RFC for website

[radamanthus]

We want a "check out this URL to get the latest community news and activities" url.
It'll be a lot easier to attract new members if we have this.

[maricris-sn]

If we don’t want a website, not an url. We can push commits to a repo they can checkout for latest news?

[mikong]

We can simply use Github Pages. There's an option to create a Github Pages site for an organization or a repository. The URL format will be:

Type	URL
Organization	https://phrug.github.io
Repository	https://phrug.github.io/repo_name

If we use Github Pages, do we create it for the organization or a new repository? If a new repository, what's the name?

The other question is what static site generator do we use? Popular choices are Jekyll, Hugo and Middleman. Personally, I use mdbook which is a Rust project. If we want to use a tool written in Ruby, maybe we can go with Middleman.

Update: There's also the option to use the pinoyrb app. It already has an Events tab.

[terenceponce]

I have to point out that the PhRUG's group on meetup.com is actually not free and is being sponsored/paid for by @aelogica. As for the website itself, we have https://github.com/phrug/pinoyrb which was spearheaded and was done mostly by @bryanbibat.

I don't have any solid suggestions at this point, but I wouldn't mind the option of creating something new for the website. We can do a static site and use Google Forms for RSVPs or we can even create a new Rails app altogether so we can do the event listing and RSPVs ourselves.

[terenceponce]

@mikong mentioned to me a while ago that he was itching to make an events app in Ruby. Maybe this is a good opportunity for that?

[corroded]

If there is someone willing to do the website / events app and has the time for it, go for it 💯 . People can chime in with maintaining. But if we're just looking for a place to put events / updates, I would just suggest Github pages like @mikong suggested - it's free and easy to deploy as well and anyone can make a PR to add event updates (just limit the approval / merging to certain people). Also, phrug.github.io is easy enough to remember TBH.

Less friction and less work to be done :) my $0.02

[radamanthus]

Good points everyone!

+1 for phrug.github.io. Easy enough to remember, no server to maintain, and free.

A static site should be good enough for simple announcements and other public information.
There's some app-building itch that needs to be scratched, but that probably belongs to another RFC.

Now for the hard questions:

• Middleman, Jekyll, or hand-crafterd HTML? Or pick a non-Ruby tool (I will go with this only if the non-Ruby tool has huge advantages over the Ruby tools. Otherwise this is just asking for drama.)
• Theme: which one? Or hand-craft one?

[corroded]

Middleman / Jekyll are both easy enough to maintain. It's the initial hurdle that differs - so it really depends on who will be doing the initial PR :P Whatever they are comfortable with is the answer to this one. (I would volunteer but I am time-poor so sorry </3)

[terenceponce]

I'm pretty sure we can do an "Upcoming Events" feature inside Jekyll. We just need a plugin for it and with the existence of GitHub Actions, we can use Jekyll plugins and themes without having to fork existing ones for GitHub Pages. We can create a new Jekyll repo from scratch and build from there.

I tried searching for such plugins, but most of them are pretty old already, so we might have to write one ourselves. I've written a few Jekyll plugins in the past and from my experience, I don't think it's too much trouble to do something like this.

[corroded]

TBH that's one caveat of using Jekyll haha. Pretty stable and easy to use but also moves too fast 😂 By the time you want to update your site, all the initial plugins you used are either already unmaintained or had a major version upgrade. Not a problem with dependabot under Github now I guess?

[radamanthus]

I have zero experience with Middleman and close to zero experience with Jekyll. So I'm ok either way.

@terenceponce will you be more inclined to help maintain the site if we use Jekyll?

[terenceponce]

Definitely. I just don't have the time to actually start the project.

[radamanthus]

Definitely. I just don't have the time to actually start the project.

@terenceponce:
Jekyll it is, then.

One last decision, and I'll wrap up this discussion.
Any recommendations for a Jekyll theme?

[corroded]

I am a fan of materialize: http://jekyllthemes.org/themes/jekyll-material-theme/

but it hasn't been updated for awhile haha.