websites

[flyrite]

It may have been addressed before ....But why when you do a chapter search on the eaa website it doesn't link you to the chapter's website your interested in instead of the can-can contact with an e-mail address?

[Jim Heffelfinger]

A quick history of the EAA chapter websites hosted by webs.com.
About two years ago EAA created a website homepage for each chapter in EAA. This was a basic homepage with the ability for each chapter to add content as they wished.
The program was created to eliminate the problems many chapters had either with no website or websites that were at one point active but webmasters have gone on to other places leaving the site outdated and nearly useless.
EAA wanted to have easily accessible links to each chapter site so that someone interested in becoming a chapter member could quickly and easily find a chapter any place they go or have interest in. It became clear, very quickly, that the only way of doing this was to create the site themselves
By cruising around at the various EAA hosted chapter websites you will find a variety of content. A chapter may only have a homepage that may or may not be current (it was at one time) , it may have some small limited content or you may find one with a tremendous amount of content including customized headers and footers nearly unrecognizable from its original form.
Chapter 52 in Sacramento was one of those chapters with at one time an excellent website with tremendous content, beautifully laid out with lots of widgets and links to weather stations, and then the webmaster disappeared, we lost contact with the server and went through endless hours trying to get the old site turnoff so that we would not look like a bunch of buffoons.
I personally keep up my chapter site and have from the beginning of the EAA created sites. I really appreciate EAA creating the basic framework within which I can add content. Using the Webs tools it's fairly easy to keep the site updated- limited only by my imagination and time.

[cub builder]

A quick history of the EAA chapter websites hosted by webs.com.
I personally keep up my chapter site and have from the beginning of the EAA created sites. I really appreciate EAA creating the basic framework within which I can add content. Using the Webs tools it's fairly easy to keep the site updated- limited only by my imagination and time.

I had the exact opposite experience with the Webs.com tools. I thought the tools were really clunky and difficult to use. I would much rather build and test my web pages on my system using the site builder tools I work with daily, then push the pages to the EAA Web site. When I complained to the admin and asked to be allowed to FTP our existing chapter web pages to the web site rather than being forced to rebuild our site from scratch with a set of unfamiliar clunky tools, I was told I was the only web master to complain about the tools and they weren't willing to accommodate me. C'mon guys, I really wasn't asking for anything out of the ordinary.

Thumbing through the EAA chapter web sites on webs.com, I see that the vast majority of sites are dormant or are rarely updated. If the EAA could cooperate just a little bit and allow web masters to use their own set of web site builder tools and push their pages to the EAA site with FTP, I think we would see a lot fewer dormant web sites. Our chapter ended up just putting a link to our web site on the EAA site and continued to pay for our own domain name and web service.

The overall EAA Chapters web site is a great idea, especially with the default page and contact information, but the implementation wasn't so great. It could have been so much more useful by allowing web masters to build their pages with their own tools and push them to the EAA site, which is the industry standard. Instead, the vast majority of chapters don't use it.

-CubBuilder

[flyrite]

I had the exact opposite experience with the Webs.com tools. I thought the tools were really clunky and difficult to use. I would much rather build and test my web pages on my system using the site builder tools I work with daily, then push the pages to the EAA Web site. When I complained to the admin and asked to be allowed to FTP our existing chapter web pages to the web site rather than being forced to rebuild our site from scratch with a set of unfamiliar clunky tools, I was told I was the only web master to complain about the tools and they weren't willing to accommodate me. C'mon guys, I really wasn't asking for anything out of the ordinary.

Thumbing through the EAA chapter web sites on webs.com, I see that the vast majority of sites are dormant or are rarely updated. If the EAA could cooperate just a little bit and allow web masters to use their own set of web site builder tools and push their pages to the EAA site with FTP, I think we would see a lot fewer dormant web sites. Our chapter ended up just putting a link to our web site on the EAA site and continued to pay for our own domain name and web service.

The overall EAA Chapters web site is a great idea, especially with the default page and contact information, but the implementation wasn't so great. It could have been so much more useful by allowing web masters to build their pages with their own tools and push them to the EAA site, which is the industry standard. Instead, the vast majority of chapters don't use it.

