Welcome to the New Web Site

November 13th, 2001 by Richard Vernon in

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Dear Friends and Readers,

Our hard-working webmaster, Scott Blanchard, has been active in designing a new Linux Journal web site. We have been testing it here for the last few days, but it's such a big site, with so many pages and features, we may have missed something here or there. If we have, or if the whole thing breaks due to the activity of gremlins and faeries, we ask for your bug reports as well as your patience.

We happen to know you're a patient lot because you put up with our frames site for so long. In fact, we suspect that you may be so overjoyed at our lack of frames, you may not notice any broken items. But please do report them because Scott and the other tech guys have worked long and hard, and we want the site to work perfectly.

Our new site is powered by PHP-Nuke, a GPLed tool for building dynamic web sites. PHP-Nuke has thousands of addons and themes, complete multilingual support and many features that can be activated by a simple click from your web browser. Plus, all the administration tasks are done via a web browser. All of these features make PHP-Nuke an inexpensive choice that's easily maintained and administered.

As a result, the new site features the ability to post comments, a number of counters and greater navigational ease.

We think Scott has done a great job on the site. We extend our thanks to him and everyone else who worked on it. We encourage you to look around, and please give us your feedback.

__________________________


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natepiano's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On March 27th, 2002 natepiano (not verified) says:

hi. this is a great webpage. I am looking into converting my win98 p. o. s. (AMD-K6 400mhz, expanded to 128 mb RAM, 10 gig hd) to a Linux. this is a great webpage for getting info on and being able to do this. thanks!

Anonymous's picture

Great improvement

On November 28th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Great improvement over the previous site. However it seems to be over nuked. PHP nuke is a great tool however a site with overloaded content, I'd prefer to see these features.

1. A plain look for articles. without the boxes at the right
2. Long articles to be splitted in to several pages
3. Comments to be seperated to another page from the articles.
4. A much more clean and simpler home page reflecting the current content of the magazine.

Oreillynet's layout may provide you a model :) Loaded with content but readble.

Of course that means many many hours of jiggling with PHPnuke code.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 25th, 2001 Anonymous says:

It's definitely an improvement over the old site. I was pleasantly surprised by the color scheme... though I don't like all the columns, they make the page look crowded.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 24th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Pages are way too busy for my taste.

fyl's picture

Interesting comments ...

On November 21st, 2001 fyl (not verified) says:

When we launched the site we were anxious to see how people felt. It's been very interesting.

We considered a custom site and even put quite a bit of work into one. But, we realized the most important thing was to get our 7 years of content available in an easy-to-use format. Going with "Nuke" made that possible more quickly.

Are we done with the design? No way!

Is Nuke the ultimate answer? Probably not.

But, what we have done is converted static information into information that is stored in a database. That means we can work on the presentation without having to worry about a lot of manual work to change the data format again.

Scott, Richard and I really appreciate your comments. They will guide our future changes.

Like Linux, Linux Journal has no intention of giving up on development but also like Linux, we need to make sure our growth produces useful steps along the way.

py's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 21st, 2001 py (not verified) says:

PHP Nuke and many "Nukealike" site are very often the proof that too much information is bad information...

Keep the interface light!

py

tapiwa's picture

A bit disapointed ... do not be afraid of hard projects

On November 21st, 2001 tapiwa (not verified) says:

To be honest, I am a bit disappointed by the new site. While I have to give LJ credit, for improvements over the old site, I certainly think that they could have put more thought into the redesign.

I am a big advocate of making sure you do it absolutely right when you redesign. I think that despite its strengths, using something as cookie cutter as *nuke kinda devalues the LJ brand.

If you surf the net with any regularity you will have seen how many *nuke or slash sites there are there on Linux, and OS software. I am not yet convinced that LJ had distinguished itself sufficiently to avaoid get buried in the din.

The one reason I read LJ over all the other Linux magazines out there, is their lack of fear in doing hard stuff. There aren't too many screen captures, or pretty things to attract JoePublic, but the articles do solve really hard problems. I think that LJ should have taken the same approach in redesigning its site.

I could talk more about why I think (even if only to avoid looking like all the other Linux advocating and LUGs sites out there, and ) the LJ should have used another toolkit. If you do not believe me look at a sample

http://www.ez-linux.org/
http://www.newsgeek.net/
http://unix.soft.lv/
http://docksidelinux.dhs.org/
http://techienews.utropicmedia.com/
http://www.phpwizard.net/
http://localfoo.net/
http://www.go-build.net/~lotas/
http://supportpc.nl/
http://www.linuxmodems.com.ar/
http://www.puebla.linux.org.mx/
http://www.bestlinux.com.ua/

Some of these sites look even more pro than the LJ site. While you can use different templates, nuke sites tend to retain that *nuke* look.

I could go on about why I think mysql is not the best database to use

Instead I will spare you, and merely say that the LJ team should really not have shyed away from the challenge, and solved a hard problem.

