Webmaster Role
The role of the webmaster is to maintain the IT infrastructure and manage access e.g. Website, Social Media, Groupspaces. The actual content is owned by the Publicity Officer. Still, good if you can contribute content and encourage others to do so.
This Document
Please maintain this document to simplify any future handover and as a resource in case anyone else needs temporary access…otherwise you will have to do this job forever.
Webmaster Passwords and E-mail
Passwords should be given to you by the previous webmaster in a secure way (handing you a USB drive or mailing you an encrypted file with the key supplied through separate means of communication.)
E-mail address is webmaster@irishmountaineeringclub.org and in the first few weeks you may feel it is beneficial that the exiting webmaster retain access to the mailbox while you get used to your new role. Once you are happy, change the password (see below [add link to mailbox admin section]). You are going to get a fair bit of mail in this role so follow these principles:
- Add it to your phone mail accounts so you can reply from this account while on the move
- Set it up on your laptop in a mail client as well
- Leave all mail on the server so there is a copy of correspondence for your successor
Routine administration
- Keep the website secure (backups, blocking suspicious activity) – with Cloud Canvas hosting we have outsourced this, be aware if the website is ever migrated back from a hosted solution that this work will need to be done again
- Maintain official email addresses – currently in Blacknight though the expectation is this will move to Google or another solution within the year. Blacknight renewal was 14/02/2018 so ideally this is done prior to end of January 2019
- Manage Permissions (mainly the Committee who have privileged access on the site – membership levels at renewal time are handled by the Membership Officer though they may need help with batch administration and error resolution)
- Maintain website pages
- Monitor that Cloud Canvas support are keeping WordPress+Plugins Up-to-date
- Keep hosting and domain current – notify Treasurer of necessary payments
- Moderate Comments
- Manage Social Media Accounts – this is now a shared responsibility and other committee members are involved with Admin and publishing content on Facebook. Twitter was hardly used in 2017.
Logins
WordPress:
- username: IMCWM2016
- address: https://www.irishmountaineeringclub.org/wp-admin/
- When you receive handover your own user will be made Admin so we have better visibility of who is doing what. The user listed is now an emergency user only. Currently The webmaster and Membership officer have admin rights – the latter only because we do not have an appropriate role for allowing Membership 2 administration other than the Admin role.
Hosting E-mail and old website:
- address: http://cp.blacknight.com
- username: irishmc
SQL
172.16.3.45
u1015344_root
Database db1015344_wpimc
Legacy database:db1015344_mambo
*there is no SQL access via CloudCanvas
FTP
address: irishmountaineeringclub.org
username: imcftp16
*there is no FTP access via CloudCanvas
Hosting Cloud Canvas – current website
webmaster@irishmountaineeringclub.org is the admin user on the account.
contact e-mail addresses are:
Adam Haworth –
adam@lakewood.media
adam@cloudcanvas.website
adam@wphelper.site
support@cloudcanvas.website (people other than Adam work using this address)
We no longer have any direct access to the database. The CloudCanvas team can provide data dumps and the main need for this is for the Membership 2 plugin. A new feature came in with the latest patch for exporting user to membership assignments. There is still some work to be done before we can replace Groupspaces fully with the Membership 2 plugin –
- MailChimp needs to be tested and verified as fit for purpose.
- Payment via PayPal is validated as working.
- Some custom fields may need to be created on the database with a corresponding field on the new membership / renewal form
For the working document on replacing Groupspaces see this doc on the IMC GoogleDrive
For a list of issues with the website that need to be resolved see this doc on the IMC GoogleDrive
Groupspaces Membership List
This is managed by the Membership Secretary.
this is the master list of club members. It is unrelated to the web site but try to keep it in sync.
