NLC shutters new website, seeks volunteers for free existing site

The NLC says goodbye to the Wildfire Coalition website. At the Sept. 28 meeting, NLC chair Jackson Kellogg.

[00:00:08] Jackson Kellogg: All right, so we can move on to the NLC website and Wildfire Preparedness Coalition.

[00:00:14] So I put this on the agenda because we were connected to, and part of that grant, we got funding to the website and it was very beautiful, but I also think that websites are kind of problematic because even the very simplest web project actually takes a lot of work to maintain. And I just don’t know if we have the wherewithal and the kind of like capacity to maintain this website.

[00:00:41] So that website that we’ve been using, that’s a WordPress website. WordPress.com, and it’s free. You know, Ian (Winbrock) and David Monk didn’t really make any changes to that when they were co-chairs at the NLC. And I think that, what Tom (Peck) worked on is beautiful, but I don’t know if we really have the kind of wherewithal and the bandwidth to work on this.

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[00:01:04] I mean, I know I really don’t myself cause it’s just, it’s going to be a lot of work. So I think if someone feels passionate about this and wants to pick this up and run with it, I think it’d be great, but it won’t be me. So I would actually like to let it expire and move on from it, but I want to hear what you all think. Pete Knox. Go ahead.

[00:01:22] Pete Knox: Hi Jackson. Thanks. I just want to give you guys a little perspective on, on that website that currently exists, it was created by Heather Sielicki back way back in the before times. And nobody really has updated it because, and you’re absolutely correct that nobody updated— doing web development is, or I used to work in the software industry, being a web developer was never anything I did professionally, and it’s not something that was ever even an interest of mine.

[00:01:51] And unless you got somebody who’s really hot on doing it you know, volunteer organizations are where websites go to die, basically. Unless you’re got a great design that’s going to be a nice static design. But unless you’ve you got a professional that deals with it all the time, websites for an organization like ours are not that useful in my opinion, but that’s my 2 cents, give you a little background on it.

[00:02:14] Jackson Kellogg: Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah. Thank you. So I think Peter is right about this. It’s a lot of work, even simple ones. And if you don’t update them, they just get stale and tired. You know, if someone really wants to jump in and devote a lot of energy to this, here’s your chance.

[00:02:30] John Q: Asking about saving the current content, Jon Belcher.

[00:02:34] Jon Belcher: Is there a way we can archive it and store it somewhere and take it offline? And if someone wants to come back and revive it, they don’t have to go all the way back to square one.

[00:02:48] Pete Knox: Okay. I know a little bit about this backing up a WordPress thing. It requires several steps and some of it’s the data, some of it’s the actual database, and depending on what add-ins they used, you got to make sure that when you put it back up, which add-ins that they use for WordPress, otherwise it looks like garbage.

[00:03:12] It won’t be, it won’t probably quite be as simple as just having a couple files in a Google drive. But these WordPress websites are a lot more complicated than you think. Just so you guys know that trying to back that up is not going to be as simple as you might think you know, but those are questions you’re going to have to ask.

[00:03:37] Jon Belcher: I’m not willing to put any effort into it either, so whatever.

[00:03:42] Jackson Kellogg: So as a group, do I need to make a motion to say that NLC website that was proposed by Tom, we’re not going to continue? Did we want to make a motion on that? No, just let it die of natural causes. Is that what the group wants to do? I’m hearing a lot of nodding heads on the ‘die of natural causes’ choice. That’s always my first choice for an action. I like it. Jan, do you want to say something?

[00:04:08] Jan Wostmann: Yeah, I was just going to chime in that rather than trying to save a WordPress site, which is a hassle that generally it’s not worth it, just look to see what information is on that website that might be useful for the future and save the information itself and not try to duplicate the website because trying to restore an old WordPress website just, just is such a bear that it’s not worth it.

[00:04:40] Jackson Kellogg: Yeah. Great point.

[00:04:41] Jan Wostmann: Look, to see what information actually will be useful three months from now or a year from now. And it’s probably very little.

[00:04:49] Jackson Kellogg: And there’s nothing. That’s a good point. It hasn’t really been fleshed out, so there’s probably isn’t anything worth saving. So are we ready to move on to the next topic?

[00:04:59] John Q: The NLC decommissions its costly new website, and looks for volunteers to keep up its free site.