In the column to the left you will find, as before, links for logging in (if you have an account) and links for starting new blog entries, stories etc - although these formats are all pretty similar and most contributors just use 'blogs'. You can make comments without having an account. You can submit stories via the contact link (at top of left hand column). Be sure to label them 'Submission for candobetter.net'.
Changes to site lay-out of formatting options:
Experienced candobetter.net writers will notice that the lay-out of the formatting options for articles is a little different. Just look carefully. All the options are still there, such as 'text', 'full html', publish, unpublish, front page etc.
Publishing pictures does require a slightly different pathway now. Instead of img src="/files/name-of-picture.jpg" you need to write: img src="/files/name-of-picture.jpg". Email or ring if you have problems.
What we want you to publish:
The main thing is to write about what is going on today as you see it (or you may want to comment on the history of where we are now), related to our website subjects, which are 'reform in democracy, environment, population, land use planning and energy policy'. You will find that these topics cover just about everything you can think of - and that is why we have chosen them, although they originally relate to the thesis, The Growth Lobby in Australia and its Absence in France. A good short article about the Growth Lobby is this one by James Sinnamon: "How the Growth Lobby threatens Australia's future."
Recent candobetter.net upgrade
We have just spent three weeks and quite a bit of money to upgrade candobetter.net's content management structure from Drupal 6.24 to Drupal 7.41. A number of articles are waiting to be edited and there has been little participation in debate from the editors due to work supervising the upgrade. There remain a number of things that could be greatly improved about this site and it remains a work in progress, however our priority is now to publish some of the backlog. We need more editors, by the way.
History of candobetter.net site versions
This site was built by James Sinnamon in 2006, with James and me (Sheila Newman) the principle editors. Due to a serious head injury in 2010, James has never had the stamina to upgrade the site himself. Although he still contributes, edits and writes some programs for the site, upgrades are a huge job. This most recent one took at least two developers three weeks. Maybe three years ago our webhosts, LVPSHosting, very generously did an upgrade for no extra charge, from Drupal version 4.2 (or thereabouts) to Drupal 6.24, but were unable to take the upgrade further because of the specialist skill required. Now that this upgrade has been completed, we have fewer worries about the site crashing. But we will be looking at new functions and changes in appearance when we have the time and money as well as better management of other behind the scenes options.
Hope this wasn't too boring for those of you who just read on this site. It certainly isn't boring managing these problems but it can be a very demanding learning curve when the organisation of the site has changed with a new version. If you are interested in Drupal development and site management, please introduce yourself.
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