Geeklog Forums

While the opensource scripts like Gl and others ( both cms and/or blog scripts ) showed the world what could be done in this arena and the commercial giants picked up ( or copied ) stuffs from this treasure trove of opensource and free scripts, a time has now come when the favs of ours like GL needs to think ( notwithstanding GL2 ) in newer terms and need to take a hard look at what the competitors are doing. Sure, without money and with "free" downloads many things are not possible but at the same time there seems to be a dirth of developers of the genre who developed php and the like for no monetary returns or may be they have been bought over by the mncs ( ?? )

1. Have a look at http://360.yahoo.com or msn spaces or commercial stuffs like http://www.dzoic.com/

2. Not speaking of bloated features and too many stuffs but certain things are very much basic and "in" at the moment - essentially :

- the surfers ability to post news and photo in the same go
- the surfers ability to sign for and get a blog of his own at the site
with features to add photo and text content in the same go as well as "lists"
- having "add to favorites" for both contents of any type as well as authors
and to have "ignore" list as well
- not as separate plugins but forums and classifieds being integrated into the system with on-off switch
- IM ( instant messenger ) that can also tranfer / share files of choice
- ability to build networks of similar minds within the community ( friends circle )
- ability to post via mobiles

Well, I know, some or many features are available with GL like journal plug in etc but they are still deficient as per the the available stuffs in the free zone by mncs and in certain aspects like photo/image posting in the same go , GL has been very negative :- (
So far as integrated looks and user interface : Gl has been very clumsy eg. consider the print and send-to-friend stuffs - they have variety of icons for the news pages and the forums.

Development time is a big issue ( who will volunteer to do the actual programming ) and by the time GL2 sees completion many things will have changed or developed by others so that it will lag behind.

What is needed urgently is
incorporate as many features ( incorporate , not bloat )
and do this fast - say 1 - 2 weeks from now ( crazy ?? )

This can make really a rebirth of GL and blessed by many.

Did you just volunteer yourself or is this another wishlist? For you seem to know the focus and priorities of the devs already and are aware how GL differs from other CMSes. Your points are well made but are they the best long term strategy?

If I dare analogize GL to Debian - I would say GL competes in a different space as far as CMSes go just like Debian with other Linux distros. The future of GL imho is its robust security system - something unparalleled by its competitors and as long as this is done in a trustworthy manner in the next version, I would be willing to wait a year for GL2 (Sarge)

In the long run its more important to have a sturdy system than to succumb to satisfy peer pressure by coming up with a flurry of superficial add-ons. Looking at the history of plugin development, its obvious that needs will change (as you say) according to fashion and the idea of GPL is that people with that need, a bit of experience and good intent will make these plugins along the way and share it with others... whether this is good reason to cut corners in the dev cycle - perhaps not. If there is no sturdy core, GL will just dissipate into another one of those bloated systems that look flashy and cool on the outside to make up for internals.

If you have been keeping track of the forums, you will realize that GL 1.x is already becoming more modular and that the next version will be perhaps even more stramlined by removing links from the core and making them plugins... when you say "incorporate not bloat" this seems like the best way it can be achieved and things seem to be going the right way.

I think to an extent people like you and me who are not coders (pardon the assumption) in addition to asking for features for the future could help quite a bit by asking what we could do to speed things up in the present... to free up some time for the people who do code... perhaps help with the documentation? testing? something like that?



Ajay

Nice job Ajzz.

The features that the OP listed are mainly for bloggers. I don't view geeklog as blog software but Content Management System. There is a difference.

Most complaints I've read about geeklog in the last year, deal with blogging. If you want a pure blogging site, then I would say Geeklog is not for you. If you want a good dynamic web site with good security, then Geeklog is a fit.

Hi DTrumbower,

On than note, its probably time for us to change that misleading little right-block on the main page of the site... "What is Geeklog? Geeklog is a 'blog', otherwise known as a Weblog. It allows you to create your own virtual community area, complete with user administration, story posting, messaging, comments, polls, calendar, weblinks, and more! It can run on many different operating systems, and uses PHP4 and MySQL."



Ajay

nice.

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Yes I am mental.

Thanks for the feedbacks _ I will like to add the following .

Whether Geeklog is a blog or a CMS is not how I look at it - I look at GL as a solution to the type of website I need. If it is a personal blog where the visitors' are restricted to comments ( and some other minor stuffs ) then, yes, there are blog solutions perhaps better suited to the need.

However, I ( as well as many ) look to Gl as a website solution which can have any few or many more features like any big mnc site like yahoo or msn. Thus , vistors to such site should have the ability to open their own blogs under the site - I am not saying many people will need such feature but at the same time many may need and irrespective of that there is no harm in GL having the portability to offer all "nifty" features.

The plugin structure of the Gl has been much appreciated. With better installers ( simple on-off switch like e107 or simple one-click installers like mambo ) this can get even better and perhaps meet the needs of a non-programmer webmasters very easily.