Occasionally audit website users and remove non-members. This was done by the membership secretary in 2016/2017 – admin access to the website was given to enable this, among other reasons. [open action to provide correct permissions for Membership2 admin]
@Handover in 2016: this was not massively used. During 2017 some active committee members (mainly Membership and Meets officers) started promoting club activity more through Facebook. One task for the webmaster is fielding questions and comments made to the page. The occasional comment may need to be moderated. Very little spam came through. The Pages app for the iPhone is very useful for managing a Facebook page – encourage other committee members to use it to share the moderation workload. Access was agreed as needing to be limited to the committee – expect more debate around this as the use of the page grows. Club members should not use the platform for commercial gain. [open action to agree a code of conduct for social media and communications in the club]
@irishmountclub
Note: Twitter account was created in the past with an automatic feed of forum posts. In the aftermath of NorthfacejohnGate this was shut down as forum post were removed from public domain, so there is very little traffic or followers. [*plenty of followers in 2017] *strike this* It’s really up to yourself if you want to promote this. Liaise with the Publicity officer – we have a sizeable [*add number] Twitter following and it would make sense to use it more. In 2017 it was used to promote the #Dalkey40 and that was about it. Would make sense to dynamically link it to our Facebook promotions but this has not been looked at yet.
Old Website statistics
- address: https://cp.blacknight.com/awstats/418/cgi-bin/
- username: irishmountaineeringclub.org
Current website statistics
Google Analytics is enabled on the site as a plugin.
Login using: analytics.google.com and the irishmountaineeringclub@gmail.com address
Technologies
The site is based on WordPress. It is mostly wordpress plugins and layouts. There are a few php scripts that can be used to customize the presentation.
Since the website moved onto CloudCanvas it is strongly recommended that you check with CloudCanvas support before enabling new plugins – we are paying them for a level of support and part of this is guaranteeing no plugin conflicts. Manually adding one ourselves impacts that support arrangement. They are usually very fast at responding to e-mail.
Common Tasks
Save Minutes
Encourage secretary to do this themselves.
Normal:Edit page Committee Minutes. Upload media item and add a link to page.
AGM:Edit page AGM Reports & Minutes. Upload media item and add a link to page.
Add/Remove a Committee Member
See Committee Handover section below
Enable @irishmountaineeringclub.org mailbox
If people want to use an @irishmountaineeringclub.org mailbox then on Blacknight reset the password on their [officer]@irishmountaineeringclub.org email and send it to them with a link to email-setup details in the committee section of the site. They will need to set up their mail client themselves (so they need to be somewhat tech savvy or might need your help) When they are up and running you can remove forwarding from the account.
Publish Newsletter – cross reference with Publicity handbook and remove from here? Webmaster was not involved in this in 2017
/WP-Admin – Edit the Newsletter Page
Add PDF as a media item and add a link to the content. Create a table of contents (see Below).
Publish a link to the Newsletter on Facebook.
Tweet a link to the Newsletter on Twitter.
Reset Passwords
If users have problems you may need to edit the user in the WP-Admin users page, generate a password and save it then email it to them.
Note: There is a “forgot” link which may work but its very flakey.
The Cloud Canvas policy on password resets is that they should only be done by the end user using the Forgot my Password feature. Currently this is Cloud Canvas branded so may confuse some users. They will be e-mailed a password reset. One way of providing support would be to change their e-mail address to a spare one you have access to and support the password reset that way, then change it back once complete.
Renew Subscriptions
There are Blacknight subscriptions both for hosting and also for the domain name. The Treasurer will pay these but may need a gentle reminder. Currently we are paying Blacknight for hosting the old dormant webspace, the e-mail accounts and the domain name. We are paying Cloud Canvas for the hosting and support of the hosted WordPress site. The goal for 2018 is to stop paying Blacknight for hosting and migrate the e-mail to another solution, likely to be Google’s Gsuite.
Review Security
See details of plugins below (section 13) This is now outsourced to the Cloud Canvas support
Backups
Good to take a dump of database and files regularly. (You could omit wp-content and just do this occasionally as it huge) Details below, This is also now outsourced to the Cloud Canvas support but we are not notified that backups are completing successfully so this sh
Change Splash Page Images
WP-Admin – FWB Slider Pro – Slide Settings – +
Enter the URLs of the images here
Usually swap in some snowy pictures during winter.
Nag the Publicity Officer to find some fresh ones
This has now been replaced in the Cloud Canvas site by homepage showing recent blogs. Homepage does need some development (see issues list )
Monitor Facebook Messages
If people message the FB page ask the appropriate officer to respond or respond yourself if you are want to or it is about the website or technical matters.
