Major Opiophile Upgrade

[bi11i]

We initially setup our forum here as http://forum.opiophile.org rather than http://WWW.opiophile.org as we wanted to reserve the www subdomain as a possible main-site containing articles and other opiate related information. Up until recently, we haven't had the time, know-how, or content necessary in order to expand the site in the way that we'd like.

With the incredible amount of help we've been receiving from our new moderators, the donations made by our member base, plus a need to change hosts yet again, Jacky and I were thinking that it might be time to expand the site by integrating our vBulletin forum with a CMS.

I've been looking at various Content Management Systems over the last couple of years for projects here and there. I've tried several in the process: Drupal, Mambo, SimpleCMS, Type-something-or-other, Website Baker, Geeklog, and finally settled on what I think would be the best - Joomla (http://joomla.org), a code-branch from Mambo. I've built several sites using this CMS and have successfully integrated the opiophile forum with it on a test server, using a bridge we purchased with Opiophile funding. Using Joomla would mean a main-site integration with either some or all of the following:

Static articles containing relavant and definitive opiate-related information.
RSS subscriptions to general site/forum news and content, allowing members to view content at work, while not actually visiting the site.
An enhanced photo gallery, also integrated with Joomla and vB.
Rotating Banner ads (for affiliate or sponsored sites.)
Reciprocal Link exchanges (to boost traffic and important information.)
Paying for an SSL certificate, securing all data between the server and member via 256-bit encryption.
Enhanced profiles (we're not going myspace here, so take it easy...:cool:
Member-authored articles.In order to make this happen, Jacky and I would need some serious help. Not only would we need some assistance from our moderation staff, but we'd need some additional volunteers to assist with Joomla site-design and article placement. There would be a small amount of downtime. Most important, we would need someone who has experience in designing templates for Joomla or someone who has an intermediate level of knowledge in PHP. A demo of the Joomla interface and admin interface can be found here: http://demo.joomla.org

If you fit this description and have any interest in helping out, by all means please send on a PM to myself or reply to this thread. If you have other suggestions and that kind of thing, post away....

A big step for Opiophile.org and would mean moving from the realm of a discussion-only board to a combined informational site. This may also entail moving from a shared hosting account to a dedicated server, raising our hosting costs considerably although we're not far off from meeting this kind of budget as of today.

What say you? Any suggest? Ideas? Feedback? Anxous to hear....

[devilsdrug]

i dont know shit about what u speak , but i agree with karen u be the boss billi

[SirDonkeyPunch]

I got some of the harm reduction/needle exchange brochures that i could scribe out for ya. they contain a wealth of information that would be useful to many opiophiles. some contain pictures i could either scan or re-draw. would any of this sorta stuff be helpful?

[bi11i]

Sorry, I should've been more specific in that demo page. If you head to the http://demo.joomla.org linnk, you'll see the infrastructure of the main site, not the design or a change in the forum itself. basically, we'd be adding on an entirely other site to the forum, keeping the forum intact but taking articles and items that would be beneficial as not only discussion, but static articles, and copying/moving them over. You can see the actual admin interface for joomla at http://demo.joomla.org/administrator (admin/admin) and see what I mean in terms of members being able to publish their own articles, etc. or help out with the site in general... knows whats I means?

[slugbone]

"A big step for Opiophile.org and would mean moving from the realm of a discussion-only board to a combined informational site"

that is all i needed to hear to say i'm with you dude. i really think that besides being a place for people to get together, this forum can really be a great source for everyone, addicts to chronic pain sufferers to young kids who are just curious. i would rather have them come here and find out the truth then some bullshit government propaganda campaign that only feeds them lies.

i think all of us that have learned the knowledge from our elders and thru experience have the responsibility to pass on what we know to others.

[bi11i]

Anyone have any suggestions in the way of what we could post as static articles? I've seen some great threads on here.....

[SirDonkeyPunch]

static articles arent hard to find if you allow the members to submit them. i have a few ideas and i can already tell other people are thinking about it. Panthrax has a lot of articles that are really informative. Plus im sure people will offer write-ups on new pain medication as it becomes available, and just anything and everything opiate. that encompasses a wide variety of information from chemical synthesis to behavior and law enforcement.

this would be a great addition.

[slugbone]

Anyone have any suggestions in the way of what we could post as static articles? I've seen some great threads on here.....

one think i liked over at heroin helper that i wish they could have elaborated on is like a "do's and don'ts" for stuff. example a how- to article on shooting up, how to smoke h, various methods of administration/ingestion.

other things that may be on erowid already not sure but

1. columns something like "From the Opium Den" that would have suggestions from users on w/d, home remidies, tricks, etc...and how to guides for pods, CWE, what you can and can't shoot, or snort, things like that you know.

2. i always thought it would be cool to have some of us write up experiences of the week type things. like great/awful opiate experiences, "The Addict's Corner"

3. and like a pain management area, titled "The Chronic" where our chronic sufferers relate suggestions, experiences and ongoing columns about the shit they go thru. and then you could always have links to news stories, info blah blah

[Curio]

"A big step for Opiophile.org and would mean moving from the realm of a discussion-only board to a combined informational site"
that is all i needed to hear to say i'm with you dude. i really think that besides being a place for people to get together, this forum can really be a great source for everyone, addicts to chronic pain sufferers to young kids who are just curious. i would rather have them come here and find out the truth then some bullshit government propaganda campaign that only feeds them lies.
i think all of us that have learned the knowledge from our elders and thru experience have the responsibility to pass on what we know to others.

I'm with SB ~ That is how I feel as well. Esp. this part: discussion-only board to a combined informational site"

I know that I am inconsistent with regular sign-ons at Ophile and such atm,
but I am VERY capable of writing some mean-A articles/informative or otherwise...

I am at present negecting Ophile as well as my JL blog due to previous vacation preparation/present vacation, some horrific & ongoing family/home problems, getting off many of my RX (& not so RX'd) meds and just generally feeling exhausted from trying to save the world one handedly, but daaaang! I'm IN! :rolleyes: :cool:

[Spell Relief]

Hi ppls, I was jus surfin the posts and there are some good
ideas here about the format(s) on this site . To have a kind of
directory to what one was looking to read,research, post or learn is
a good idea. For instance; today I have something Im going thru that
I would like some feedback, perhaps even to get a poll on. I
am new here, a couple weeks, but a long time in C.P.
Today Ive got tunes comming thur here, thats new??>
Will someone here tell me the guidelines on starting a poll. Please
Thanks a bunch.:)

[WarmCyanide]

I think theres a forum called "how do I" try searching there. You may find the answer

[Curio]

bi11i titled an area calling it:
'I be new here'

[dorje]

Sorry I can't help. The new formats sound great. Do we need a chat since noone (at least recently) has used that feature ? Just a risk/benefit analysis.

[Curio]

The chat is a pretty neat feature that I just used for the first time the other day....I think that the prior used shoutbox didn't get along with my browser(Safari)...but flashchat worked very well for me....I don't have/use any IM programs such as yahoo, msn, etc. so it is great for me because I would rather not download something like that or keep it on my computer.... there are often lots of security holes/vulnerabilities ~ with PCs anyway ~ this is great to have an alternative as an internet based chat where you can also password protect your own room if you just want to talk even more securely/privately with a forum buddy.

[dorje]

Movie reviews...book reviews...research rooms...the possibilities look great. If people are chatting we should keep that open Thanks