A Collaborative Blog on Linux.

I was thinking, there is a lot of information here in the OpenSource section, but it is largely inaccessible, also, we have people who know are very knowledgeable on Linux , so how about starting a blog on Linux, which will have Tips & Tricks, How-to's , News , Reviews and anything regarding Linux.

Everyone who is interested(genuinely) could be added as an author and contribute to the blog.

If quite a few folks are interested , we could get together and start one.

Share your thoughts on the idea.

Update :

We have decided to go with freeme.in .

The List Of Contributors: (as of now)

. rayraven
. QwertyManiac
. abhinandh

some reputed member should own the domain name and keep track of the quality of posts

hosting, maintanence etc

or we could go for wordpress.com for the time being.. if things work out stuff can be moved to a hosted blog

_

DigitalDude said:
some reputed member should own the domain name and keep track of the quality of posts hosting, maintanence etc

IMO, we should have a few reputed members do that.
If in any case one of them isn't available, the others can help out and moderate the posts.

DigitalDude said:
or we could go for wordpress.com for the time being.. if things work out stuff can be moved to a hosted blog

Yes, we could start with wordpress,
but , if many members are interested, perhaps a hosted solution could be considered.

suggest a name

_

^I'm bad at names, how's 'Everything Linux' sound?

thinklinux

Instead of going for a new blog, how about creating a new section (like 'Open source') in this forum and have the contents of that section screened before actually being posted

^Thats coz finding information in a forum is hard, as threads increase.
In a blog, its easier using the tags and categories.

The blog will only have information that can be used readily;no questions and answers by viewers like in a forum.

Try BayWords too while you're looking at free publishing platforms.

^Thanx, but whats the advantage with them?

QwertyManiac said:
Try BayWords too while you're looking at free publishing platforms.

they are also using wordpress

btw it is Wordpress MU (multi user) mu.wordpress.org, the code behind wordpress.com

but if you are looking for a different platform, see www.instablogs.com an Indian startup

_

^Yes, but it seems they dont censor anything, Although i have no idea why Qwerty recommended it.

Oops, forgot about the good old Freeme.in guys here used to run.

Head over to Freeme.in and you can blog there for free, all you need to do is sign in. Any changes to themes or controls etc in the Drupal CMS running there just contact mehulved or kalpik.

Btw, Baywords has nothing special really, just that air of freedom it gives you when you work under The Pirate Bay's shelter.

But do try Freeme guys, its been down a long time without active participators. But its all available to you for free and ready now, so

^I registered there, but they havent sent me my password yet.
Are they still alive and kicking ?

I registered there too, and I haven't gotten my password either.

But I do feel that for a collaborative effort, Drupal is the best platform.

Um did they send you guys an activation link atleast? Clicking that would get you to a page showing the username and the password. Then just login and change it.

Wait, is this about Freeme or BayWords?

Edit: About Freeme.in, do check your spam mail. I found my freeme mails in there.

^^^
you are telling about baywords... they are talking about freeme.in

_

^I'm talking abt Freeme. I got registered at baywords though.

Yup, check in your spam folder, must be there.

How bout a title like
"A Better World"
"We are free"
"absolute linux"

M

If you still don't get the passwords in your spam box. I will check up the setup tonight. Prolly I will upgrade the drupal install then install captcha. Thus, we can easily have those who sign up directly as writers so people can just sign up and put up their articles. But, we will need a few active participants to clean out useless articles and disputed stuff.

H

Well, a nice idea, but do you really want another blog in addition to the already 100s out there? I can't host or maintain but I can definitely contribute.

As for name, enterlinux.org

looking forward to something like this but keep info and tuts etc at n00b level for ppl like me

F

looking forward to something like this but keep info and tuts etc at n00b level for ppl like me

I agree with this. Hope the level of expertise required will be very low so most people using Linux can benefit from it as well

.

M

Hitboxx said:
Well, a nice idea, but do you really want another blog in addition to the already 100s out there? I can't host or maintain but I can definitely contribute.

As for name, enterlinux.org

Why one more? As it is we have freeme.in and ashish is giving us good amount of space, bandwidth and databases on mailnhost with very good uptimes. Why not help maintaining it?
And Riyaz has been sponsoring the domain name.

FilledVoid said:
I agree with this. Hope the level of expertise required will be very low so most people using Linux can benefit from it as well .

You can contribute those types of articles.

Some changes brought about today.

All mails were going to spam box because there was some change in hosting due to which we only had 1 email address. So, the email address from which mails were being delivered was deleted. It has been restored now.
All registered members can post now
Captcha has been enabled
Reistered users can change their usernames themselves
Moderators account added, those who would like to do moderation put forth their names

not me

but nice work going on there, change the pic at the top to look more like free as in freedom and not to specific localization.

