We'd like to begin opening up these boards for more people. There are some options on how to launch.

Is it better to create separate "groups" for discussion (called "forums" by this software)? Or is it better to have fewer forums and post into multiple topics? Perhaps my initial setup, with "Schools," "Government" and "General Discussion" is already too fragmented for such a newborn?

In either case, we can rearrange as we like as we go forward.

Also, here is some information about the initial structure.

I imagine the Chain to be based on three pillars: discussions, announcement, and a calendar.

The calendar is, for now, cribbed from
the Desmond Fish Library. It is a Goigle Calendar that is already used by many local organizations. At the moment, there is no way for us little people to add to the calendar (if you want to add a yard sale). That will be coming. So will a page to make it easy to browse the calendar, turning on or off whatever layers you want.

The announcements section sucks in various announcement-type e-mail listservs. Due to the nature of these lists, I've locked these forums to prohibit comments. This is because there is no
way (and no desire) to post back to the email lists. This bit isn't working perfectly, it sometimes skips messages. I will rewrite the code in the next few days so each listserv is a single thread (as opposed to an entire forum, which it is now).

Finally, the discussions section should be the heart of the site. See above for the meta-discussion regarding organization.

Plans:

We may, and maybe soon, decide to create a more structured forum that is featured on the home page. Think of this as a "blog" if you want.

I'm working on an image gallery. The software is already installed at gallery/ and is working to provide the main banner images. (Thanks Ray for taking fabulous photos!) I'll add a link to the home page once we have more content.

I'd like a section for video too. I don't know the best way to do that. Perhaps leverage YouTube.

Please discuss.

I think it would be good to both have some groups, and some opportunities for writing a blog-like page (like the news page on the prius forum: http://priuschat.com/news). Can the "Board index" be changed to "Chain home" or something like that (every time I see Board I think "Board of Directors"). I'd like to write and put up a "History of the Chain" page so that people can find out what this is. Richard Bates suggested the tagline "17 years old but new every day", maybe that could go in the footer?

YouTube is definitely the place to put video and then pull it in here. I'll set up a channel.

The photos are just fantastic - thank you Ray!

kkconner wrote:Richard Bates suggested the tagline "17 years old but new every day", maybe that could go in the footer?

I think the suggested tagline is playful. But others would see it as mocking the PCNR (Plainly Conservative News for Republicans?). I wouldn't want to accused of doing that poorly.

So - I just got a new Imac and hooked it up and tried to get my E-mail.
Imagine my surprise when I end up here. This is not the highlands dot com that I am used to.
My Emai address is prueitt@highlands.com
How do I access my Emai at the Highlands chain - The
original? highland chain
warmest regards
Gerald Prueitt

I would like to see some sort of classified section where people can post things they are looking for or where people can post the sort of work they are looking for.

Dear Mr. Prueitt,

You can get to the login site for your highlands.com email by going to http://m.highlands.com.

Thanks for your patience.

Kim Conner