Re: [LUG] www.dcglug.org.uk

Thanks for pulling ideas together, Paul.

a website is a clearly laid out portal to what we offer, as in (in no
particular order)

Who's the market? Existing members and new members?

If so, do we have a landing page for newbies front and center, explaining who we are, how long the lug's been around, and a short friendly list of the services and what they mean, and what's on the table for discussion.

Perhaps after that, a specialists corner with lug members volunteering as mentors for various things. I'll start a new thread in here asking for specialitise - don't know if it's been done before, but I've not seen it lately.

IRC

Yep. "Live chat and help"

Mailing list signup info

Perhaps the core of the group? Very short explanation of what a list is and what runs it.

member page that lists who is admin or can help with any of the above
services

And perhaps this is the place to flesh out specialities? Perhaps people can edit their own profiles if there's a suitable displayed field?

it seems a portal to some sort of forum (kai suggested discourse)

No strong feeling. I'd use it if others did.

A presence on facebook / twitter / g+ seems essential (or maybe
expected) if anything meetings can be tweeted and anyone just wanting to
meet up with like minded people can just follow us

I'd certainly use a facebook group, but probably not twitter/g+. However, given strength of feeling of some others on this subject, I may be in the minority. :)

A page to explain perhaps why facebook is bad (lack of freedom, etc)
and why alternatives such as

Careful of appearing too negative. Facebook has many benefits - and it's a lot more popular than linux user groups :)

A website that is maintained and has a TEAM of people who can do the
back office stuff esp if members are submitting content, there may be
issues with what they have uploaded and they need a bit of help to tidy
things up or add pictures in the way that is appropriate.

Hate to add to beurocracy, but I'll ask the question: Does website editing need a procedure or charter? What's been highlighted recently is that different people have different ideas about what is and isn't welcome, would this help? (Maybe a second lower priority task to be done in the future?)

>From what we need from a lug
access to help, in a open, friendly manner, knowledgeable people who
will either answer the question or point people in the right direction,
rather than say RTFM, sure we can suggest they read something and come
back if there are issues. As people have said there is LOADS of info
out there its finding the good info from the bad comes from experience
of using things.

:thumbsup: :)

Perhaps promotion of OSS software

advocacy of OSS / Linux

Promote campaignts such as those to do with software patents, esp as
people are aware of these with all the MS / Android / Apple lawsuits
flying around BUT the issue affects smaller people.

A soapbox corner? Again, careful of being too "in your face" with negatives, but individuals speaking out on a soapbox on subjects (without ever being personal, ofc) might be an interesting side feature.