F

Out of curiosity . When we say Linux are we supposed to contribute distro neutral stuff? Also are we only looking at Linux or OSS on Windows PLatform as well?

M

Any thing that is Mukt can go in - software, hardware, ideas under CC.
Though the main intention was to have India specific content but we have sadly been unable to do so. There's a lot happening around India too, but most of it goes unnoticed by majority. Events like recent install fest in Trivandrum, tuesday's candle light vigil in banfalore, release of belenix 0.7, etc all India specific stuff is our main focus. But, it's not limited to it.

^all things known,if u r subscribing to any active lug mailing lists.

BTW,I got a wp account for a Linux blog and will make it hidden(I am ashamed to show my blog

,see I am not a good communicator/writer huh!)

BTW,DOES ANYBODY NOTICED THE WAR @ DIGG.COM SITE OVER THE DAILY LINUX/FOSS NEWS!

Nice idea. I'm game. But we should purchase domain + Hosting. I'm willing to sponsor but I'm sure we won't have the commitment and the josh, so we can pool in money and get things started.

I can write/contribute but the site will be full of Apple/Mac stuffs.

If you're interested (and you ppl comfy with me having to do this), we can go ahead and plan. 2 lists. One who will manage (2-3 is enough) and one who will write/contribute.

@praka123/ those who feel can't write well,
You can contribute. Send in what you want to tell and I/anyone can post in the blog.

^what I want to tell will be like..kinda morse code?can u decrypt it ?

praka123 said:
BTW,I got a wp account for a Linux blog and will make it hidden(I am ashamed to show my blog ,see I am not a good communicator/writer huh!)

Ohh.. I'm sure it's not difficult for you to write morse code.

I registered there.
how do i change password?

it says
"You have just used your one-time login link. It is no longer necessary to use this link to login. Please change your password.
"

where do i change it?

M

We have taken the site down for maintainance as we encountered problems after turning on clean url's. Hopefully it will be back by tonight.

Hitboxx said:
I can't host or maintain but I can definitely contribute.
As for name, enterlinux.org

Thanx, we need more contributors for it work properly.

FilledVoid said:
Out of curiosity . When we say Linux are we supposed to contribute distro neutral stuff? Also are we only looking at Linux or OSS on Windows PLatform as well?

IMO, we should make it distro neutral, in the sense of how-to's.
Distro specific stuff, such as releases could also be covered.

iMav said:
looking forward to something like this but keep info and tuts etc at n00b level for ppl like me

Hopefully the tut's and how-to's will be at a low level.

praka123 said:
^all things known,if u r subscribing to any active lug mailing lists.
BTW,I got a wp account for a Linux blog and will make it hidden(I am ashamed to show my blog ,see I am not a good communicator/writer huh!)

Please, do show us the blog.
And as for writing , we can select a few people , say 2-3 reputed members here, who will moderate the quality of posts.

drgrudge said:
Nice idea. I'm game. But we should purchase domain + Hosting. I'm willing to sponsor but I'm sure we won't have the commitment and the josh, so we can pool in money and get things started.

I can write/contribute but the site will be full of Apple/Mac stuffs.

If you're interested (and you ppl comfy with me having to do this), we can go ahead and plan. 2 lists. One who will manage (2-3 is enough) and one who will write/contribute.

Thanx drgrudge, but im aiming for it to be a blog on everything linux related. Not really Mac.But seeing your writing skills, maybe you could moderate us?

Also, i would like to ask people if we should go with freeme.in or start smthing new.

Could the mods add a poll if possible?

I too was thinking of starting a blog about gnu/linux and OSS.
a collaborative blog will be a good option.
i can contribute tutorials and articles to it.

i got the idea long back but how about the name cooltux

Linux is developing fast and what we need is to educate people to join the movement.

abhinandh said:
Linux is developing fast and what we need is to educate people to join the movement.

Precisely.

Btw, i was thinking and maybe we should start with a temporary wordpress.com blog and start writing and shift to a a paid hosting once we get stabilized and people get into the groove.

If you guys agree, then we should choose 2-3 guys who will be moderating the entire thing.

rayraven said:
Btw, i was thinking and maybe we should start with a temporary wordpress.com blog and start writing and shift to a a paid hosting once we get stabilized and people get into the groove.

i agree.
but we definitely need a paid hosting later on.wordpress.com has too many limitations.theme customization is a major issue.

linuxnexus.org or linexus.org ?

