I've imported all of the minutes from the AOL site and the Yahoo site into the Minutes and Newsletters book. Just click Library at upper right to find the book. I have NOT broken all the minutes out into separate pages, as in the previously discussed examples, and I have not bothered to add even simple formatting to many of them.

Here's a few things I've messed with since yesterday on this site. There is still a lot of stuff not working - like even though I got a user picture to work in the profile, I can't get it to show up with user posts!

Clann Law Book
I ported the entire Clan Laws over to the Library, but I'm not sure about the layout - I did the first couple pages with subsections for clarity, but didn't follow through on all sections like this. I attached a copy of the Clan Handbook (in PDF) to section 07 (where it relevant), but I haven't found a cool way to list all the files, like in a block someplace like the Yahoo site has a file repository.

Profiles
Changed the profiles a bit to include a place for persona stories, but I don't know if I like it there. It seems to make sense being there, but they are very long. I also added some new fields (like Class and Honor Price) which should be fun.

User List
The information included in the user list is somehwhat configurable, you'll see I added Honor Price to the list, but not class. I still haven't looked into how to format that list as Guthrum asked.

Image galleries
The image galleries are not perfect, but they are pretty damn good. I uploaded a bunch of images to test how things work, and to check out a possible organizational scheme for images. One thing is there is not way to bulk upload a bunch of images that I can see, which might actually be a good thing - we won't have a boatload of crappy images that way - people will be forced to take their time and may take more effort to tag/mark/write about each picture a bit.

Added the search block
Required a backend process to be running, but very helpful

Site Caching enabled
Turned on a feature that caches dynamically created pages for anonymous users. This improves site performance for all while authenticated users still see dynamic content immediately.

I transferred some of the images from the old site including all of those from:
Imbolc '04
Samhain '03
Pennsic '03
Bealtaine '03
I am archiving the text and images on my own machine, then uploading them (with text comment intact) into an appropriate category. I am not maintaining the old method of filing by event, but rather sorting the images by type. I thought this best because if you are interested in looking at pictures of fighters for instance, you can see all of those at a glance. I am trying to include mention of the event in the comment so that information is not lost.

While I intend to salvage all of the images from the old AOL based site, I am less sure what to do about the Yahoo site images. In the case of the old site the images were always world-viewable, while those on Yahoo were semi-private (you needed to be in the group to see them). Also, some of the images are not appropriate. The goal here is to build a set of *quality* images, but *with context*. If I cannot get help with the context, I may not bring them over.

Current setting is that new images on this site are moderated. The way it should work is that a new image should 1) be appropriate to a world audience 2) have a short description about the image 3) include a date taken. Without these characteristics, we shouldn't post it.

It may be obvious to you that I have changed stuff here. In an effort to reduce the overall complexity of the site and to respond to some of the comments I have recieved - I have made the following changes:

• Two Column layout replaces the 'busier' three column default. Makes the forums easier to read and more like forums we all know and love.
• Changed background image, it's a picture of Slievenamon, in County Tipperary in the province of Munster in Ireland. I think it is less distracting than the Book of Kells image. Original image here, used with permission of Fianna.
• Removed some content types from the user navigation block (you can do less stuff now) for example, normal TdB members can no longer create book pages unless they are in a special 'editor' group.
• Disabled commenting on new stories and book pages. You can still comment on blog posts, forum posts, image posts, and polls. I think retaining the ability of users to directly comment on user-contributed content is important, and I think you will agree when you are viewing something that someone else posted, it's a natural desire to want to add your two cents sometimes. I agree about removing this ability for static (read: official) content (I wouldn't want to see commentary on the Laws for example), but for user-added pics, blog posts and the like taking that ability away really warps the basic point of having an interactive site.
• Added blogs and events to the 'Primary Links' at top right. Blogs will list all blog entries (everybodys), Events brings you to the Calendar where you can see all the events in the system
• Added some controls for reading comments. Users can try different ways of displaying comments (threaded, flat, collapsed) and save the setting if they find they don't like the default (threaded - expanded)
• Added some helpful text that will appear as you make new posts in various places.
• Removed the Who's online block
• Changed the order of the Primary Links so that library and calendar are first
• Changed the order of stuff on the left hand side, and removed some things (random photo, event calendar, etc.). The most important stuff in my mind is:
  1. Recent Comments - since thats how you see active discussions are happening anywhere on the site
  2. New Blog posts - not necessary since if you're interested, you could click on 'blogs' in the primary links section (upper right). Perhaps will be removed.
  3. Active Forum Topics - shows what topics are being discussed - most recent ones at the top
  4. Member navigation and controls - I used to want to put this at the top, but since I realized most people would be posting comment in reaction rather than creating new content, this doesn't seems as necessary for people other than a few 'content creators'.
  5. Search - the last resort.