old CCN homepage...

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 00:09:02 -0300 (ADT)
From: "David L. Potter" <potter@chebucto.ns.ca>
To: ljdeveau@chebucto.ns.ca
cc: ccn-board@chebucto.ns.ca, editors@chebucto.ns.ca, office@chebucto.ns.ca
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <editors-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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On Thu, 22 Jun 2000 ljdeveau@chebucto.ns.ca wrote:

> Hi David,
> 
> Now I'm finding matters troublesome. The whole idea of developing a new
> homepage at Chebucto was to direct ALL traffic to it  - members and casual
> users alike, as well as web and text-based users. If people wanted to stay
> with the old homepage, than they could reset their bookmarks to it, not the
> other way around.
>
> The Chebucto link on all our IP sites should also be linked to the new web
> homepage not the old site. Otherwise, why was the new homepage developed in
> the first place ? Many of these organizations have significant traffic
> which should be directed to our new web site not to the old one. Many of
> the Editors have already been setting up links to the new homepage, your
> move forces them to make readjustments once again and this will further
> confuse some of our IPs.
> 
> Could you please clarify for me what it is you're trying to do with this
> move ? As you've set it up, atleast as I understand it, no choice is
> actually being offer, it's stick with the old, and oh yeah, we now have
> this new site you might check out.

Hi Leo,

It's possible I've managed to confuse you... currently, all traffic to:

	http://www.chebucto.ns.ca
	http://chebucto.ns.ca
	http://chebucto.ns.ca/index.html

...automatically get the _new_ webpage. These are the conventional access 
points/urls to reach internet sites. Familiar examples would be: 

http://www.halifax.cbc.ca
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.cnn.com
...etc.
...etc., etc.

Chebucto, having been around before the hardening of these Internet 
conventions previously used:

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Home.html
http://chebucto.ns.ca/Home.html

...as our homepage. 

Our Lynx users still get this as their default homepage. A few of us who 
find the old home page provides better access to our information providers 
would like to be able, at least until the new hompage 'matures', to access 
the old homepage. The changes that Jeff made earlier this week, without any 
prior discussion and without making any announcement, removed this option.

I have simply restored the option. I have done it in a manner that clearly 
invites anyone who arrives at the old page to 'move' over to the new page... 
the message reads:

	===================================================
	"CCN has installed a new homepage which has links 
	to the CCN WebMail along with other enhancements.

	We invite you to check out the new homepage and 
	bookmark or set your default browser 'Home' button 
	to point to the new CCN  homepage."
	=================================================== 

Before making the changes I searched the internet for references to the 
old home page and satisfied myself that there were not enough links from 
other sites to jeopardize the efforts to update our website.

There was a period this afternoon (for about one-half hour - 4-4:30 pm) 
when requests for http://www.chebucto.ns.ca were being re-directed to 
the revised version of our old home page. There was traffic relating 
to this on ccn-tech mailing list this afternoon. The problem was the 
result of Jeff borrowing code that Michael wrote and then me borrowing 
Jeff's code (an honorable practice among programers, although ocassionally 
it leads to unexpected results). If you're still getting the (revised) 
Old-Home.html try forcing a reload of the page or clearing your cache. 
(It took two days for my cache to expire before I discovered Jeff's 
changes...)

If it is determined that the existance of the old homepage does in fact, 
constitute a problem with respect to promoting the new website design, 
the appropriate course of action (in my opinion) is not to suddenly 
withdraw the page without discussion or announcement but rather to:

+ make a copy of the page (as I have done), and then
+ proved suitable notice to users that the old homepage address/URL will 
  be abandoned in the near future (two weeks should be plenty of 
  warning)  

This would allow ludites like myself an opportunity to bookmark the 
re-located page.... 

I'm not convinced this represents an urgent matter, as I noted earlier, 
before making the change I searched for references to the old Home.html page 
using two major search engines. Many of the references were email archives, 
a lot of which referenced Chris Majka's email signature and were not in 
fact active 'links'...

-----

With respect to our editors and information providers... if there are 
CCN links that point to http://chebucto.ns.ca/Home.html they should, as 
you have pointed out, be adjusted to point to http://chebucto.ns.ca. This 
should have been the strategy since the beginning of the process to 
invoke the new site design. I would have assumed that this was part of 
the 'roll out', perhaps it was.

It is probably worth pointing out that we _do_ have the ability to 
automate that process if necessary... we have already made wide ranging 
changes to IP and other system documents in connection with our 'retirement' 
of the old domain names (cfn.cs.dal.ca and ccn.cs.dal.ca).


Regards

David Potter

 
> Leo
> ----------
> 
> >I've created a modified version of the old homepage:
> >
> >        http://chebucto.ns.ca/Old-Home.html
> >
> >and adjusted httpd.conf to redirect non-lynx browsers
> >calling for Home.html to this modified version.
> >
> >The new version has a prominent note/link to the new homepage so casual
> >visitors will know there _is_ a new homepage and can reset their
> >bookmarks/browser defaults to the new version if they desire.
> >
> >This will also allow individuals who wish to retain the older version the
> >opportunity to do so. The recent changes were forcing all non Lynx
> >browsers to the new page and offeing individuals no choice.
> >
> >david potter
> 
> _________________________________________
> Leo J. Deveau
> Executive Director
> Chebucto Community Net
> Halifax, N.S.
> ____________________________________
> "To know and not to do is not to know."
> -Chinese  Proverb
> _____________________________________
> 
> 

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