^IMO, the name could come at a later point of time, once we start a temp blog, and start working on it.

btw, you interested in contributing?

rayraven said:
^IMO, the name could come at a later point of time, once we start a temp blog, and start working on it.

yes and i already registered cooltux.wordpress.com.
should we start??

^IMHO, we should wait for the opinion of a few more members?

Also, we need to figure out who's going to moderate the quality of posts,
i.e we need to select a few folks 2 or 3 , who'd be the editors

And make a list of all the folks who'd be the contributors.

^^Yeah will drop by some nuggets of information but there are other linux guru here who know better than me.

rayraven -
I prefer a new blog. freeme.in is hardly active now. Getting a domain + hosting is big deal. It would cost Rs 1k (maybe even less) for the first year. We need people who are really interested and committed.

By the way, you yourself can create a new poll.

^Yes,which is why i say we start with a free offering from wordpress/others.
Once we are settled, and enough people are committed we can go for a paid offering.

What do you say?

drgrudge said:
rayraven -
I prefer a new blog. freeme.in is hardly active now. Getting a domain + hosting is big deal. It would cost Rs 1k (maybe even less) for the first year. We need people who are really interested and committed.

By the way, you yourself can create a new poll.

We already have good hosting and a domain name! Agreed, its dead now, but we sure can revive it!

Mehul: Lemme know if you need anything from me.. I think i have admin access on Drupal, but i don't have FTP access.. Sorry was out yesterday night, so didn't come online at all..

F

I think that reviving an old blog would be better than rather starting a new free one. But thats just my opinion of course. Not to mention this one has a nice domain name and I'm sure with a bit of work it should be back in full form.

but please refrain from posting every now and then news, i saw a lot of news that was more of a news channel.

^Yes, whatever be the choice of host, we should try keep news to a minimal.
Even if we must post a news item , it should be small and rather link to the parent site for info.

So, the issue still isnt clear. Should we go with freeme.in or start from scratch.
Perhaps a poll is the only choice.

rayraven said:
So, the issue still isnt clear. Should we go with freeme.in or start from scratch.
Perhaps a poll is the only choice.

then add a poll

Ok, whoever is the mod who added the poll, Thanx.

M

ok added a poll.
But, as it is you would like to go with a dedicated host in the future. Freeme has both dedicated hosting on a good server and a paid for domain name. And blog posts can be done on drupal too.
Then again your wish if you people would like to start from scratch.

.in part limits the scope, may be am contemplating too much

@Mehul,
If its possible to get wordpress running on the host, and starting the blog from ground-up again, then maybe we can start off with freeme.in,

I was pondering over what you wrote and yes, someday we do have to start with a paid offering, and freeme.in has it ready.

I didnt find any decent looking drupal skins, also wordpress is easier to work with IMO.

M

Well I have enabled blog module for freeme and it's as easy to use. And drupal does better than wordpress to mange multiple authors with multiple roles.
We can also have sort of mini-forums for discussion and have moderators to keep tabs on posts and comments without having full access to administration. That makes drupal very viable.

^Hmm, I havent used drupal so cant say anything abt it.
But I couldnt find a decent skin for it, and IMO a weblog needs to look good, before anyone starts reading it.

Btw, is freeme.in down? You guys fixing something?
Also, make something clear please,
who owns freeme.in and who are the admins?

M

Yes freeme is down. see the previous page. There was an error and I am trying to fix it.
freeme.in domain name is owned by riyaz aka desertwind and hosting has been provided by ashish aka tuxfan. Both are old and trusted members of the forum. Ashish was also a mod of the forum earlier.
There's quite a lot of use old members who have got admin access to the site - digen, desertwind, GNUrag, kalpik, Satish S, ZeeshanQ, me. And a few others who have been helpful.

^Thanx for the info.

We should go for Freeme.

but freeme.in isnt a success,I feel.so this very idea seems not...a good one.
but...see *fsdaily.com it is improving

we should get a bigger audience/contributors pool.

Allright guys, i made a test blog, *justlinux.baywords.com/

We can start there and see how well we progress.
People who wanna be involved can create a username on baywords and post their id here.

We still need to decide on the editors. 2-3 should suffice IMO.

"Not Found
Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here."

That's what I get

(Upcoming stuff: We will add support for your own domain hopefully. Captcha system will be installed. Stats will be better. Ads will be added, sorry about that but we’ll keep them as usual to a minimum.)

^^ on baywords site.thats not good at all.better start off at wordpress.com.
btw if you think we should continue at baywords my id is abhinandh

@praka123 : I went and took a look at fsdaily, and I really like the way they've got things set up.