For what it's worth, I personally would have suggested the openacs as the toolkit of choice for a website for a magazine of LJ's standing. It might not look pretty straight out of the box, but it really is a versatile opensource platform, with CMS features, extra modules etc, and it has been used to build some industrial strenght sites. Throw in the PostgreSQL database, and you would have left the competition trailing in the dust. In fact, you would possibly be so far ahead that all they would have seen is the dust settling!

worth more than

julian's picture

User Information

On November 21st, 2001 julian (not verified) says:

The space for MSN IM name is too short, and I'm saddened that there's no field for JabberID. ;)

Anonymous's picture

This site and the phpNuke vs. PostNuke issue

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

I currently run phpNuke on a few websites. I'll probably switch to PostNuke but that is my personal preference. Anyone who says that phpNuke isn't Open Source is incorrect. The source code is freely available and under the GPL (to the best of my knowledge)... so the end user can do with it as they like.

The fact that the principle author (Francisco Burzi - fbc@mandrakesoft.com) of phpNuke has decided back away from the team development model and continue to do it himself is certainly his prerogative. No one is forced to use it. As more proof that it is really GPLed / Open Source just witness the fact that PostNuke exists... a fork from the development.

While it is ok to prefer one product over the other, it is NOT ok to critisize those who have their own preferences.

While there have been several reported bugs in phpNuke several have also been reported with PostNuke. While it is probably true that the PostNuke people are quicker and more vocal about fixing reported bugs, especially security issues, the information about flaws and fixes in phpNuke does get out and the end user usually can find a fix just as quickly... although the existing download of phpNuke isn't always updated to incorporate those fixes.

I DO NOT KNOW why people would call Linux Journal lame for going with one of the most popular content management systems out there. I'm sure over time they will refine it, make it more unique and representative of their style. While it is true that many phpNuke (and PostNuke sites as well) start out with that cookie cutter look they usually don't stay that way for long. I have to admit that I've been lazy with most of my phpNuke sites by not bothering to do enough customization... yet.

Why re-invent the wheel? phpNuke is a good basis for a site... and it is obvious they have done quite a bit of customization given all of the areas in the blocks... and I'm sure they will do more as they see fit.

Does this site work? Does it do a lot more than it did before? Can it expand? I'd say that "YES" is the answer to all of those questions. Does every aspect of this site, including the graphics and layout, appeal to everyone? Maybe not. Does it get in the way of the content? Some say yes and others say no... that they can search and find things more easily. Your milage may vary... and we've got a lot of miles left to travel so pipe down and enjoy the ride.

My advice to the LJ staff, not that they need my advice... is to ignore all of the non-constructive comments and press onward and upward. I've been a subscriber to the print magazine since 1995... although I am currently lapsed and need to renew... but I've been buying each issue from my local B&N until I get that check sent in. :)

Lee Scott Dowdle,
Billings, Montana

Anonymous's picture

PHP Nuke vs. PostNuke

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

I'd like to start off by saying how pleased that I am that you decided to use an existing CMS rather than write your own. I know that the temptation to write your own can be overwhelming (I know I keep doing it :), but it sure looks good for you guys to be supporting the OS community.

That said, I believe that your choice of PHP Nuke is a poor one. I can't speak to the maturity of PostNuke, as I'm yet to switch over any of my major sites from PHP Nuke, but I gather that PostNuke has achieved parity with PHP Nuke, if not surpassed it in many regards. The PHP Nuke community has crumbled in on itself since it has become clear that the developer has no interested in engaging in open source development. I gave up on PHP Nuke some months ago, after the author failed to make use of a series of patches that I provided -- the same bugs were present, in fact, after moving to the 5.0 release from 4.x. (All were simple bug fixes -- nothing fancy.)

PostNuke is, of course, a traditional open source package. The CMS community has rallied behind it, and the developers have been extremely responsive to the desires of the community. For those of us who prefer PHP to Perl for web application development, it's hard to beat PostNuke.

The good news is that it's not difficult to migrate from PHP Nuke to PostNuke, at least for the time being. I strongly encourage you to make the switch.

Congratulations on the new site! It looks good.

Anonymous's picture

I Didn't Mean To Be Anonymous

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

I'm sorry about that -- I didn't mean to be anonymous. My name is Waldo Jaquith, and my e-mail address is [myfirstname](at)[myfirstname](dot)net.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

Well done, fresh, easy on the eyes and gets us to the information we need.

Congratulations.

Paul Godin

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

Wow! Look! Now Linux Journal can look like every other freaking site on the internet!

I can't belive you guys went with NUKE... are you that broke that you couldn't even get some PHP hacker to code you a site?

This is a joke.

I'm cancelling my subscription and ignoring your magazine. I need a professional source for information not some magazine that I now see is quite amature.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

Bill Gates is your leader.