Facebook Content needs an update – Meets and Membership officers did a lot of hard work on this in 2017 so the following is more a shared responsibility than it was pre 2017
Share stuff members post to their personal accounts.(or encourage others to)(you might need to first ask people to set privacy on these items to public)
Share climbing stuff of interest.(or encourage others to)
Create Facebook events to advertise public events (or encourage others to i.e. Meets Secretary)
Share stuff user posts to our wall wall if of interest.(otherwise it’s hidden on lhs under the fold)
Delete any spammy/irrelevant posts
Encourage people to contribute.
Recruit other to edit the page.
Change the banner image from time to time.
Post links to Newsletters when published on IMC site.
Post links to any non-trivial blog when published on IMC site.
Things to watch out for
Backups
This can be done manually This is handled by the support agreement with Cloud Canvas. Our site is part of a bigger structure of wordpress sites that are routinely backed up. No harm getting confirmation that it has been successfully done though.
Files:
Using an app such as FileZillaConnect with FTP to the remote site and sync WebSpace content locally (2GB+)For a partial backup omit the wp-content files
*Regarding FTP this has not been necessary since we moved to Cloud Canvas. If access is required this will need to be requested.
SQL
Script the SQL DB in MySQLLogin To https://cp.blacknight.com/Databases – WordPress(wpimc) – Browse – ExportSelect All – Check Save As File – Zipped – GoSave file generated in Downloads to an archive location
Suspect activity
There is suspect activity on the site all day every day. The “hosts, last visit” page in the “website statistics” section shows all recent activity. Normal activity is indicated by the “hits” figure being much higher than the “pages” figure; others (apart from the web server) are likely to be spam/hacking attempts. You can block suspect addresses by editing the .htaccess file. Alternatively use security plugins.(See Below) I think this is also handled by Cloud Canvas now, needs to be validated.
Website user levels
The webmaster user account in the website has “administrator” privileges. Other committee members have “Editor” privileges which allow them access to the “committee” section. Membership officer also has admin now pending creation of appropriate privileges for the Membership 2 plugin.
https://www.irishmountaineeringclub.org/wp-admin/users.php
Uploading files
Should be done using the WordPress Media functionality. https://www.irishmountaineeringclub.org/wp-admin/media-new.php
Archiving Forums
On the old Mambo forum performance would degrade when post volume exceeded 300. The WordPress-BBforum appears to perform OK so folders have not been archieved.
Moderating forum
When signed in to normal site as the Webmaster you will see extra links above all posts to edit,move,spam, or delete them. Sometimes users post duplicates…delete one of these. You may also want to delete anything deemed offensive or inappropriate. It would be preferable to edit posts if possible. You may need to edit posts to clean up broken links or image tags.
Protecting Content
When you create/edit pages in the wp-admin site there is a “Membership Access” “Word Press Access Control” panel on the right that you can use to restrict access. Members (Signed in users only) Members: Editor + Administrator (Committee Only) Generally content is either Public ( no Protection enabled), for all members, or restricted to IMC Committee.
Public: Blog Members: Forum, Information, Profile+Pay,Sub+Library are registered Committee: Committee
WordPress/plugin Versions: Keep these as up to date as possible or you will be letting yourself vulnerable to hacks. It upgrades break anything in doesn’t matter, just throw away that content.
Be very circumspect in installing any plugins. Make sure that they are well maintained code from a reputable source.Check with CloudCanvas support before installing plugins.
Manage Users
Original design of the CloudCanvas site assumed that users would be created via the Joining form. Currently we are operating a hybrid solution where Groupspaces is used for Payment then users are created manually via the Manage Users option and given a Membership 2 plugin privilege once payment is confirmed.
https://www.irishmountaineeringclub.org/wp-admin/users.php
Select a user and Delete or Edit
Click on a user to change permissions
Standard User – default for anyone who has confirmed their email Editor – All user name should be the users real name. Update this for any bashful new users or just delete them is they are unrecognized. Delete any obviously spammy accounts created.
You may want to ocassionally cross reference WP-users with Groupspaces. Drop anybody who is not a member. There is a “user” callled “ex-member” who you can assign content.
A handy way to review new users is to open Blacknight – SQL – WordPress-DB – wp_users table – sort by user-activation (descending). This will show you recently added users. If the display_name is not the users name the update it of delete the user. You can also cross-reference this with groupspaces member list.