I think we should do something along those lines, but maybe direct it more towards a technical side than an advocacy side.

@abhinandh,

didnt read that, we'll in that case, we can move to some other,
wordpress.com has no ads?

@NucleusKore,
that's coz there are no posts and i deleted the hello world one.
Anyways, it wont matter as we may move to wordpress.

Freeme's database is corrupted i think.. I suggest we start from scratch..

rayraven said:
[...]wordpress.com has no ads?

no

_

kalpik said:
Freeme's database is corrupted i think.. I suggest we start from scratch..

In which case , can we start with Wordpress?

We could, but if you take my advice, Drupal is a much better platform

Lets see what Mehul says.

I couldnt find any good skins for drupal, and IMO, a website is read only if it looks good.

Nobody reads a crappy looking site.

EDIT:If you guys can get a decent looking skin, i dont really care which CMS we use.

*www.osskins.com/main/category/drupal/
*www.siteground.com/drupal-hosting/drupal-themes.htm
*alldrupalthemes.com/
*mashable.com/2007/10/04/drupal-3-column-themes/
*themegarden.org

^Great links.
Think this looks good : *alldrupalthemes.com/preview/node/2&theme=adt_bluebusiness

hire some web designers

Wordpress strongly recommended

CNN, NYT, WSJ, TIME, Apple, OSF, yahoo, ebay, techcrunch, zdnet, 9rules, gnome, mark shuttleworth all use WP (list of famous blogs on wordpress)

Wordpress Resource Thread

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82317

and btw you guys said that you wanna start with wordpress.com

then suddenly why the hosted platform question ?

_

^We do have to move to a hosted solution sometime.
Freeme.in is readily available. But, we werent sure if we could start from scratch, now that kalpik has confirmed that, i guess we can go with freeme.in.

Only things that remain are.
1. List of editors.
2. List of Contributors.
3. CMS - Drupal or Wordpress - Personally, i dont care which as long it looks good

@Everyone.
Please put down your name if you intend to contribute, and we can start the list. Also, suggest people who we want as editors. ~3 guys should do IMO, for now, we can add more as the work load increases.

I'm not a linux user just know a few stuff... that too cos I have a VPS server to host my websites

I cant author any meaningful linux articles... there are a lot of linux freaks here who could contribute. I dont think think that will be a problem.

just start with it.. many ppl will think a lot to join in the beginning

only a few will be willing to contribute in the beginning.. then others will follow later

_

[SIZE=-1]PLEASE DON'T THINK THAT I'M SPAMMING OR SOMETHING BAD ABOUT ME IN THIS POST

-

[/SIZE]

Well guys, I would be happy if the blog uses a subdomain like this - decided-name.itech7.com

the domain name is "itech7" which can be interpreted as "India Tech" or "Indians' Tech magnified 7 times" or something similar.

I have no problem even if you don't agree to my request, just a suggestion, now its up to the guys here to think whether this idea is good or bad.

Hey digital dude, why don't you host the blog ?

and for the CMS, we can use Drupal or build our own-- we have some PHP technicians here (me too to some extent).

^We already have a domain name and hosting available, at freeme.in.

IMO, we should go ahead and use it. But, as always, the majority decides.

rayraven said:
^We already have a domain name and hosting available, at freeme.in.

IMO, we should go ahead and use it. But, as always, the majority decides.

what is the domain name ?

www.freeme.in , Its down at the moment, kalpik said the database got corrupted.

Read the first page of this thread, for more info on freeme.in

The Unknown said:
rayraven said:

^We already have a domain name and hosting available, at freeme.in.

IMO, we should go ahead and use it. But, as always, the majority decides.

Click to expand...

what is the domain name ?

*media.urbandictionary.com/image/page/lolumad-57503.jpg

WP, IMO is very good. Good number of themes and plugins. I'm sure Drupal can't match WP in this aspect.

Just get started, things will fall in place...

@qwerty
^Lolz, dude.

Guess you just couldnt resist urself from posting that image now did you?
Btw, you in?

QwertyManiac -
Why are you fooling around? I can't even understand what you want to convey with that 'lolumad' thing.

^grudge,
I would like to nominate you to be one of the editors.
If its ok with you and everyone else.

QwertyManiac said:
*media.urbandictionary.com/image/page/lolumad-57503.jpg

I think this is applicable for you instead of me because I don't think you read the small note at the top in my first post in this thread.

@The_Unknown - Do I _have_ to? It was clear spam, I've seen you do the _same_ before. And that doesn't mean you did read posts carefully.

@drgrudge - It was clear enough.

