[Users] meeting minutes for 2020-02-06

[Steven R. Brandt]

On 2/11/2020 8:21 AM, Ian Hinder wrote:
>
>
>> On 10 Feb 2020, at 16:37, Steven R. Brandt <sbrandt at cct.lsu.edu 
>> <mailto:sbrandt at cct.lsu.edu>> wrote:
>>
>> So the question is, what do we do about the website? We don't have 
>> the time, person-power, or budget to maintain it. At present, the 
>> website is full of things that are horribly out of date and likely 
>> does more harm than good for anyone reading it.
>>
> Hi Steve,
>
> For time, person power and budget, how would this change if it were 
> moved to be under the ET website?

I don't have a dollar or hour figure, but the svn repo is maintained by 
CCT, which sits on a server which has to be upgraded from time to time 
and there are svn client server version issues, etc. Similar issues 
apply to the webserver. The machine has to be upgraded from time to 
time, which includes going and getting new docs, etc. If we put a 
webserver on github and served cactuscode.org out of a docker image like 
we do for the ET, that would simplify upgrades and refreshing. It would 
also help us to document what the website does and make it possible to 
host it elsewhere if that ever becomes necessary or desirable.

My belief is that if we want to keep a cactuscode.org website, we should 
all help in updating it and making it worthwhile.

>
> Is the issue related to keeping the content up-to-date, or 
> infrastructure issues like maintaining a separate webserver etc?
Mostly, it's keeping the content relevant, but the website updated and 
running is a bit of a hassle too.
>
> Deleting content which is out of date would help.
Right, but there's a lot of content and I don't have the time to go 
through it all--I don't think anyone does. I think we need to ask what 
the minimum thing is that we want. What are the critical set of pages?
>>
>> We could make a website that's just a few well-chosen pages with a 
>> similar template to the ETK.
>>
> Reducing the amount of administrative duplication is certainly desirable.

It's more than desirable IMHO, it's necessary. Also, in recent months 
we've been working to decentralize administration and make sure that  
more than one person knows how to keep various things running. This is 
another opportunity to continue that trend.

--Steve

>
> -- 
> Ian**Hinder
> Research Software Engineer
> University of Manchester, UK
>
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