[plug] LinMagAu goodnight :(

[Kimberly Shelt]

On Wed, Mar 31, 2004 at 09:44:50PM +0800, Sham Chukoury wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-03-31 at 20:51, Kimberly Shelt wrote:
> 
> > Indeed..but so far no one else has put up their hand :(
> > we have a few solid contributors that do their bit..
> > but it has only been me behind the scenes etc.. 
> > 
> > So the someone has to be able to do the time etc.. 
> 
> Hmmm.. So tell us what's involved in running LinMagau.. :P What's
> linmagau behind the scenes? :)

lol.. do you really want to know..

a) 	First you subscribe to all relevant lists.. 
So you can trawl for information .. to add to the site when necessary..
b)	Then you read them all. and add the important bits to the site as needed.
c)	The site is on 3 machines.. because of previous hits from slash..
Not distributed.. thus you do everything 3 times :) Watch out for cost..
I got a good deal.. network transist costs and bandwith etc.. 
d)	Host file fun to round robin the machines.. 
e)	All content is on 3 machines, in the dbs,, so 3 sets of backups..etc..
f)	Hand hacked by Kim php pages.. to draw the info from the relevant machine..
unless it is more important.. aka members signing up etc.. aroudn 500 I think.. 
that and the links, mail archive and other random things are on the main machine
and auto redirection works to point people back there when needed..
g)	Currently PHP Nuke scripts.. needs an update.. but so much to change in 
the hand hacked pages.(for the other 2 sub machines) .. a bit of time :)
h)	Lots of hassling of folks to use their things.. get permission etc..
i)	Lots of risking it without permission :)
j)	Calendar updates.. havent been done for ages.. means trawling LUG sites to 
see when they are doing things.. again reading the lists.. and adding it to the site.. (3)
k)	Be KIM :)

Actually there is a lot more.. seriously it does take a lot of time and dedication.. 
Content gathering, backups, updating all and everthing, finding new stuff, avoiding being
caught in the middle.. evaluating what is right or not.. and and and :)
being nice to folks who do put in the effort.. (the latter was never a problem for me.. ) 
cause they had the same wish as me.. to be part of the community :)

I changed to the updated news module rather than the monthly editions in the hope that my
load would be more balanced.. which worked.. but I feel in my heart that the mag suffered
on the whole because of it :(.. no slashing since the change.. but that had a lot to do with
the fact I didnt go out hunting the clever people in .au and getting their ok to use new and
fun things that draw Slash.. :(

I did start a LinMagAu howto some time ago. I can probably dig it out.. 

Interested ?
K