If you are deleting users there is a dummy account “ex-member” that you can assign content to.
The way to export users is to go to Membership 2 , choose All Members , make sure All is selected in top section and Export as CSV.
Email Accounts
Open cp.blacknight, menu-email To redirect an address: Click on It, Forwarding, Forward List(In Green Bar),
You can either use mail as a simple redirect or else enable the mail box if people wish to send mail from that account.
Committee@ is a group mail and need to reflect any committee changes All@ is linked to a CriticalPath account that does not work so is currently not in use as the process is undocumented and broken. Groupspaces is used for broadcast mails and is managed by the publicity/membership officer.
Page https://www.facebook.com/IrishMountaineeringClub
Roles
Admin Panel – Edit Page – Manage Admin Roles Use the page to add/revoke/update role access.
e.g. Typically Admin = Webmaster & Publicity Officer Editor = Secretary + Meets Secretary + Any others you wish to add. The more people who contribute the better. If people are active Facebook users try and recruit them as content editors. (btw To add a person to a page role they need to be your friend)
Posting To Wall
This is currently open to public. You can change this permission in privacy settings if it becomes an issue.
Sharing Content
If sharing content such as club members photo albums make sure that their album privacy is set to “everyone” and not just “friends” or this won’t work
Events
Keep in mind that access is essentially public. Please state if events are open to public (e.g. Slideshows) or Members Only (eg Meets). Don’t add private information for member only events…just say “look at website for details”
Post, Comment, Like As
Facebook allows you to switch between your personal profile and IMC. Please use IMC when managing content. Please do not “Like” any IMC content as IMC as this just looks pathetic. (You can like content yourself if you really want to). When adding new editors ask people to set their default attribution as follows:
- Open IMC Page https://www.facebook.com/IrishMountaineeringClub/
- Click on “Settings” (on the right hand end of the top white menu)
- Click on “Post Attribution” (4’rd item in the left-hand-menu)
- Set the default to be “Post as #your-name# “
WORDPRESS MANUAL FOR IMC WEBSITE ADMINSTRATOR
1.LOGGING IN
Log-in to the front end and the type in this url in a separate window in the same browser: www.irishmountaineeringclub.org/wp-admin. You will see a dashboard screen now.
(Note: You must log-in to the site to use the dashboard, you cannot directly access it (for security reasons))
2.DASHBOARD
You can now see dashboard screen that has all the options available. There is some main WordPress features here plus additional which are selected plugins that are responsible for extra features.
WordPress standard features are: posts, media, pages, comments, appearance, plugins (that is where you add plugins), users, tools, settings
If any new updates are marked as available install them. There are over 35,000 know exploits to attack wordpress so keep everything as current as possible.this is handled by Cloud Canvas now. You can still install new plugins but advice is to check with them first for compatibility with our supported plugins.
3.MANAGING PAGES
All the pages that are visible in the site, except blog, news and forum are stored, managed and added through ‘Pages’ tab on the main menu. Click on it and you can see on the right hand side a list of all the pages. Some of them have a little padlock on the right. Those pages can be only visible to logged in members. If you hover over a title you will see a small menu showing under it which will allow you to edit every page.
More info: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages_Screen
ADDING NEW PAGES
To add new page click on to ‘Add New’ under ‘Pages’ tab in the menu. This works exactly like ‘Posts’. Add page title, content, image and save. In top right corner you can choose if this page will be only visible by logged in users. Use ‘no sidebar page’ template from ‘Page Attributes’ below to make sure you have no side bar in your new page. Scroll down and make sure that you disable ‘Allow comments’ and ‘Allow trackbacks and pingbacks’ in ‘Discussion’ section. You can choose to write some code if you like in your content. To do that just switch between tabs ‘Visual’ and ‘Text’ that you can find at the right top corner of the content box.
EDITING EXISTING PAGES
To edit one of the existing pages hit ‘edit’ from the menu below the page title in the list of all pages. You will see that page with all the content. You can switch here between tabs ‘Visual’ and ‘Text’ to see how things look different. Some of the pages are easier to manage in ‘Text’ as there is a lot of formatting and you need to make sure that what you adding is in the right section otherwise you can break the arrangement of the page. If something like that happen you can always go back to previous version. All the versions you can find under ‘Revisions’ just under content box. I will go through some of the pages to explain how add additional content to them.
