20th Anniversary for our website.

[John W Blehm]

It was May of 1999 when I registered the domain name Ameraucana.or and had a friend, that was familiar with html, create our first website.  He showed me how to make changes and maintain it.  Few if any other breed clubs at that time had a website. 

Club members Vicky Thompson, of Michigan, and the late Rita Johnson, of New York, started the first forum dealing with Ameracuanas.  They called it The ABC Sharing Place.  It was an MSN forum and the rules didn't allow any buying or selling thru it, so in 2005 I setup the Ameraucana Marketplace forum designed just for buying and selling in order not to compete with their forum.  MSN forums had many glitches and eventually went away, so I opened our forum up to discussions about everything Ameraucana.

[Mike Gilbert]

I have looked at parts of the newest website.   What advantages does it have over the old one?   Lower cost?  Easier to maintain?   I don't see much that is different as to content.  Or what am I missing?  I know you put a lot of time and effort into it, and I'm just wondering what was the impetus behind it?

[John W Blehm]

I have looked at parts of the newest website.   What advantages does it have over the old one?   Lower cost?  Easier to maintain?   I don't see much that is different as to content.  Or what am I missing?  I know you put a lot of time and effort into it, and I'm just wondering what was the impetus behind it?

I’m using a “content management software” or CMS and it is becoming the most common way sites are created now.  WordPress is the most popular, but I’m using Drupal…one of the top 3.  These makes sites work better with smart phones and more people are going that route when going online.  They also should help to get better rankings with search engines.  A big advantage is that the other officers won’t need an FTP program to make many changes to the site…they will be able to login and make some updates.  Doing an internet search for "advantages of cms" will list these and more.
This should also leave our Alliance officers of the furture something to continuously improve.
 

[Tailfeathers]

FWIW, I like this one better.  Easier on the eyes and I like the set up better with the forums and such.  Just my two-cents.

[John W Blehm]

FWIW, I like this one better.  Easier on the eyes and I like the set up better with the forums and such.  Just my two-cents.

These CMS programs are designed for blogs.  Someday someone may want to get into that, but I have enough to do.  Blogs also allow comments, but that feature is also turned off for now.  Drupal also has a built-in forum, but there again it isn't being used since we have this one.  Some cleanup work could be done to the site, if we have an Alliance member that is a Drupal pro and would like to volunteer to help. 

Also note our constitution is also in html format now...as requested by Beth and Sue.