In the past, we have used Yahoo Groups for mailing list software and a website that did not have updated content. The current website is a huge step forward and links the mailing list software with this website to make it an overall dynamic portal for this club.
In the initial prepartion for creating this website, I created a checklist of what this website should handle. For one, I wanted to have a mailing list that we could actually manage. After trying out several different lists, I came across mailman. My server utilizes Fantastico which is a script that installs various different utilities. As mailman requires python and as I am using a shared server, it was difficult to install the software myself. Fantastico provided an easy way for me to install this software. Mailman has a lot of options and is very robust. The only downside of not having python access is that I can not manually change the content that is outputted in emails. This is only a minor issue and not a huge problem as Mailman does exactly what I need it to do.
One other choice I had to make was what kind of content management system I wanted to use for this website. I choose wordpress because I had previously worked with it and was somewhat familiar with the ins and outs of it. Traditionally, it is mainly used for blogging. However, with wordpress’s extensive list of plugins, and the fact it is open source, I was able to pick and choose good plugins and even create my own.
Another feature I wanted is a way to connect the website to the mailing list. After much searching on various wordpress plug-in websites, I found two plugins that I have combined and added to for simplicity. The first and primary plugin is Category To Email. Basically, this plugin allows any posts in a specific category to get emailed to a specific address. This method was an excellent way to get the posts onto the mailing list. I didn’t like one thing, however, and that was the ability to choose whether a post should be put on the list (if someone wanted to just post something to the website). As I was searching for the right plugin, I found Email Notification Plugin. Initially I was going to use this plugin because it had a lot more advanced features than Category To Email. But, after looking at how extensive this is (with its own email list included with it!), I choose to use the simple previously mentioned plugin. The one piece of code I did take was the option to choose whether a post should be sent on the mailing list.
The good thing about connecting this website to the mailing list is that it gives visitors the chance to see what’s new in the life of Crusade without having their inbox flooded with emails every week. The website software also has an RSS feed for those who know how to use it. In addition, the theme used for this website is called Rin. If you have any other questions, feel free to e-mail me at any time.