NEWSLETTERS
Newsletters are organized in 4 pages. Each page is representing a tab which lists different decades. 2017 Newsletter have not been added here yet.
This page is easier to update in the ‘Text’ editor where you can easly see all the different elements.
Each page has the same first few lines and navigation/list of tabs which are enclosed in a <div class=”news-nav”> This element has to stay untouched on all those 4 pages for it to work. To change year heading on the news-menu from 2014 to 2015 you can change number 4 to 5 no problem just remember to make that change on all 4 pages.
Now to add new newsletters – Each separate newsletter is locked in a table. To start new table just use this one to open [table] and [/table] to close. The inside of the table is separated by a coma. Make sure there is no additional commas in the text as they will render as another column in a table. I have not verified this process since moving to CloudCanvas.
Having added a newsletter it is good to publish a link to it on Facebook and Twitter. Publicity officer should take care of this
COMMITTEE
Content restricted to committee members. (not only content is restricted and linked media is in the public domain)
The Committee-FAQ is something the publicity officer created. If issues arise for committee users it would be good to document them here.
CLUB – DOCUMENTS
Anything that doesn’t fit anwhere else.
IMC HUT
– In this page content is divided into two columns. They are wrapped within div tags so to see it you have to go to ‘Text’. In here you can see <div class=”hut-left”></div> and <div class=”hut-right”></div>. Make sure all the changes that you make are in a right section and that those div tags stay the same.This layout was not retained by the CloudCanvas migration process
JOIN IMC
– similar to ‘IMC hut’ page there is <div class=”join-left”></div> and <div class=”join-right”></div> You can see those if you switch to ‘Text’ editor. This layout was not retained by the CloudCanvas migration process
TRAINING
– same as the above there is <div class=”train-left”></div> and <div class=”train-right”></div> that is visible in ‘Text’ editor. This layout was not retained by the CloudCanvas migration process
EVENTS, FORUM, REGISTRATION, USER PROFILE
– those pages are ruled by plugins so if you open one of those you can only find there a shortcode referring to particular plugin but all the content is added and maintained through the plugin itself. Need to validate if this is still true for REGISTRATION, USER PROF
HOME PAGE
– This page has very little text. If you go to ‘Text’ editor you can see that those lines are wrapped in divs and spans. This text is carefully positioned on the page so be careful about changing as it may not fill into the container anymore and will have to be adjusted in css. This has changed with migration to Cloud Canvas and needs to be redesigned as a home page.
If you do edit this check the layout in multiple browsers/devices especially Microsoft IE/Edge.
This is effectively a splash page…all that’s missing is the “click here to enter” button. There is no facility to display any dynamic information to users unless you do some kind of hack. Think of it as being back in 1995.
4.MEDIA
This is where you can see all the media that has been added to the site. In Library there are stored all the images, videos, pdf and word documents. To get the url for each of them hover over the title and click edit. You add Alt tag in here for each image with help SEO.
Media is uploaded into monthly folders so it is a real pain in the ass complex to find anything previously uploaded.
N.B.All media uploads are in the public domain. There is no security in wordpress. Do not upload any sensitive or private information.
More info: http://codex.wordpress.org/Media_Library_Screen
5.COMMENTS
In here you can see all the comments left at the blog section (the only section that is allowing comments). From here you can delete comments, add to spam, edit or approve them.
More info: http://codex.wordpress.org/Comments_in_WordPress
6.FORUM
This is a plugin – if you click Topics you can add an additional forum item or a topic to the list of already existing so members use them. Don’t forget to set visibility to private so its only visible by logged in members.
More info: http://codex.bbpress.org/step-by-step-guide-to-setting-up-a-bbpress-forum/
7.USERS
Here you can see all the users that are registered on the site. Hover over User name and you can delete or edit – change their privileges. You can also manually Add New User. Use ‘Search Users’ to easily find who you are looking for. If you add a user manually you need to then go into the Membership2 plugin and add them to a Membership type. This drives the permissions to access pages restricted to club members, the forum being the most important of these.
