Highlights from talk with Dieter
I had a very productive chat with Dieter last night. Here are some of the highlights.
1) First and foremost, he agrees that a switch to Dreamweaver is an excellent idea that would simplify all aspects of maintaining VG site. For example, Dreamweaver will seek out dead links and inform us of them (rather than having to hunt them down). Dreamweaver would also be WYSIWYG--freeing us from the tedium of coding. And lastly, FTP transfer is built in to Dreamweaver, so we can leave Cyberduck behind.
Again, I'm taking the Dreamweaver course next week and hopefully then I will know more about its abilities. I know Dreamweaver will take up the Movable Type site. Most of the front-end labor for us will involve tweaking the site, adapting it, and building some new templates, etc. Dieter also pointed my to the Uthink master, and informed me that he might be helpful in advising us as we switch over.
2) The "New Additions" to Bios and Criticism on the main page side bar should automatically update itself. It will only list NEW entries, not updated entries. This function is written into the Main Index template in the Main blog on Movable Type. It seems to be working. Marcia, the criticism you added yesterday appears in the sidebar. In general, though, I don't think we should spend too much time working through issues like this until after the switch. (For example, I'm going to postpone my consternation over why pictures of Pearl Cleage won't load onto the site).
That said, in the meantime, if you are posting a lot on Ecto, I suggest you make an account for yourself (so Lauren and Dieter don't get all the credit:-) Here's how to do that.
3) Dieter is willing to help us out with any problems as long as we're on Ecto. Keep track of questions and issues, and I can forward them on to him.
4) Lastly, (and this has little to do with my talk with Dieter), I have unpublished the Attic, The CFPs, and The Kitchen. It still exists out there in the ether, it just doesn't show on the website. It's easy to put back online if there are strong feelings about keeping it up. I think things like Attic and Kitchen are initiatives we can revisit after the switch, but in the interest of de-cluttering for the moment, both Lauren and Dieter suggested that taking them down temporarily would be a fine idea.