Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 35659 2003-07-18 10:28:00 Free *simple* news updater for my website? Roly (2259) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
160873 2003-07-18 10:28:00 I have just designed a website for a miniature wargaming club I belong to. I have a rather naive knowledge of HTML and know the basic functions of Dreamweaver 3, which I have used to make the site.

I was wondering if there is any simple way to modify my News page so that any member of my club can easily add news items to the site (without them having to use FTP and suchlike).

I did a quick search on the Internet, and found that what I am probably looking for is known as a "news updater", but the ones I found all seemed to require things like CGI, PHP and so on (which are acronyms I really don't understand).

Is there a *simple* way of doing what I want? Perhaps one where my club members go to a particular website and enter their message, which (duly formatted) then somehow ends up on the News page of our website?

Oh, one more thing, I would rather such a service is free, as our club does not run to having subs!

In case it helps with answering this question, here is the link to our site:

homepages.paradise.net.nz
(The Kapiti Fusiliers Historic Gaming Club)
Roly (2259)
160874 2003-07-18 10:46:00 Yeah you'll be needing hosting with php/asp/colfusion or some method of being able to generate dynamic pages. Sadly in most cases this is not usually available for free and when it is it is usually pretty unreliable.

Although Brinkster (http://www.brinkster.com) do offer pretty good free ASP hosting which you could probably set up what you're wanting there.

I would ask around your wargaming club though. Computing and wargaming seems to go hand in hand at times. There could be someone with the right contacts that is willing to donate some space for the benefit of your club.
-=JM=- (16)
160875 2003-07-18 11:25:00 If you have CGI.. Then you could use Greymatter. Rank32 (3732)
160876 2003-07-18 11:58:00 > I have just designed a website for a miniature
> wargaming club I belong to. I have a rather naive
> knowledge of HTML and know the basic functions of
> Dreamweaver 3, which I have used to make the site.
>
> I was wondering if there is any simple way to modify
> my News page so that any member of my club can easily
> add news items to the site (without them having to
> use FTP and suchlike).
>
> I did a quick search on the Internet, and found that
> what I am probably looking for is known as a "news
> updater", but the ones I found all seemed to require
> things like CGI, PHP and so on (which are acronyms I
> really don't understand).
>
> Is there a *simple* way of doing what I want?

Not really, try the above suggestions, unless you know PHP/ MYSQL or if your host supports

> Perhaps one where my club members go to a particular
> website and enter their message, which (duly
> formatted) then somehow ends up on the News page of
> our website?

Do you know if your Host supports Microsoft FrontPage extion’s????

Hope this helps :)
stu140103 (137)
160877 2003-07-18 12:11:00 My host is Paradise.net - the standard free hosting that comes with their ISP service.

Not really knowing what CGI, PHP etc are, I'm not sure if I've got them or not.
Roly (2259)
160878 2003-07-18 12:29:00 > My host is Paradise.net - the standard free hosting
> that comes with their ISP service.
>
> Not really knowing what CGI, PHP etc are, I'm not
> sure if I've got them or not.

PHP: You should be able to find out what it is here: http://www.php.net/
CGI is: Common gateway interface.

& I do not think that Paradise free host supports CGI or PHP

Hope this helps
stu140103 (137)
160879 2003-07-18 12:43:00 Just doing a bit more searching on this ... and had a thought .... would a web log type thing do what I want???? Roly (2259)
160880 2003-07-18 13:45:00 Most probably as far as I know. -=JM=- (16)
160881 2003-07-18 14:14:00 I'd suggest you look for a site that will support something like a forum, which you can give members various permissions for. I don't think you're going to find the easy answer you're looking for, but with a bit of practice, something like PhpBB (phpbb.com) would do what you want. First would be to find an alternative free hosting service that supports it - below are a few sites where you may find the info you're looking for:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
http://www.freewebspace.net/
http://www.hostsearch.com/
http://www.talkhosting.com/
http://www.hostingchat.net/
Greg S (201)
160882 2003-07-18 23:56:00 There is one thing you can do if club members just want to add comments or announce news items and that is use a Guestbook. Some Guestbooks allow you to customise the look of the page so you can add your own colours to match the rest of the site. Anyone can add a message and the webmaster has control over messages so that the inevitable spam can be deleted. Guestbook.com is one of many that you could look into. tommy (2826)
1 2