(RFD) Amiga.org's future

[Jose]

I second that. Sooner or later I was gonna put up at least one of my Classic Amigas online but there have to be priorities. I'd say update the site to new software. This old format is getting boring too!

By the way, CSS and newer functionally is supposed to appear on the Classic anyway, sooner or later. Someone could port Netsurf. IBrowse 3.0 is supposed to happend too, at least in the next 10 years. Will we still be here within 10 years ?  :-D We'll be getting on our 40s then :-o I don't know....Even more relevant to the thread, will we still be using our classics online ? I think everyone already has a PC or Mac.

[pVC]

What are those "up to date" features what some people would want? I guess majority uses these forums just for messages and news items and those work fine with not-so-fancy technology too. I, for example, have never clicked any of those extra things and links on sides here

And as said, pretty many visitors still use Amiga browsers here. I for example have never used any other than IBrowse when posting here (from home). Not going to fire up some other non Amiga compatible computer just for some sites.

As the old wisdom says: don't change the working thing. Unless you really have to for technical reasons in this case

Changes for the sake of changes isn't good reason, IMHO. Someone gets bored to everything sooner or later. Content and availability is what counts on these kind of pages I think. Leave the funny blinkblink to gossip sites etc.

[jj]

But thats the point not many people do visit here from Amiga browsers, its less than 8% from memory.  Thats hardly enough people to stop time for.

[Khephren]

EAB has a 'mobile' version that I access from my Viewty phone, and would probably work on an Amiga. (Although it is mainly just the forums)

How much work would that be to set up as well as the main site?
Think of it as a mobile phone/classic amiga version...

[bhoggett]

pVC wrote:
As the old wisdom says: don't change the working thing. Unless you really have to for technical reasons in this case

Changes for the sake of changes isn't good reason, IMHO.

Erm... I think Wayne's already explained that. The host requires a PHP5 upgrade and the currently used version of Xoops is not PHP5 compatible, nor is there an upgrade path to the up-to-date version of Xoops (which isn't Classic Amiga-friendly anyway).

The option to "don't change the working thing" does not exist unless one was to move to a dedicated server running old software for no other reason than to run Amiga.org. The problem with this would be cost.

Time moves on and you can't rely on obsolete technology for ever.

[recidivist]

 I love the annual changes in roadside stop signs,don't you?

 A the previous poster said,change just for change sake is silly.

 If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 Since the site must be redone,just keep in mind not everyone wants or needs to buy new hardware and software  constantly.

[countzero]

recidivist wrote:

 Since the site must be redone,just keep in mind not everyone wants or needs to buy new hardware and software  constantly.

 :getmad:  yeah like wayne will ask as all to get a core2duo to browse a.org  :lol:

[kd7ota]

Do what you have to do to make a new Amiga.org.  :-)

A new Amiga.org will not stop me from visiting.  My Amiga 1200 is 3 states away and I think most can get even an older 1ghz PC and install either Ubuntu/Linux and use browsers that are up to date.

Don't set me on fire guys, I am just saying its probably a good idea to finally upgrade after years.  I just would hate using the Amiga 1200 on web surfing as I could not even do half the stuff thats out there now.  Sure the Amiga is great for what it does and the retro feel is great, but it also might be a good idea to just have a PC to beat up on, and if it fails on you, it won't be a great loss.

Either way, we are all still Amigans!  :-D

recidivist wrote:
Since the site must be redone,just keep in mind not everyone wants or needs to buy new hardware and software  constantly.

I realize when change is discussed, peoples imaginations are prone to running wild, but for the record, I'm not talking about Flash, or AJAX or anything else that would require anyone to use any specific browser or computer.

Basic HTML (as much as I can help) with a little Javascript thrown in for things like the message editors (which the Amiga seems to already handle fine, go figure).

What I don't want to promise you is that I may use basic CSS stylesheets for text / color formatting, while sticking to HTML for tables and layout.  This would allow the site to look great in modern browsers, and even one or two Amiga browsers but present a much lighter "black and white" version of the site for older browsers like the Classic Amiga.

Dunno yet, no cause for twisted knickers.

Wayne

[cecilia]

harrison wrote:
Why not just migrate the site to the latest version of Xoops?  That way you should be able to retain the look and content of the existing site better than trying to migrate the whole site is a completely new CMS model.

Drupal is a very nice CMS.  It is one of the most versatile, but also one of the hardest to get to grips with.  It is also mainly a framework more than offering a complete site structure out of the box, meaning the learning curve is quite high.

An alternative if you don't want to stick with Xoops is Joomla.  I've been using it since the Mambo days and it is my preferred CMS over all others.  And with Joomla 1.5 the CMS's core code is better than ever, more streamlined and easier to work with.  And the mod community for Joomla is bigger than any other CMS on the market, commercial or open source.

I've been on other forums with Joomla and frankly it's clumsey and annoying

I don't like it

but I'm not going to have a fit over it

[dougal]

Is there nobody a bit savvy with software who can make a new browser of the Amiga or else modifiy/patch the one of the current browsers ?

I'm no programmer , and i know that whoever dedicates a load of time into making a browser is probably never going to be financially compensated , but i guess if i could program i would take on the task .

[ajlwalker]

So long as the old data is accessible somehow I will be happy.  Otherwise, do what you have to do.

[dammy]

IMO, forget about the classics having issues with a new CMS. There can not be that many that do not have a modern system  system with a modern browser to read AO. Go with the best possible CMS and leave the XOOPS in the tar pits where it belongs.

Dammy

[Dementhor]

Hi there, I've been just lurking around for the past few years, not having had much to say until now, but since I happen to be a web developper, here's what I'd do:
Choose a CMS which allows you to create your own templates, hence giving you full control of the kind of HTML sent to the browser. Problem solved.

That way you can stick with tables if you must, sneak in some Javascript if classic Amigas can handle it (I've parted with my A1200 years ago so I can't tell or whatever you need - doesn't even have to be HTML at all.

Now I don't really know if Joomla, Drupal or Xoops can do that - I've resorted to writing my own CMS in order to learn PHP (and having been overwhelmed by those CMS' complexity at that time) and it runs in PHP5 and uses templates to generate any data I want, be it HTML, raw tables, XML or whatnot.

There just HAVE to be some CMSs that do exactly that (and much better than mine, anyways).

[Homer]

Go for it Wayne, let your imagination go wild, and enjoy programming again !

Happy Wayne = Healthy A.Org   :lol:

Oh, and have a :pint: with me for all the years of good natured banter.

[DiskDoctor]

recidivist wrote:
It is a shame these forced upgrades are shutting out the classics.

Maybe it's about time for plan B (of mine)?

I posted this as an idea say in January.

Maybe the solution is (that would be a solution) to create a proxy server, filtering all classic UAs and smoothing new Xoops content (I mean classic html with strict tags and attributes).

This seems pretty simple, any xslt would do the job.

What do you think?