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Creating a slashdot or MacNN-like site
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
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I've got a user group and we need a website. We have a site now that's pretty terrible. It's terrible because I made it and I'm not really much of a web developer. My application is Adobe PageMill which shows just how far behind I am.
Anyway what I really want is the ability to create a website once, but then easily update news headlines without the need for using any HTML code. I was thinking that must be what slashdot uses but I could be wrong. It would be great if I could allow other user group officers to post to the site too. Those user comment/forum things are nice too but not necessary since we're looking to set up some real discussion boards. Also slashdot is a bit ugly but I assume that can be fixed easily.
What kind of system does MacNN use? Do you guys launch the web dev tools everytime you need to post a headline? I was hoping there might be a pre-made automated system that I can install on our server (which will soon be a blue and white G3 running OS X Server) and edit the layout once. Then after that the site will be self maintaining and we can just update stuff other ways (hopefully by some sort of web submission form).
Does anyone know if there's something out there like this already? Thanks.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Here's a good start - I'm assuming you'd be quite happy using the built-in PHP and MySQL to run your dynamic site?
Hot Scripts - News Publishing
A lot of these scripts are either free (GPL) or a very nominal fee and you can find some real gems! If you'd prefer to use CGI scripts then there's a link here.
I have no idea what MacNN use for their main sites, though.
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Computer thez nohhh...
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Feb 2001
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I tried a lot of the "weblog" type scripts and found PHP-nuke to be quite nice. There is also an offshoot called Post-nuke but I have not tried that.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Washington, DC
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MacNN uses Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB), but MacNN is outgrowing it VERY QUICKLY. If Slashdot used UBB there would be serious problems because it's designed for around 5000 or less users, and not for thousands of hits per second. I would say it's great for what your looking for. The link is at the end of EVERY MacNN page...
Looks like this:
Powered by Infopop Corporation
Ultimate Bulletin BoardTM 6.04e
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Originally posted by Simon Mundy:
<STRONG>Here's a good start - I'm assuming you'd be quite happy using the built-in PHP and MySQL to run your dynamic site?
Hot Scripts - News Publishing
A lot of these scripts are either free (GPL) or a very nominal fee and you can find some real gems! If you'd prefer to use CGI scripts then there's a link here.
</STRONG>
Thanks! These are great! However I don't know any PHP or SQL stuff. Do I need to in order to install these packages? Will it be so overwealmingly difficult that I'm going to rip my hair out?
Thanks.
Oh and to Mitchel_pgh, MacNN's discussion boards are Infopop but not their new pages. I'm looking into getting us infopop boards for our site but I think they're too expensive. Maybe there'll be some good PHP boards on this hotscripts site.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
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OK so I installed one of them but it doesn't work. I'm supposed to be able to run the installer from my web browser by going to to install.php file in the place where i installed it but it doesn't actually run, it just shows up at the actual text of the file. Any ideas?
I installed fusion and put it in my Sites folder in a folder called news. I chmod all the files 755 and it won't run from my web browser. I imagine this has something to do with me not understanding PHP. Can I put php scripts in there? Thanks.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Originally posted by waffffffle:
<STRONG>
Thanks! These are great! However I don't know any PHP or SQL stuff. Do I need to in order to install these packages? Will it be so overwealmingly difficult that I'm going to rip my hair out?</STRONG>
Probably.
But if you're using Mac OS X Server then PHP and MySQL should already be up and running. All you'll need to do is tweak a few settings in the httpd.conf file for apache, a few CHMOD settings for your directorys and executables and then setup a couple of MySQL tables.
Most good packages should have full installation instructions to make it as painless as possible - if they don't, I'm sure some of the good folk around here can offer advice!
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Computer thez nohhh...
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Actually my problem was that i didnt install php. I now installed it and got the installer to run but it gave a ton of errors.
Warning: fopen("config.php", "w") - Permission denied in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 201
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 202
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 203
Warning: fopen("users.php", "a") - Permission denied in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 206
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 207
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 208
Any ideas? Thanks.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: England
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Have you installed MySQL? I found my copy of OSX came with PHP but not MySQL... I read the manual for a bit and found some guy linked to a nice graphical OSX pre-compiled installer - much nicer than fussing with command line things.
Amorya
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What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Originally posted by waffffffle:
<STRONG>Actually my problem was that i didnt install php. I now installed it and got the installer to run but it gave a ton of errors.
Warning: fopen("config.php", "w") - Permission denied in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 201
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 202
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 203
Warning: fopen("users.php", "a") - Permission denied in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 206
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 207
Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news/installer.php on line 208
Any ideas? Thanks.</STRONG>
Did you chmod all the files AND the folders in /Users/dsemaya/Sites/news to allow r/w/e (including the root folder itself) ?
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Computer thez nohhh...
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Beaverton, OR, USA
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I'd definitely go with PHP and mySQL for the news pages section. But for the "real" message boards and such, I would definitely not go with infopop, but instead go with ikonboard, available for free from www.ikonboard.com, it is more customizable than infopop, and it's free, what's not to like? Good luck getting it all set up and working!
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iMac G5 1.8 17" SD/768MB/80GB
iPod Mini 4gb Rev. B
external firewire 400 120GB drive
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Oregon
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Over there
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(
Last edited by Simon X; Feb 12, 2017 at 01:19 PM.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2001
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(
Last edited by Simon X; Feb 12, 2017 at 01:21 PM.
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Admin Emeritus  Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: New Yawk
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For our news pages, we use custom-written publisher software that inserts stories into a MySQL database, which is periodically dumped into the main page via PHP (every few minutes or so).
We use UBB, and although the code is poor, the interface is a good one, and it's easy to hack and maintain. It's not very expensive (around $80/year last I checked), but if you're going to go with all PHP/SQL stuff you may want to check out the freeware phpBB. Version 2 was looking pretty good when I saw it last, and you can't beat the price.
However, whatever software you go with, you're going to have to get your hands dirty at some point. No software will do exactly what you want. You just have to find something that's as close as possible and then hack it yourself.
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"Do not be too positive about things. You may be in error." (C. F. Lawlor, The Mixicologist)
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Any Town, USA
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What ever happened to myIkonboard? The company was going to have free hosting (with some adds and stuff).
Originally posted by pysan:
<STRONG>I'd definitely go with PHP and mySQL for the news pages section. But for the "real" message boards and such, I would definitely not go with infopop, but instead go with ikonboard, available for free from www.ikonboard.com, it is more customizable than infopop, and it's free, what's not to like? Good luck getting it all set up and working!</STRONG>
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Change your world and you will change your mind.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Southern California
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Ikonboard is the most powerful and fast cgi and mySQL message board and it's free. But now the creative team has left it to create a lightning fast PHP message board also using various SQL databases. Both have skins that you can completely alter the look of the board.
IBFourms is going to be incredible when it's released in a month or so. Until then you can use Ikonboard, which will convert easily to the new IB forum.
Oh yeah, and for news you just select a forum to be the news forum, and any new topic will be instantly exported as a news item to the front page of your site. It can be formatted the way you like it. Update the news by posing a new topic in the news forum, and it's immediately updated on the front page.
[ 03-24-2002: Message edited by: mugwump ]
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2001
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(
Last edited by Simon X; Feb 12, 2017 at 01:20 PM.
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