It is the policy of the club that all forum users must use their real names on the forum. If anybody violates this just update their account and set their “display name” to their real name. If they are not happy with this just delete them from the forum.
More info: https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities
8.MENUS
To see menu structure go to ‘Appearance’ -> ‘Menus’
All the pages that have been chosen for the menu are listed on the right hand side. You can delete items from menu and add them again. You can add items from list of pages, links, categories and few others that you can see on the left hand side. After you finish changing ‘save’. Be careful with adding to many elements to menu. It gets cluttered and less readable. It’s not a good practice to have lengthily menus.
More info: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Menu_User_Guide
obsolete since migration to CloudCanvas
9.WIDGETS – This whole section has changed with the new layout in CloudCanvas
To get to this section go ‘Appearance’ -> ‘Widgets’
You can find in here sidebar and footer content.
On the right hand side there is a list of available widget locations.
More info: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Widgets
CONTENT SIDEBAR – that’s an area that is located next to blog posts in blog section. You can see there search, related posts and archives.
HOME FOOTER – that is the black strip line at the bottom of each page. When you open it you can see the text widget there with a short line of text. You can update year in here.
PAGE FOOTER – this is a thick footer that you can find on each page except home page. We have 3 widgets here. Facebook and 2 text widgets. Be careful with adding more content to this 2 text widgets as they are designed to a specific size.
FOOTER WIDGET AREA – This is home page thick footer area. With Upcoming Evens and Latest News. They are configured to fit into a space that they are placed so be careful with playing with settings.
PULLOUT WIDGET CONTAINER – this is where the LOG IN pull out widget sits.
All widgets have a lot of custom css assigned to them to get the desired look. Making changes may require adapting css to fit new conditions.
10.PLUGINS
This is where you can add new plugins or deactivate and delete unused. Every now and then you will be asked to update plugins. It’s ok to do so as my custom css that I additional wrote is separate and shouldn’t get affected. The only plugin that I don’t want you to update ever is ‘Floating Social Media Icon’. The plugins currently installed are supported by CloudCanvas and dependencies confirmed by the support team. check with them before installing new plugins. Our current support contract includes that they are responsible for updating these plugins. The site broke in 2017 due to a plugin update incompatibility and this is the reason we moved to CloudCanvas.
11.FWB SLIDER PRO
This is the sliding background images that are on the home page. To change slides go to ‘slider settings’ in here hit ‘browse’ to add new image. Images that I used are 1400px X 800px – if you can keep this dimensions for any future images it would be best. Make sure that images haveNo longer in use
12.AAM
This is where you can change what sort of privileges each of the level has.No longer in use
Click on the level you wan to edit on the bottom right hand side. Click on each of the section that you have in the middle to open tabs to make changes in each. Save your changes. There is no need to make changes to anything else than Admin menu but if you wan to explore more there may be some more useful features there.
13.1.Exploit Scanner
Will return a lot of false-positives. May need to download a hash file from git if you update the wordpress version. Running a scan (Plugins – Exploit Scanner – Scanner Settings – Run The Scan) may help identify malicious code. No longer in use. Not reviewed in 2017. Check if now part of CloudCanvas firewall & intrusion detection.
13.1.iThemes Security
Configure with Dashboard. You might want to whitelist yourself.(menu Security)No longer in use
13.1.Wordfence
<s>Schedules scans.No longer in use.
“Live Traffic” is usefull…Logons/Logouts will identify hackers you can block
“Blocked IPs” does what it says on the tin.
“Options-Login Security Options” is a good place to block any hacker usernames you notice appearing repeatedly.
In general WordPress code is rancid with exploits so the more you lock down the better. Emails are also triggered for Admin logins, password resets, lockouts.
Wordfence does generate mails listing file changes that are useful to monitor. Most are benign and are triggered by updating plug-ins etc. Beware of any unexpected core files updates.You may want to blocky IPs with dodgy activity or Advise the Membership Secretary if there are new users struggling with login process.
You might want to add/remove security plugins…it really whatever works for you.See above comment about plain installation
14.CODE EDITOR
Code editing with in the wp-admin pages is disabled as this is hugely insecure. Code must be edited offline and uploaded.
