Almost every single organization, and even the vast majority of individual projects, have either a website or a blog. I'm interested in opinions or information on who provides the best domain, if volunteers maintain your site, and what might be the pros and cons of your current web set-up. My group is looking into creating a new website from the ground up that would be far more elaborate and comprehensive in comparison to our current version, so your opinions and experience are very appreciated.

Thanks in Advance, Taylor

Well, there are whole books on that subject. The choice you make depends on a number of factors:
How many people will be providing content? If more than 1 or 2, you need CMS (content management system)
Do you want a blog?
Do you know html, javascript, etc?
Do you need merchant services (sell online)?
How much of the whole install and customization process (for Wordpress, Drupal, etc) do you want to do vs. a provider doing it?

I'm afraid I really don't know much about Wordpress, Drupal and the like since the web site I maintain (TMNY.org) is entirely source coded in html, php, javascript, etc. No blog capability per se, but I do keep a What's New section that looks blog-like. Our web service provider is 1and1, and we use Paypal for merchant services.

I'm sure others here can chime in on CMS and blogging options.

I have maintained several websites for non-profit groups and I strongly recommend that you use a content management system. A CMS allows the separation of content and presentation. My specific experience is with "Joomla!", but there a many similar CMS's (Wordpress, Drupal, concrete5, GetSimple, MODx, etc.). There are several benefits to using a CMS:

1. Anyone who can use a word processor can add content and keep it up-to-date. This means that you do not have to be a web professional or a html guru to keep your groups website fresh. Knowing a little basic html is useful, but not required. You'll need a CSS savy person to make it look good with a custom template, but not to maintain it. When the web expert leaves the group, or life happens to them, you can keep going.

2. Since content is separate from presentation, a new template can be created to update the look of your website without needing to change all of the content. Install the new template, switch to using it and you've just improved or updated the look. There can be template dependent content to update, but that's optional. This also means you can start the website with a default or free template before the CSS savy person finishs creating your custom template.

3. Lots of CMS extensions to do useful things. Whatever you want to do with your website in addition to displaying simple pages, it's unlikely that you are the first group that wants to do whatever you have in mind. The various CMS's maintain libraries of extensions, free and commercial. For example the Joomla extension library is at http://extensions.joomla.org/. The have about 8,900 extensions listed. I've used the free version of the HikaShop extension to sell memberships in a annual conference using PayPal to accept payment. The total cost was PayPal's 2.9% + $0.30. Set up time was one evening and I did not write one line of code or any html.

Like many custom dynamic websites, the CMS's use PHP and MySQL or one of the other open source databases. You could implement a website using these technologies, but the CMS's have already done the hard part for you. If you decide to program a custom CMS extension, the CMS provides a framework environment to work in.

There are downsides:

1. Unless you use a free template, you will need someone familiar with web design, CSS and the CMS template requirements to create a custom template.

2. All of the CMS's have a learning curve. Generally, the more powerful the CMS, the steeper the curve. If anyone wants help setting up a CMS website, feel free to contact me. I am not a top level expert, but I have climbed the Joomla curve and I'm willing to help.

-Mark

I've used Dreamhost. They are free for U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations. You just have call them and fax your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter.

I prefer their web host control panel to the standard panel found on other hosts.

The downside is that you cannot directly email AOL users from a Dreamhost account. AOL has blacklisted Dreamhost. The work around is to set up Google Mail. There is a Dreamhost control panel setting to route your domain's email to a Google Mail account. Email will still appear to come from your own domain.

-Mark

This can be an excellent excuse, or rationale, to get a younger person or two involved with your organization as well. If you're not web-savvy, get someone who is to do the set-up work (with appropriate CMS set-up with more than one administrator), and maybe also do the updating and revision work.

You need a domain of your own. Domains cost $10/year. Typical domains sound like myrailroadmuseum.org. In the mobile age, shorter is actually better. Make sure to also get the same address .com, .net, .info and .us, or bad people will.

Rule #1 of domains: Register the domains you might want NOW-NOW-NOW. Don't talk about it and "mean to register it someday". In the interceding time, someone else might register it, especially if you are talking about it, especially on forums. It's happened to me and it sucks. Domains are a vicious business.

Rule #2 of domains: Annual fee is $10. Keep it paid out at least 5 years in advance. You are allowed to pay up to 10 years in advance. This modest amount ($40-90, once) assures that you don't lose your domain to a registration problem. Your$ domain will be grabbed by speculators for the reasons described here. Your traffic and PR only has to be worth $10/year, that will be true for the smallest of museums. Losing your domain is devastating because it breaks your website, email and any services on it. You can change domains, but it'll take a lot of time and money to change everyone's links and reprint PR materials.

Check the "Expiration Date" of your favorite domain here http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp and see who's smart and who's dumb.

