Greetings fellow motorcycle nut cases, As you probably know, the website is down. Shawn asked if it was a software issue. Yeah, it was. I'm not sure what it was but the site just became very flaky. I was thinking in the back of my head of leaving the Xoops project (that's what the software was) because there hadn't been any real development for a long, long time in favor of Joomla. I was thinking of making the move in late summer so this just made things happen quicker than I'd have liked.
If you're not a web person this doesn't seem like a big deal but it is. I've supported Xoops for several years by helping other Xoops users, contributed code, and generally proselytizing the package. But over the last year and half, maybe two, the project has lost its way and the code hasn't been kept up. Mean while, Joomla has been maturing and growing at a quick pace. While not perfect, Joomla has a lot to offer in regards to blogging, news, forums, galleries, wiki's and on and on all integrated much more tightly that Xoops could ever offer. ElectricMotorcylces.net has well over 400 members (last I checked it was 430 something in Feb of '08). Not only does the new software have to be setup and debugged but each and every one of those accounts needs to be converted along with their blog entries, gallery entries, links, etc, etc. This is no small task and will take some time. I have several other websites for paying clients to roll out that have a high priority. The new software, Joomla, comes with some pretty nifty dodads. One of which is that it nicely integrates with PHPBB3, a pretty darned nice forum software. No big deal, I hear you saying, everyone has a forum now days. While that is true, this one is different in that, with a little luck, we'll be a test site for software that syncs web based forums with the list serv. So, weather you prefer email or web based conversations, you'll be covered. Webingly yours, Mike -- The Electric Motorcycle Portal http://www.electricmotorcycles.net/ Electric Motorcycle Listserv http://www.electricmotorcycles.net/listserv