I'll install drupal now and play around, locally I mean. Still haven't got a hang of it.

@rayraven - Yes I can write up articles once in a while, no problem! And yes, couldn't resist :))

^^lol i need to stumble that pic

QwertyManiac said:
@The_Unknown - Do I _have_ to? It was clear spam, I've seen you do the _same_ before. And that doesn't mean you did read posts carefully.

@drgrudge - It was clear enough.

I'll install drupal now and play around, locally I mean. Still haven't got a hang of it.

@rayraven - Yes I can write up articles once in a while, no problem! And yes, couldn't resist

In what way its a spam ? huh

neither I told anything about my site, forum or anything. just a domain right ? so how can you say its a spam ?

so i guess we should start from scratch at freeme.in.
but i too favour wp from drupal.
well lemme see.haven't used drupal.will install drupal now o a free host and check it out.

@Qwerty and Unknown
Allright, you two, break it up.

We dont need to turn this thread into a flame war.

Ontopic:
Started a list on the first page,of contributors.
Added Qwerty,abhinandh and myself.
Please list your name if you want to be added.

Thanx.

The Unknown said:
[SIZE=-1]PLEASE DON'T THINK THAT I'M SPAMMING OR SOMETHING BAD ABOUT ME IN THIS POST -[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE]
Well guys, I would be happy if the blog uses a subdomain like this - decided-name.itech7.com

the domain name is "itech7" which can be interpreted as "India Tech" or "Indians' Tech magnified 7 times" or something similar.

I have no problem even if you don't agree to my request, just a suggestion, now its up to the guys here to think whether this idea is good or bad.

bad idea... I can just :lol:

The Unknown said:
Hey digital dude, why don't you host the blog ?

No sufficient resources.. already running 20 small websites in my puny VPS

The Unknown said:
and for the CMS, we can use Drupal or build our own-- we have some PHP technicians here (me too to some extent).

again a bad idea

_

btw *install4free.wordpress.net/ installs wp for free on any web host.
they are fast.i got it installed on a free host.

@rayraven
plzz start something on wordpress.com and after it grows with lot of posts, contributors and gets some traffic we can seamlessly move to a hosted solution

and btw installing wordpress isn't a big deal... it hardly takes 5 mins

_

DigitalDude said:
[/LEFT]
bad idea... I can just

No sufficient resources.. already running 20 small websites in my puny VPS

again a bad idea

_

all my ideas are bad

huh. you are a coward afraid of challenges, I am just a kid 15 year old and if I get some guys to help me out I can bring out another CMS.

@Digital Dude,
that was the initial idea, but since we already have a domain and hosting available, why not use it?

Also, if we use different CMS's ,it would be difficult to move.

The Unknown said:
huh. you are a coward afraid of challenges,

Please refrain from posting such messages, i dont want this thread to become a fighting ground.

rayraven said:
@Digital Dude,
that was the initial idea, but since we already have a domain and hosting available, why not use it?

Also, if we use different CMS's ,it would be difficult to move.

Please refrain from posting such messages, i dont want this thread to become a fighting ground.

what right does the great Mr. DigitalDude has to comment on my ideas ? I didn't ask him to review them. Teach him the lesson first.

Offtopic:

Dude, this is a public forum, people have the right to comment on other's posts. But, people dont have the right to abuse others.

Now, please stop this discussion.
Post on the topic please.

@The_Unknown
lol thanks for the compliment

things in life should be done to achieve a purpose easily, practically, with minimum effort, time and money.. not to show blind courage like in a movie

don't worry kid you'll learn a lot when you age

@rayraven
well and good.... wp install takes 5 mins.. ask kalpik and people behind freeme.in for their plans and if they are ready to start freeme.in from scratch hehe

_

^

kalpik said:
Freeme's database is corrupted i think.. I suggest we start from scratch..

^^^^
I saw that but its not clear if we start from scratch our own way or using freeme.in domain and hosting

_

AFAIK, he means that we start from scratch on freeme.in

rayraven said:
Offtopic:

Dude, this is a public forum, people have the right to comment on other's posts. But, people dont have the right to abuse others.

Now, please stop this discussion.
Post on the topic please.

yeah I know that

DigitalDude said:
@The_Unknown
lol thanks for the compliment things in life should be done to achieve a purpose easily, practically, with minimum effort, time and money.. not to show blind courage like in a movie

don't worry kid you'll learn a lot when you age

Among teachers, friends in school I am popular as a computer expert. And here on among my IM friends, I am popular as a PHP Expert. And one more: there is the computer shop near to my house, whenever he meets me somewhere or my dad / mom; he asks them "What is 'Engineer Sahab' doing ?" !! I myself am unable to swallow this thing!!

