Builders blog invitation question.

Adrian sent me an email a few days ago saying that I would have an invitation to join the blog shortly. Well I have received nothing. Am I overlooking something?

We've run into the 100 member limit on the user blog and need to do some pruning.

Long term, we there's a possibility we may start hosting blogs. e.g. a random user AliceTheBot would have users.reprap.org/AliceTheBot
and so on.

I think a user base would be a great idea!

I would recommend using Drupal (a widely used Open Source CMS). This way we could allow every user to make an account, have his (or her?) own blog, aggregation, and so on... there is even a wiki-like system available ('books').

Using registration forms we could get an idea of how many RepRap users are out there. Asking questions like, "Where is your RepRap coming from?", "What status is it in. (Planning, working on it, testing, production)", etc. would give us a detailed view on our RepRap-Genetic-Tree.

Users experimenting with new stuff could document their findings, logging what previous versions inspired them and so on..
I made a mockup (jpg attachment) a while ago. It pictures how we could organize these pages in a structural wiki-way keeping an overview at all time, using graphics to make interpretation more logical. (I thinks this is necessary as we are working in a chaotic evolving environment).



Some things I was thinking of while making this mockup:
- Perhaps we could make this view dynamic, using processing-visualization or something?
- We could have the node-size indicating the number of users.
- Color could be an indication how how much it is used in working systems.
- Having a dynamic view we could use filters to narrow down what we are looking for. eg. Selecting a specific region would give a tree of nodes used in that area. (an indication of locally available materials.)
- Clicking a node would give more information on it. (perhaps it could even link to a wiki page?)
- each category could have such a tree/root. (Electronics/Software/Carthesian system/Toolheads/...)
- ...

I made several Drupal-sites in the past, but never with a big user community...

What do you guys think?

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[www.coded.be]

I'd not recommend to setup a common system like Drupal unless you want to apply security patches every few weeks.

I'd seen Drupal before, and know it has a reputation of being a fairly powerful cms. This will seem childish, but I really don't like how every Drupal web page url ends in /en/node/Some_Number.


I think for now we may just install WordPress or similar (Habari) on the server for hosting RepRappers' blogs.

Batist's proposal of a graphics-driven genetic tree, sounds fun, but our primary needs are:
1) Documentation
2) Social Networking, e.g. deviant art, flickr, ravelry, etc.
3) Objects Library

Being able to answer queries like, knowing "Where is your RepRap coming from?" or "What status is it in?"
are interesting, but don't fulfill our primary needs. It's like equipping a kitchen. You need a stove, an oven, a good knife and so on. Then there are things like breadmakers. Those are useful, and some people use them constantly, but you can get by without them.

SebastienBailard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd seen Drupal before, and know it has a
> reputation of being a fairly powerful cms. This
> will seem childish, but I really don't like how
> every Drupal web page url ends in
> /en/node/Some_Number.

Drupal can handle *almost* anything. Url's can be set manually to a string, or can automatically be formed using the title: [www.drupaldude.com]
However, I might be a bit biased being a Belgian :-D

> I think for now we may just install WordPress or
> similar (Habari) on the server for hosting
> RepRappers' blogs.

For blogging purposes that could be easier indeed.
If you have Python on your servers I also recommend [www.planetplanet.org]
This aggregates all kinds of blog. (eg. GNOME uses it.)

>
> Batist's proposal of a graphics-driven genetic
> tree, sounds fun, but our primary needs are:
> 1) Documentation
> 2) Social Networking, e.g. deviant art, flickr,
> ravelry, etc.
> 3) Objects Library
>
> Being able to answer queries like, knowing "Where
> is your RepRap coming from?" or "What status is it
> in?"
> are interesting, but don't fulfill our primary
> needs. It's like equipping a kitchen. You need a
> stove, an oven, a good knife and so on. Then
> there are things like breadmakers. Those are
> useful, and some people use them constantly, but
> you can get by without them.

I must admit you're totally right. Perhaps the RepRap project is a bit to young for something like this. (keeping such a system maintainable would be a serious challenge...)

It's just that I find these Wiki systems a bit confusing and I can't find my way in them after a few clicks. This kind of graphical node system could help keeping an overview. Perhaps just having a XML containing links to the wiki pages, and displaying it in a tree, would be enough.
I'll look in to that next week, then I'll have some time.

I was also wondering if there are any plans making it possible to translate the documentation? In Europe Latin-language countries seem to be RepRapless?

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[www.coded.be]