Please welcome the new 2006 SDR web site!

[ttweed]

The individual event calendars are up-to-date....

I don't think so. Not yet. The Autox schedule shows no events in May at all, and the DE schedule shows two, 2-day events, one in May and one in July. From the previous discussion on this forum, the DE's were said to be one-day events (only on Sunday) preceeded by a Sat. autox.

A cut and paste from the respective pages:
From http://www.pcasdr.org/porsche_events/track_events/autocross/calendar/index.php
Autox Schedule
Jan 15 Qualcomm west lot
Feb 05 Qualcomm west lot
Feb 18 Qualcomm west lot
Mar 12 Qualcomm south east lot
Apr 16 Qualcomm west lot
Jul 01 Qualcomm south east lot

From http://www.pcasdr.org/porsche_events/track_events/driversed/calendar/index.php
DE schedule
May 13-14 Qualcomm west lot
Jul 15-16 Qualcomm west lot

I imagine that May 13 and July 15 need to be added to the autox schedule and deleted from the DE schedule, but I am only guessing, based on the discussion that took place in this thread. It is pretty frustrating to not have the correct information available now, when it was all on the old site on Dec. 20th.

Having no links to the excellent database of results that Kary developed seems to be an oversight and a waste to me. The only link to "Results" that I can see are empty pages for 2006 results. It would be nice to be able to refer back to the previous years as we did before.

TT

[tb911]

Hmm, it appears nobody told me of these changes. I've posted what Margi told me was the calendar. If they've change it, they need to send out a email or two to people such as myself. I'll ask at the board meeting on Wednesday what is up.

[Mike]

Looks like you guys put a great deal of work into the new site, thank you for the big and time consuming effort.
Perhaps next time before making it public just send the new site link to TT our wise/long timer (long timer sounds better than old, I know) proof reader.

[ttweed]

... send the new site link to TT our wise/long timer (long timer sounds better than old, I know) proof reader.

Thanks for volunteering me Mikey! Actually, I would have been happy to have beta-previewed the new site for content/errors/useability/etc. but we seem to have skipped that step in the implementation. There must have been some time constraints involved in this effort of which I am not aware, as it seems we rushed into the new system without really migrating the data from the old one. I am no IT person, but I have been thru several "mission critical" information system implementations in my career, and they usually involve running dual (parallel) systems until all necessary data/details have been converted and tested on the new system, then the old one is taken down. It can certainly be argued that the website is not really "mission critical" for PCA-SDR, as without it, things would still go on--operations would not come to a screeching halt. But it has become a pretty important source for information about the club for many people, myself included.

I am kind of a stuck-in-the mud, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kind of a guy, and I don't really even understand what the impetus for creating a new site was. OK, maybe I don't read all the minutes of the board meetings that are published in the Witness. What were we fixing? Does the new site contain a web-based "content manager" that allows the various people involved with maintaining the website to easily access and add/change things? Were we changing hosting services or something? Was the old site too ugly?

just wondering,
TT

[Chris Huck]

The last sdr site was built in 2002.

Lots of effort goes into the graphic user interface, but even more into the maintenance of the site. Adding and deleting files,ads, images etc... The last site wasn't designed to be easy to do all the maintenance. Was starting to look a bit "old" too.

The only reward any volunteers ever receive is recognition. The 2002 designed website placed 2nd in the PCA National web site competition.

How could we delete all the old "bloat" as well as build a new graphic user interface that would be significantly more up to date in it's look? Make it easier to update? How could we compete better against ever improving other PCA regional web sites?

We were thinking all this when John Greer volunteered the efforts of his company - The La Jolla Group.

While the site debuted a hair prematurely, LOTS of effort has gone into it by them, Tom Brown as 2006 Web Team Leader, and myself as 2005 WTL. The rest will be updated very soon.

Keep in mind please this is all volunteer effort folks are putting in around their day jobs and during the holidays, to roll out a Jan 1st targetted new site.

I may be slightly biased, but I think it's a great improvement and will get even better, very soon!

[kary]

Speaking as one of the volunteers of the past I can say it is a lot of work to put up these sites and keep them maintained. I applaud the folks that have given their time and effort to build us a new site.

Regarding Tom's comments, I tend to agree about the ain't broke don't fix it. I think the real issue here is really the earlier release of something that was not quite ready. Hopefully soon this will be rectified and all will be back in terms of functionality that the previous site provided. (including the results history for auto-x and time trials )

[ttweed]

I applaud the folks that have given their time and effort to build us a new site.

I have to agree with this, and don't mean to belittle anyone's volunteer effort.

I think the real issue here is really the earlier release of something that was not quite ready.

My feeling, exactly. While Jan. 1 may have been the target date, if it wasn't completely ready, why not take another couple of weeks, or a month even, to flesh it out (with at least a complete and accurate schedule, working classifieds, accurate forms links, and results archives), put it up on a test site, let people look at it, kick the tires and refine the details, then take the old site down and roll the new one out? As it is, we threw the baby out with the bathwater.

TT

[gulf911]

I really like the new look, and do appreciate all the effort from the web team, however, being in IT myself the new site should have been proofed and ran parallel until all links and data were corrected first just as Tom said. That being said, a big thanks to the web team for their efforts! I am sure it will be great once the bugs are worked out.

[Steve Grosekemper]

Speaking as one of the volunteers of the past I can say it is a lot of work to put up these sites and keep them maintained. I applaud the folks that have given their time and effort to build us a new site.

Regarding Tom's comments, I tend to agree about the ain't broke don't fix it. I think the real issue here is really the earlier release of something that was not quite ready. Hopefully soon this will be rectified and all will be back in terms of functionality that the previous site provided. (including the results history for auto-x and time trials )

Kary,
One of the first updates I made to the AX and TT pages was to put back the link to your results site. You put so much time into this I am glad to be able to have access to all this information if for nothing other than having data for smack talking here on the forum.

All previous AX and TT results are in the General Information box on the upper right side of the AX and TT pages.

Thanks for all your work compiling and maintaining this information.

[Mike]

Kary,
One of the first updates I made to the AX and TT pages was to put back the link to your results site. You put so much time into this I am glad to be able to have access to all this information if for nothing other than having data for smack talking here on the forum.
Thanks for all your work compiling and maintaining this information.

Absolutely! Great to see the link on the site.
I very much enjoy the design of Kary's results page.
Thanks Guys.

[kary]

Mike, Steve, thank you for the kind words. The history is used quite a bit for things other than smack talk. Robert uses to to look up history on drivers when determining TT run groups, Martha used it to determine active car numbers in our region using some special links, while others use it to compare drivers and performance. It has many uses and hopefully it can continue on in this form or a newer form. It was much work to create and build but well worht in my opinion.

I am stepping down this year from managing the results as I just do not have the time at this point. Hopefully in the future I can engage again and volunteer but for now I must just participate at TT events and on this forum.

[Robert]

Kary, has someone else been specifically appointed to take over the results database, posting, etc.? We all appreciate the job you've done building the database and keeping everything up to date.

[kary]

Robert, I do not know if anyone as been appointed but I know they are aware it needs to be covered. I also described for them the skillset that would be required to support it and offered my help to hand the torch of so to speak.

Kary

[kary]

Robert, I do not know if anyone as been appointed but I know they are aware it needs to be covered. I also described for them the skillset that would be required to support it and offered my help to hand the torch of so to speak.

Kary

[Kim Crosser]

Any idea when the new web site will include the Photos and 2007 Parade entries? These links are still missing.