Having a own or a team CMS rather has its own benefits because you know each and every part of it, so if any bug occurs it won't take time to inspect and solve it. In pre-built CMSes, when the bug is found, its reported, and when the designers will take notice of it then the fix will be released.

Okay no more fights now

@The_Unknown
sorry but I can just say you are not familiar with development... and have never really encountered how many bugs (leave alone security holes) will a custom developed php app throws compared to the power of a popular open source CMS.

the aim of this thread is to 'form a collaborative blog about linux'.. not to 'develop a custom CMS' which is not as easy as you think. lets not digress.

p.s. we are not interested in your autobiography. if you want to prove yourself, can you take on this writing assignment as a contributor to share your knowledge about linux in the proposed blog ?

_

Wordpress is good to start quickly and with its whole lot of plugins its a cheese to roll out shiny new blog

DigitalDude said:
@The_Unknown
sorry but I can just say you are not familiar with development... and have never really encountered how many bugs (leave alone security holes) will a custom developed php app throws compared to the power of a popular open source CMS.

the aim of this thread is to 'form a collaborative blog about linux'.. not to 'develop a custom CMS' which is not as easy as you think. lets not digress.

p.s. we are not interested in your autobiography. if you want to prove yourself, can you take on this writing assignment as a contributor to share your knowledge about linux in the proposed blog ?

_

I could contribute to some extent as I am "not" expert in Linux like praka, mehulved, others...still learning. When I will post some articles specifically about Linux and Open-Source in my site, I will give this blog to copy them

.

whether you believe it or not the thing I told you about my popularity is true. I don't think any of you here will believe it.

T159 said:
Wordpress is good to start quickly and with its whole lot of plugins its a cheese to roll out shiny new blog

Drupal and Joomla have more of them I think

@The_Unknown
most of us here in this forum are like that only if not more than that.. so nothing spl that its unbelievable

btw if its a blog then it shud be on WP

for a CMS site drupal vs joomla thats a separate topic

_

DigitalDude said:
@The_Unknown
most of us here in this forum are like that only if not more than that.. so nothing spl that its unbelievable

btw if its a blog then it shud be on WP for a CMS site drupal vs joomla thats a separate topic

_

basically the thing is going to be a community contributed site so I think drupal would be better because drupal's main aim is "Community Plumbing"

^^if its pure community contribution then we can stay glued to this forum itself

rayraven thought it would be nice if we can rope in some good linux contributors in this forum and form a blog with them as authors.. so they share good tips, news and tuts about linux... and may be we can discuss about the posts here in a separate thread or the comments section of the blog itself suffices

_

^Precisely. Now, please stop arguing.

DigitalDude said:
^^if its pure community contribution then we can stay glued to this forum itself

rayraven thought it would be nice if we can rope in some good linux contributors in this forum and form a blog with them as authors.. so they share good tips, news and tuts about linux... and may be we can discuss about the posts here in a separate thread or the comments section of the blog itself suffices

_

naa.. sticking to this forum itself isn't a good idea. I have a very bad experience with WP... so I am not in favor of WP instead drupal with which I don't have such nightmares.

rayraven said:
^Precisely. Now, please stop arguing.

We must discuss about which CMS to use.

Yes, we must discuss about the CMS.
But , more important, are the editors and contributors.

Kalpik and Mehul are in favour of Drupal.
And according to Mehul , its possible to have a blog and a sort-of mini forums to discuss abt the blog on the site, if we use drupal.

Personally, i too favour drupal, if we could get a decent looking skin.

rayraven said:
Yes, we must discuss about the CMS.
But , more important, are the editors and contributors.

Kalpik and Mehul are in favour of Drupal.
And according to Mehul , its possible to have a blog and a sort-of mini forums to discuss abt the blog on the site, if we use drupal.

Personally, i too favour drupal, if we could get a decent looking skin.

yeah what they say is right cus it has inbuilt forum module which can extended to a full-fledged forum system by having some more modules in it.

F

2. List of Contributors.

Why do we need a list of contributors? I thought that anyone who has a worthwhile article of something for OSS or whatever the blog is about, could post it either themselves or through a group of editors / admins.

3. CMS - Drupal or Wordpress - Personally, i dont care which as long it looks good

If my opinion does count then I would vote for Drupal.

The Editors are to scrutiny the quality of the posts.
Everyone who wants can submit an article, but we need to make a list , just so we know who's interested.
Also, we need to give rights to people on the CMS to post also.