In some recent threads GL has been aptly said as a security system in which all other stuffs are plugged in or should be pluggable ( like the recent opine that calendar should be a plugin ). While security is good, more so for the webmaster, from the visitors end a house should not have just electro-locks and closed circuit monitors but also neat layout providing the basic ammenities like a good sofa, a working televison, phone line etc - I am not speaking of the "riches" or "bloated" decors and interiors.
Please note that security is as loose as it is tight and new loopholes get on getting discovered just like with the
Stefan Esser SQL injection vulnerability with the latest version.
At the moment I know at least half a dozen stuffs which do cause breaches in performance if not exactly hampering security.
Thus while security gets developed and occupies a strong central priority certain, user aspects also needs to be mmmuch more developed.
In this aspect, may I once again, summarize what I was trying to say :

submissions

submissions need to be smart both for the news as well as for the forum posts so that both textual matter and photo/pix can be submitted in the same go. this should be well integrated into the system. GL needs to change its philosophy about the submissions.

plugins

better on-off switch so that no bloat ! and while there are other scripts that can be integrated into GL, GL needs to have its own Image Gallery script - Gallery and Coppermine are bloats and can hog resource ( in shared environs )
Geekary is excellent but some hitches with the latest Gl vers perhaps.
The jounal plugin needs to come at par with the 360.yahoo or msn spaces blogs.
Forum plugin urgently needs a quick new post and quick reply box. Etc etc etc.

user interface
sloppy in many areas - why two search boxes side by side ? why 3 different printer icons in the same site ( news, forum, faq )
Any page and any author should have the ability to be added as well as '*' marked/flagged by user as "favorite" or "ignored" and as "read/unread" in the respective categories ( news, forums etc ) Any page should be printable and sendable to friend in the same manner and by the use of same icons.
There should be also a "history" or "steps" track of what user has done in the last and this session ( see dezoic.com )
An added advantage will be if users are allowed to form their own clubs/networks/interest groups.


instant messenger and mobile submissions and mobile readability

before the first day GL came online there was no GL, before the first www website there was no website -
there is no harm if GL is not a CMS or whatever but rather a complete solution
And yes, some developments need to take fast ( say, within this week : )) - otherwise by the time we implement things there will be obsolency and hoard of another features needing incorporation.

Your comments a good.

The image gallery is being developed right now. Check the forum to see the progress.

Easier Plugin installation is also being looked at.

Now the standard line about Open Source software.

You are more then welcome to help out with coding. Since you seem to think coding only takes a few days, feel free to help. There are only a few people that code and they do it in there spare time. (I'm not one of them.)

If you have some feature request, please submit them on the project page.Features

Hello DTrumbower,

Thanks

Pardon me for the pardonable things in my previous "speech"

Three things I will like to clarify :

1) I am not a professional coder.
2) I have no complaints about GL and I know coding can take years
3) I have no specific "feature request" as such.

I was just giving some "feedback" here and thanks a lot for yours and others feedback

I`m not a coder too I am a marketing professional.

Let me ask you a question: How do you assess a book in a book shop? Which book do you pick out of a group of books? It is very simple, average people look at the title and the cover.

If I was asked to help Geeklog to rebirth I`d say give it another name and appearance. The name "Geeklog" is not international and on the German "market" / user group a rather odd word. It reminds me more of "go clock" or "G-Shock". "Mambo" is a known word from the dance. One seems to know it already. Also the supplied templates of mambo are great looking.

So maybe the average user picks out 1 or 2 CMS to test. "Oh, Mambo does the installation automatically, it`s great!" That was it. And without a good market share you don`t have enough volunteers to help coding etc.

So there`s no need to think about programming certain features within one week. There`s need of a strategy like: reach big international market share, be the most secure CMS / blog or whatever. And then find a way to communicate this in order to be the CMS on the "bookshelf" to be picked out and installed.

Different approach: why should Geeklog need users who only choose a certain CMS because of the automatic installer?

You attract 2 kinds of people with an automatic installer:
* People with no knowledge of HTML, FTP, image editing or whatsoever. These people should join a service like Blogger.
* People who do have some basic knowledge but do not want to take the time and trouble to find out anything themself. I wouldn't like to see them fill the forum with stupid questions because they did not want to read the docs or use the site search properly.

If you want your own website running on a CMS with your own layout and settings you always need some knowledge of HTML etc, and the motivation to try and find something out yourself. If not, please stay away.

I'm no programmer or developer, my HTML knowledge is perhaps a little above average but that, plus the docs/faqs/forum, was enough to develop some nice websites and designs running on GL.

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Dutch Geeklog sites about camping/hiking:
www.kampeerzaken.nl | www.campersite.nl | www.caravans.nl | www.caravans.net

beewee it`s o.k. if you think for your kind of users "I'm no programmer ... develop some nice websites..." My opinion was rather on behalf of Geeklog and as Stefen pointet out there`s a certain danger of, as I called it "loosing a market share" as more and more CMS and forks of forks come to the market. I also thought that this was an important point but it`s not necessarily so. It completely depends on the point of view if there is a problem or not.

If the strategy is rather: this is a CMS for, lets call it "insiders" who have a certain interest in the technical matters too, then it is o.k.

Personally I find it sad when somebody designs a good product but it is not being recognized as such. And other products with a fancy name and shiny look pass by. I understood that this was the feeling Stefen wanted to tell us with such a strong word as "rebirth".
Do you remember the Beta vs. VHS competition at the beginning of the 80ies? It wasn`t the better video system that won the race. and one can find many more examples.

Amazon.com is a good example for ease of use with their one-click order system. They could have said: "o.k. you learned to read, you will also learn do do 3 clicks to process your order..." It`s just a matter of the point of view.