySacto.org

Situation:
The landing website when visiting occupysac.com, occupysacto.org, occupysacto.com, occupy-sacramento.org, occupy-sacramento.com current show the wordpress website. The website has fallen into disrepair.

There is a lack of people power with the skills needed to maintain the website. I know that many people have volunteered to help with it and probably will at the response to this post, but there have been complications with technical knowledge and neutrality that decreases the number of candidates to very few.

There is also an issue with the website being posted to by certain people. There is also an issue if everybody is allowed to post to it. Simply put, we shouldn't be utilizing a system that does not encourage a dialogue.

Proposed Solution:
Clean up the forum and make it the landing page.

Requirements:
That all important information be transferred from the current website to the forum.
The website is not taken down for archival purposes.
The forum will have a section, that only displays to guests (non registered users), on landing that clearly states the list of grievances and provide links for:

How to participate in Occupy Sacramento

How to participate in the forums

The calendar of events

I have web site skillz! I host about 30 sites, and am down to help!

But no, I disagree about the landing page. I think the mission statement should be on the landing page.

However it might make sense to stop posting the minutes in both places, and only post them in the forum.

I like the idea about having the forum as our landing page because of the advantages in openness and communication. A moderated and intelligent discussion on the forum helps us with one of our major goals - bringing awareness to the issue of corporate greed in America. Let's face it, our Facebook sucks. It's full of close knit friends, high school drama, and the topics disappear after a day. A forum orientated website will make it easier to recruit new members and encourage the older ones to be more active. It has also been the most popular choice by other occupy sites.

This forum can put out an RSS feed, let's but a box on the splash page that has the RSS feed. Recent topics will automatically update there, and link to here.

I think we need both - the landing-page/website as the main informational portal - a place for new people and the curious and us to go to see what we are about, announce events, post photos and interviews, educational materials, the place from which livestream can be accessed and so forth. It should also have a prominent link to this BB for people to get into discussions and detail work as we are doing. I think those are naturally separate functions that tend to muddle each other when combined - but the links between should be seamless. The only comment/feedback provision needed for that site is a website feedback form for comment on the site itself.

I think I have someone who might volunteer to take charge of the landing-site if they meet with your approval, ricky (and what happened to Matt?) Anyway, I'll back-channel you about that (please answer when I do.)

Keep this place as the open participation/discussion area for now. We're using it that way, and it serves that purpose for the moment. Also put a prominent link on this BB to the website so that we can switch back&forth with more ease.

The web site could be controlled on a rotating basis by a web team who would agree to bond and criticize each other. The people have to "know" the other people. For instance, right now some of us know who has been here all along, and we should be willing to work together in spite of different opinions, past differences — sometimes very strong (almost violent) differences. Thank You Tiffany! This group would bond, criticize each other and provide a "true" consensus that will have a voice at the G.A. Members of this team should agree to disagree, and use a simple majority vote to make its decisions. If the people can't agree to abide by a majority — requiring only one extra vote — they shouldn't be on the web team.

Those who can do web work could volunteer to do it for those who can't. So the web team might have people without skills or computers. Members should be willing to learn and get computers, or we could loan computers or arrange to buy them. We can teach the skills.

I think the cycle of rotation of being the webmaster — or rotating webmaster committee chosen from amongst the web team — should be geared to our Earth's revolutions around the sun, not to a 12 month business cycle. We should use 28 day months with 13 months to the year. The extra day doesn't matter. This would make us follow an Earth rhythm, not an imperialist rhythm.

The web team should publish a monthly (possibly weekly) paper.

Just for the record, I've also volunteered to work on the main web site, but never heard back about that. If the current webmaster(s) are tired, busy or burnt-out, I'm happy to help!!

Thanks Sea, I agree with the need to get input and involvement, though I'm not sure about the "rotating webmasters" idea. I think we're better off keeping things simple, and "webmastering" is a specialized skill doesn't require a lot of people. As long as we're clear about what is desired on the site and forums, then the webmaster can just go ahead and do those things.

Anywa, I'd be down to discuss the web site at an-in person meeting too, it sounds like there is a lot of interest...