F

Everyone who wants can submit an article, but we need to make a list , just so we know who's interested.
Also, we need to give rights to people on the CMS to post also.

Oh ok, I thought the Editors were supposed to make the post after scrutiny.

Posts are made by everyone, the editors scrutiny them , and ask for edits if necessary, check if its been plagiarized blatantly etc.
Then the post is made public.

Btw, everyone's opinion counts. As Always, Majority wins.

FilledVoid said:
If my opinion does count then I would vote for Drupal.

offtopic: smart

Agree with T159 (.in domain thingy

)
IMO we should start from scratch with a new blog. And why the poll has been closed.

M

Sorry been out of touch since a few days due to my exams. I will be installing drupal from scratch today.
All the registered member will automatically be allowed to contribute. We will need a list of moderators though.

^Thanx. I was beginning to think , the idea died.
And i still havent gotten my password after registering. Could you by chance mail it to me again after fixing drupal.

And, please, if possible , get a good skin.

Thanx,
ray

M

Recommend the skin. I am working on the site.

I like these two from the links given by kalpik.

*amadou.sp0ke.net/
*alldrupalthemes.com/preview/node/2&theme=adt_bluebusiness

Perhaps, we could use a custom header.
Ill try my hand at making one this evening .

regarding custom header i too can try make one.but the theme needs to be finalised so we can make one.
what can we have as a caption?

^No idea. How abt suggesting one?
And what abt a logo?

If people are willing to create artwork, I can do up a drupal theme for it.

domain is freeme.in right?
can we have just freeme or the whole freeme.in in the logo?

starting now.....

and regarding caption how about "free your computing" or something of that sort?

^freeme should do i guess.And the caption is too generic IMHO.
Btw, what abt the skins? Should we work for one from scratch like sykora said or just use an existing one.

IMO, a custom skin would be good, considering the site would look unique, but we will need a few guys working.

If folks are interested, i say we go for a custom one.

ya we need more resources.we can contact dark star.he's good at gimp.

trying out a logo.....(rebooting into win for ps)

^G'Luck mate. May the force be with you.

I'd have started too, but at work

I hope The site remains Ad free

M

There's already a logo we were using. It's based on FSF's logo and has freeme written on it. I have attached it here. You people may have look at it.
I tried the two themes, seems the adt_businessblue theme is only for drupal 5.x my drupal install wasn't able to find it.

The logo looks kinda ugly, but that's my opinion.
I guess we could use the caption, but the logo definitely needs to be done from scratch.

EDIT:Yeah Bluebusiness is a 5.x theme
*alldrupalthemes.com/bluebusiness.html

Btw, can you modify the poll for custom theme or existing one?

*www.imgx.org/files/15799_zwsi4/Untitled-2.jpg

how's it coming on?

take that as an early alpha.

^Use Inkscape , if you intend to use hand-drawn images and letters.
It helps a lot.

As for the concept itself, I'm not entirely sure if I like it or not.
Maybe some more work will tell.

*www.imgx.org/files/15802_vn0k4/Untitled-2.jpg

can some one finalize the theme so colours can be selected.(or someone suggest me some)

M

abhinandh said:
trying out a logo.....(rebooting into win for ps)

photoshop for a site on open source

abhinandh said:
*www.imgx.org/files/15802_vn0k4/Untitled-2.jpg

can some one finalize the theme so colours can be selected.(or someone suggest me some)

We will go with amadou since bluebusiness isn't available for 6.x. I have seen quite a few 5.x themes work with 6.x but this one isn't.

mehulved said:
photoshop for a site on open source

how hard i try i can't get comfortable with gimp

Mehul:
Here's the link of amadou : *drupal.org/project/amadou

Abhinandh:
Gimpshop perhaps?

Also, I was looking around and found this tut.
*danphilibin.com/2007/10/11/how-to-replicate-the-flare-effect-on-wpcustomizationcom/
*danphilibin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/flare5.png
IMO, It would be nice , if we came up with a round logo to apply this effect.
What do you think?

^^nice but what to put in the logo.a pigeon maybe?

M

I have amadou downloaded and tried it out on my local drupal install. It's looking and working fine

I was thinking something on the lines of this:
*www.imgsync.com/data/img/4224251drawing.png
Completely rough, just d/l'ed inkscape and did it.
Ill try smthin better once i go home.

On side by side, we should also create some content which can be posted in site right way.

Are you guys looking for verbatim copy of posts from forum
OR
Creating content from a zero

M

Ok. And what about the license for the content?

GFDL - *www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
CC-NC-SA - *creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/in/

We are trying to recover users database from the previous install, Biju's asked for time till tonight else it will be a totally fresh start.

