Re: New Boost Website: Open to Volunteers!

From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2022-04-16 23:30:20

On 16/04/2022 23:28, Vinnie Falco via Boost wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 16, 2022 at 3:22 PM Andrey Semashev via Boost
> <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> +1. I very much like that the current website can be cloned, with
>> history, and updated locally or online, and then the changes can be
>> merged upstream with PRs. The fact that you're using the usual toolset
>> for this, nothing more than git and your favorite text editor, is a huge
>> plus. Using a separate interface for that, or a database, would be a
>> step in the wrong direction, IMO. Your only database should be git.
> 
> Yeah static content would stay in the GitHub repository. But dynamic
> content such as the list of libraries,

Hugo will generate that for you during site build.

> the list of boost.org accounts
> corresponding to library maintainers,

Hugo will generate that for you during site build. You can even have it 
auto replicate the github users for the boostorg account if you want. I 
have this on the Outcome website, for example - 
https://ned14.github.io/outcome/credits/

 > the tags for libraries, the
> index for the live news feed on the front page, the forum data,
> information for user accounts, the results of every review, the review
> calendar, and so on - those are going into a database.

Hugo will generate that for you during site build.

You don't need a database for any of the above. You don't need user 
logins either if you let github do that for you.

I'm not particularly recommending Hugo, there are alternatives. But I've 
found it more than plenty powerful enough to do anything you want with a 
100% static website. It'll even do comments just fine (staticman.net, it 
actually does a git commit per comment to your site's github repo).

> The website we are building is not a static site it is a social media
> portal for Boost and C++. It cannot be represented merely as a
> collection of html and css. It is software (i.e. a web application).
> Django/Python to be precise.

And as soon as you said "web application", you now have me strongly 
opposed to this entire project. I've deployed those in the past, they 
require *constant* maintenance, they have a tendency to need ever 
beefier hardware, things constantly go wrong with them.

You might as well just roll out Wordpress, at least it's widely well 
understood and its maintenance can be outsourced to somebody not us for 
money.

> I was hoping to have this discussion in the other mailing list,
> because I didn't want to start a useless discussion here where
> everyone offers ideas that contradict one another and nothing gets
> done, which is typically what happens when big line-item things like
> new websites are discussed.

I couldn't be bothered refighting this fight. Boost went down this 
rabbit hole before and it regretted it. I've said my piece. If people 
want to listen to my advice, good on them. Otherwise you're all digging 
yourselves a hole you'll regret in years to come as you lock yourselves 
into a system nobody unpaid will be arsed digging you out of, and as 
it'll be database based, you'll all be hosed.

I'd much rather a Boost subreddit for discussion, let somebody else 
maintain the database. And if you're going to lock yourself in, better 
to a major platform with decent SEO and discussion topic search already 
done for you by others. If we're happy with locking ourselves into 
github, why not Reddit?

Niall