15.TEAM MEMBERS
All the team members profiles can be found under ‘Team Members’ on the menu in dashboard. You can edit each of them by hovering over the name and clicking on ‘edit’. Hit ‘save’ once you happy with changes. To change profile picture go to ‘Featured Image’ at the bottom. Remove current image and upload new. Display order is an attribute on RHS of page that can be edited.
16.GALLERY
This pages displays a number of high quality images that are used on the splash page carousel. It would be great if you can get new images (Landscape not portrait and reasonable high-res) (if too high-res performance will degrade badly especially on mobile so be careful. (Publicity Officer should supply).removed as part of migration and not yet reinstated.
Note: On occasion the Meets Officer has organized a photo competition in an attempt to get some fresh content. Unfortunately the general standard is usually atrocious, but you might get one or two usable images.
Note: In the past there were also user gallerys hosted on the site. These fell by the wayside as nobody used them in the last 10 years since Facebook/Instagram etc. took over the world. The content is still online /wp-content/uploads/zoom. Occasionally you will get somebody suggesting that “we should host a gallery” on the site. Best to knock this kind of luddite nonsense on the head. Users can share pictures on the forum, but its a bit of a usability horrorshow. Blogs are much easier to manage, so I’d encourage users to share their pictures as a blog instead (or use facebook)
17.Presentation
The apperance of the site is based on a WordPress template. (Twenty Fourteen) Aqueduct
This can be customized by editing the css
Committee Handover
Update the about section.
Add remove editors as appropriate (Note: You can only add friends)
Send an Intro mail to new editors
Post a status listing new officers
Who We Are Page
Get Portraits of new officers
Update Roles(WP_Admin – Team Members – Role) – Change names(Team Member Details->Role) and upload/update “Featured Images” Check if person is mentioned in content and update if necessary.
Website Admin Access
Open WordPress Dashboard
Users – Find New officers and change role to “Editor”
Add Committee Membership type in the Membership2 plugin
Users – Find ex officers and change role to “Standard User” (Maybe allow a week overlap before doing this)
Check all new officers can see committee content.
Email ReDirects
Open Blacknight Dashboard
E-Mail Addresses
For-Each Email
Open Forwarding & Add new Office Holder
Remove previous incumbent (Maybe allow a week overlap before doing this)
For ordinary committee members just add their personal email to the committee redirect list.
When you let them know the e-mail forwarding is active offer them the option of using e-mail through their phone or desktop / laptop
If user want to use an @imc mailbox then reset the password of the mailbox and advise them (also send link to how-to page on committee section of website. Turn off redirection to personal mail when they are sorted)
Groupspaces
You need to add/remove both manager priviledge and committee DL membership…
Managers – Add new incumbent as a manager, remove the predecessor. (Members – Edit Managers)
(Members – Manage Members – Find the person – More-actions dropdown – Group Management-Make Manager)
MemberList – Committee – Add new incumbent, remove the predecessor. (Members – Your member Lists – Committee)
(Members – Manage Members – Find the person – More-actions dropdown – Add To List-Committee)
Pharma Hack
fyi The site was hacked as follows in 2016…
A backdoor was uploaded /wp-admin/network/classmedialanguage.php. This was used to upload/edit content. A single file was uploaded /wp-includes/wp-cloud-ocean.php and a one line change made to the system file class-wp-error.php to execute wp-cloud-ocean.php.
The “cloud-ocean” code sniffed the user-agent string and had no effect unless it detected the googlebot to which it served a load of viagra-for-sale link spam. It was purely designed to steal our page-rank. It never changed the modified dates on file it edited.
To see the effects you needed to change your browser setting to user the googlebot useragent string. Our search results on google were badly mangled and we were marked as “probably hacked site” and had to request a reset after it was cleaned up.
It appeared to originate from this canadian IP 184.107.30.153
Future Enhancements
User Management
There is no joined up thinking here. Groupspaces is a standalone process. We have no accurate records of user details or history. User management should be integrated in the site. Joining process should be automated. Contact lists should be automated. Statistics and status queries should be automated.
Usability
In general this is poor as cosmetic appearance is deemed more important.
Mobile Support
Apart from some responsive widgets built in to WordPress no consideration is given to mobile access. Intermittent issues have been reported and there is no optimization for mobile support.All improved on by the migration to CloudCanvas, see the issues list for current issue status and action plan .