My vote goes to Creative Commons(CC-NC-SA)

^+1

^+1.

Anyways, I couldnt go with previous concept,so i decided to start from scratch,
Here's two i made, Leave your comments:
*www.imgsync.com/data/img/2555839freeme-v1.png
*www.imgsync.com/data/img/6428054freeme-v2.png

I made in xaralx and can give you the .xar file ,if you wish to modify it.

@Abhinandh,
what abt you dude, made anything else?

gary4gar said:
On side by side, we should also create some content which can be posted in site right way.

Point taken. I'm already working on a short guide to MPD.
Maybe we can all start working on smthing , before the site gets up.
We do have to make sure that no two of us work on the same topic however, so post the topic you're writing on, so others wont start on it too.

ya made some progress.
but powercut in my place today frm 9am to 1pm

today.
so will continue work in the noon.

and ray that font is good...
mind sharing?

Which one? The one in freeme or one in f?

freeme one

Its Papyrus.
Sorry, but i cant attach it now, am at work and the fonts at home

Btw, i was looking at the amadou theme , and i saw it supports an image of the poster.
So, should we all use our photos and real names, or just let it be.

btw just made a new concept in the gimp in a jiffy.comment please...

*www.imgx.org/files/15877_7bns5/Untitled.png

^Looks like smthing for a design website IMO.

What abt mine? Comments please

rayraven said:
^Looks like smthing for a design website IMO.
What abt mine? Comments please

k dude.yours are good but i feel them a little plain lacking colors.a bit improvements here and there and they will be good.

Thanx

But could you suggest the improvements?
I didnt use many colors as ,i made it a trans-png and wanted it look fine on all background colors.

H

@rayraven, why don't you hit #think-digit irc sometime? Will be easier to discuss and plan.

How abt now ?

H

Not in the morning these hours, they are there but most of them are idling, so..

What I meant was make it a habit of visiting irc, you don't lose much

^Fine.

abhinandh said:
btw just made a new concept in the gimp in a jiffy.comment please...

*www.imgx.org/files/15877_7bns5/Untitled.png

I really your effort but this is not so attractive

M

I have done install of the drupal now. Some configuration work still left before it's ready to go.

*www.imgx.org/files/15942_romba/logo1.jpg

that is what i could come up with.will improve it if it is nice to all.post comments.also i can post the .psd.

suggest any improvements.

^Nice one there.

The characters in "freeme.in" are too spaced out. Reducing the spacing will make it look much better as well as allow for a bigger font, which might be needed considering the logo is looking a little too big for the current font size. So it's not looking very balanced.

Also, try out some organic look for the background. Something like what Ubuntu has done.

Just my 3 cents.

Am looking forward to this blog.

@Mehul: Dude!

thanks.
goobi , thanks for suggestions.also doing a glow behing the logo.

abhinandh said:
*www.imgx.org/files/15942_romba/logo1.jpg

that is what i could come up with.will improve it if it is nice to all.post comments.also i can post the .psd.

suggest any improvements.

Thats much better, you are a quick leaner

Ah i missed all the action.. My home PC's monitor blew and i was overloaded with work at office, so couldn't participate. Will try and help this weekend

M

We are almost ready to go now. Just the theme and couple of small things remaining. And since the users database is lost, you will have to register again. Sorry for the inconvinence.

And report back with problems, if any.

mehulved said:
We are almost ready to go now. Just the theme and couple of small things remaining. And since the users database is lost, you will have to register again. Sorry for the inconvinence.

And report back with problems, if any.

we still need decide on content

<<bump>> ?

^Well , the site's up and running.

Anyone interested in making contributions can create an account.

^ Oh alright. have registered "SathyaBhat" Not sure as to what to contribute

bump.
just got free from studies and exams.
freeme.in domain name expired.site down.
i think we should go for wordpress.com if everyone's still interested.

M

Yeah DNS has expired, I will be sending money today to renew it.

mehulved said:
Yeah DNS has expired, I will be sending money today to renew it.

ok then.but have seen it few days back and to be honest it just doesn't look nice

it needs a facelift to gain readers.

at least get the blog started - good content will negate all clinks in the appearance

appearance is secondary to content

slugger said:
at least get the blog started - good content will negate all clinks in the appearance

appearance is secondary to content

True!
Content is the King

M

So, did anyone put up a different blog? Or has the enthusiasm faded away?

mehulved said:
So, did anyone put up a different blog? Or has the enthusiasm faded away?

mine is a team blog. we post less of windows n more of Linux articles. the blog address is in my sig.