Just a few random examples
irm.org ---> Dec 25 2020
oerm.org ---> March 31 2019
wrm.org --> May 31 2015
trolleymuseum.org --> Feb 9 2014
transportmuseumassociation.org -> Feb 10 2014
261.com ---> Oct 27 2012
bera.org --> Nov 6 2012
nationalrailroadmuseum.org June 11 2012
borail.org --> March 8 2012
catskillmtrailroad.com --> March 20 2012

Now look at the majors
google.com --> Sept. 13 2020
amazon.com --> Oct. 31 2021
ebay.com --> August 2 2018
facebook.com --> March 29 2020
wikipedia.org --> Jan 13 2015


Rule #3 of domains: OWN YOUR DOMAIN. Register it yourself at a registrar. Then, later, find a web hosting company. Use a different web hoster than your registrar. These should never be the same company because you need the flexibility to change web hosters without entangling your domain name.


Consider Wikipedia. There are two essential parts of it: 1. The underlying software which makes it work. 2. The amazing content which really makes it Wikipedia.

It is very very easy for Wikipedia contributors to contribute content. That's because the software is carefully designed to make it easy. The guiding principle is K.I.S.S. - Keep it Simple/Stupid. Contrast that with these updates which must be manually inserted by the webmaster in HTML code.

Do not let some well-meaning geek build the most elaborate and fancy website possible. I know you're saying you want to do that. The problem is the geek will lose interest before the project is done, and leave you with a nightmare. K.I.S.S. Use readily available, popular open-source solutions and don't over-customize. Stick to popular open-source standard software, and you have a strong chance of finding another geek who can help you if you need it.

Software doesn't make the website, content does. The software should help your contributors contribute.

Wordpress is not a CMS. It is a blogging tool, occasionally pretending to be a CMS. The same thing with Expression Engine.

If you're looking for quality CMSes in the Open Source world, I can't sing the praises of Drupal (which powers TheCRHS.org, ConrailShoppe.com, whitehouse.gov, economist.com and theonion.com) enough.

If you're a windows/.NET guy, Umbraco is really, really nice.

Don't waste your time with anything else.

That said, exactly what your website does is an entirely different matter.

At the minium, it should have a contemporary design (to establish that your group is an ongoing concern), an about us page (with a little history to establish that you have a solid background), and a way to announce upcoming meetings and events.

Those are the basics.

With The CRHS site, we've decided to go one step further and use our site to serve our mission by educating the public about what Conrail was, and why it mattered. See: http://thecrhs.org/WhatMadeConrailSpecial, http://thecrhs.org/CompanyHistory, and http://thecrhs.org/conrailfacts.

Then there's our photo gallery: http://thecrhs.org/ConrailPhotos
That's the crown jewel of our site. It has ~20k photos in it right now, and it serves a couple of purposes. First and foremost, it's got a TON of awesome CR photos, all in one place, in a way that lets you explore the collection by equipment type, theme, photographer and locale. Second, it's a great marketing tool. You see, when you google "Conrail SD40-2 photos", we come up. This helps get the word out about the society and establishes us as the authority on the railroad. The photo gallery, by being easy to contribute too, has also helped us recruit new volunteers. They may start by adding photos at first, but soon we convert em into hammer swinging preservationists.

One growing website design factor is appearance on smart phones and other small net devices. This is especially important in terms of how to reach your museum and also how to contact the museum.

Not all web content visible on a large monitor is visible on a small screen.

For example, several months ago Dave Johnston, Robert MacDowell and I were at dinner. I mentioned that Sturgeon's Mill was operating next weekend. Dave asked for its street address to program into his GPS so he could visit it. Robert looked up their website on his IPhone, but the street address was not visible from any page on their website.

When I got home, I easily found the street address on the Google map which their website supplied. The address was simply not visible on an IPhone screen.

Again, if you think some web content would be useful to smartphone users, take the time to verify that it is actually visible to them.

And they've fixed it by adding it to the margin. Yes, they embed their address in a widget, specifically a Google map. Their site is not smartphone-aware, but the Google widget is. The widget goes "Oh, I'm on a smartphone, let's NOT pop up the address to conserve screen space."

Any key information should also be in plaintext because of Search engines, which don't index widgets. They only index text that lights up if you hit Edit/Select all.

The other thing to beware is Microsoft. For a time, they were really pushing proprietary web technologies that only worked with their web servers and browsers. They still play games with that. This is one reason I say "avoid Microsoft at all costs."

Thank you everyone for some very good insight. We're going to start upgrading our old site shortly, and after reading all the posts, it looks like we actually have a good basic skeleton, just need to polish it up a bit.

Thanks Again, Taylor

One other thing to emphasize:

DO NOT entrust one person with "the keys" to the website, or control of access, etc. Duplicate the hell out of the registration information, and appoint several administrators, or at the very least have whoever is in charge for the moment rattle off several copies of the password(s), access points, system information, a USB drive with templates and information backed up, etc. and scatter these in appropriate places, preferably in sealed "open in case of emergency" envelopes. Or, better yet, find various folks to post the "Photo/Video of the Week," the news updates, the history flashbacks, the meeting minutes, etc.

You're sort of forced to assume that your webmaster will quit, be arrested, or get run over by a train tomorrow. Act accordingly.

Now that you've done that, take the same approach with your treasurer, your administration, your "walking encyclopedia," your technical wizards, etc. Let's not have your railroad ahut down because nobody has the enginehouse key, or the know-how to fire the steamer or power up the substation.