-CubBuilder

Ahh..Cub builder seems to have explained the problem!!!!!!

[cub builder]

I don't even begin to believe most chapters would suddenly start building web pages, but I do believe more would do so if the EAA allowed us to use industry standards rather than forcing us into the WEBS.com tool set. Make the WEBS tool set available for those that want to use them, but allow the rest of us to use industry standard tools. I know I would much rather have the EAA web site hosting our chapter web site for free than for us to be paying for a domain name and using a free web host that overlays their advertising over our pages.

I find it mildly annoying that when I made a public statement about this in this thread under Chapters, which it certainly pertains to, the thread was moved over into feedback, which is kind of like getting dumped into the bit bucket. I brought this up when the web sites were first created, the administrator acted like I'm an idiot. No reason to believe he'll think any different today. Maybe he's right?

-CubBuilder

[Hal Bryan]

I don't even begin to believe most chapters would suddenly start building web pages, but I do believe more would do so if the EAA allowed us to use industry standards rather than forcing us into the WEBS.com tool set. Make the WEBS tool set available for those that want to use them, but allow the rest of us to use industry standard tools. I know I would much rather have the EAA web site hosting our chapter web site for free than for us to be paying for a domain name and using a free web host that overlays their advertising over our pages.

Cub Builder, your feedback is well taken. We chose Webs.com as the best compromise available in terms of reasonable flexibility weighted against ease of use. There's no question that the latter weighed more heavily - the idea that some significant number of our chapters have the ability to build websites from scratch and FTP them out to a server just isn't realistic.

Like any one-size-fits-all solution, it really doesn't fit anyone perfectly.

I find it mildly annoying that when I made a public statement about this in this thread under Chapters, which it certainly pertains to, the thread was moved over into feedback, which is kind of like getting dumped into the bit bucket.

You're misinterpreting the situation here: what I didn't notice while I was traveling over the holidays and keeping up on the forums via my cell phone was that flyrite had created two duplicate threads. Because there was some valuable discussion in both, I merged the threads. This one became the "master", because it had more responses. This was just basic forum housekeeping, that's all. No insult, implied or otherwise, intended. If the participants prefer, I'm more than happy to move the whole thing back to the Chapters section, though I don't believe that the location of the discussion really carries with it any implied hierarchy.

I brought this up when the web sites were first created, the administrator acted like I'm an idiot. No reason to believe he'll think any different today. Maybe he's right?
-CubBuilder

I did no such thing, and I'm utterly baffled at the accusation.

[flyrite]

Should I address this question some where else for a reply?

[Hal Bryan]

Hi flyrite - this is the right place but A) I'm not sure I understand your question and B) I'm on vacation doing a lot of traveling so I've got limited availability right now.

Can you clarify what it is you're asking and explain the "can can" bit? If you can be specific and say "I go to the website and I do x and then y, and q happens but I think that actually z happens" that would be helpful.

Thanks!

Hal

[flyrite]

Hey Hal, Thanks for the response....When you are searching for a chapter{IAC or EAA}all you get is the e-mail link to the person who either maintains it or is the president. What I would like is to be able to access the chapters website itself. I may be overlooking something but other than doing a yahoo search for the chapter of interest I can't see any other way of getting to their website. If after you have gone thru the process of locating the chapter on the eaa site then you click on "Chapter" it gives you nothing but the "can-can" email address of the person running it. Unless I'm missing something {probably he case} why not just link to the web site of interest?

[flyrite]

Hey Hal, Thanks for the response....When you are searching for a chapter{IAC or EAA}all you get is the e-mail link to the person who either maintains it or is the president. What I would like is to be able to access the chapters website itself. I may be overlooking something but other than doing a yahoo search for the chapter of interest I can't see any other way of getting to their website. If after you have gone thru the process of locating the chapter on the eaa site then you click on "Chapter" it gives you nothing but the "can-can" email address of the person running it. Unless I'm missing something {probably he case} why not just link to the web site of interest?

BUMP!