Don't forget to renew your subscription to a windowz magazine and pay the price for the MS advertising in it. Bye for now.

butrus's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 21st, 2001 butrus (not verified) says:

awsome!!!! about time you had a nice site easy to run and manage....without a doubt phpnuke is a hit!!!!!!

now, hope you enhance the magazine as well....

Anonymous's picture

Need order to the chaos

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

Overall the site is alright. Not the all around best I've seen. The links under the main topics sometimes link to more topics? What's up with that. If I click on "Read more about" then I want to go directly to that article, not to another list of articles. I also agree with the comment about begin very "Slashdotty". I really like www.linuxsecurity.com website. Clean, informational, easy to use....something like that would be nice. LJ's site is a little to busy with all the sections on the main page.

ghostdancer's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 21st, 2001 ghostdancer (not verified) says:

Wow! When I heard the LJ has done a new web site, I didn't pay much attention to it... Until I visit here...

You guys have done a *GREAT* job!

I especially like the Forum! Is nice, really nice...

Anonymous's picture

kinda generic

On November 20th, 2001 Anonymous says:

I like moving to a new infrastructure, and I hope a new visual look will follow. This looks like any OSDN site, or any other Linux site built with these tools.

Good bones, let's see a more unique appearance.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 20th, 2001 Anonymous says:

I hope you are using the latest 5.1 version of php-nuke otherwise you are endangering your site.

There exists a programmed error on (virtually) all version of php-nuke prior to 5.1 that enables anyone to access the admin password and thus manage your site from their location.

So, if you're not running 5.1, go get an update illico presto!

see ya!

aurey@linux.ca

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 20th, 2001 Anonymous says:

The new site is over active visually. Too spread out in the opening page. Articles to cluttered in display. I read LJ on a 20" monitor. The original layout was better visually. So far site navigation is faster and more consistant. I also subscribe to the printed version.

pbaltrun@aoc.gov

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 19th, 2001 Anonymous says:

This phpNuke might be good for some sites but not yours. To much information. To much clutter. Hard to navigate. Where do I stop. If you change at least do it for the better.

Anonymous's picture

POSTNuke

On November 19th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Use postnuke!!! www.postnuke.com...PHP-Nuke is not acceptable choice!

Anonymous's picture

Funny how an Open Source mag chose a non-open source CMS

On November 17th, 2001 Anonymous says:

PHP-Nuke is NOT open source. The author closed open devlopment. Kinda ironic you would choose PHP-Nuke over a true open source CMS suh as PostNuke. Your credibility is on the wain.

If you do stay with this closed source junk I think you should at least keep the previous website archives under /old or something for links people may have to your content.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Funny how an Open Source mag chose a non-open source CMS

On November 18th, 2001 Anonymous says:

yeah, Linux Journal as really turned me away... first with this website apathy and their 2001 choice awards (read their unwarranted diss of mozilla, and absence of file browser category, which Konqueror deserved instead of best web browser).

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 16th, 2001 Anonymous says:

I think the site looks great and it's easy to use. You must be aware though, that your site looks just like other sites who use the same tool. Look at the UK's Linux Format magazine site for a direct competor who now has a web site which "looks" like yours. you've lost (maybe?) market identity? From my perspective, I like the simplicity and the consistency. But if I were you, I would think long and hard about my market identity and what it means by going down this route for your business. One thought (obvious to most): content becomes even MORE important. The good news is Linux Journal has the best "content". Keep it that way (assuming of course that's what your customers want).

Anonymous's picture

Why PHP-Nuke

On November 16th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Hi:

I do not want to make a flame here, but, can you please explain why did you choose PHP-Nuke, over another CMS system such as postnuke (wich IMHO can do more?),

It will be interesting to know.

bye,

mcanedo

Anonymous's picture

Re: Why PHP-Nuke

On November 17th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Here we go! A demostration of the spam made from people over postnuke (spamnuke). You're falling down... down...

Anonymous's picture

Re: Why PHP-Nuke

On November 17th, 2001 Anonymous says:

HEY, I'M NOT SPAMMING!

I'm in the process of starting my new site, and I'm serioulsy considering to use a CMS, insted of reinvent the wheel, at this moment my desition is to use postnuke, BUT...if such an important site, like linuxjournal, has decided to use PHP-nuke over another CMS (such as postnuke AND MANY OTHERS),

I simply want to know what are the technical reasons...

That will help me to reconsider, or confirm, my choice.

DO NOT BE PARANOIC!!!

I SIMPLY WANT TO KNOW IF THERE ARE TECHINCAL REASONS, I WANT TO LEARN.

bye,

mcanedo

robotito's picture

Themes

On November 15th, 2001 robotito (not verified) says:

I don't like this theme, but it's easier to change it, i was liking old colors, so, you can modify it to get the blue colors.

I'm a LinuxJournal reader, now it's easier for me to search documents, i was having some experience with similar "templates".

BTW a Php-Nuke version was having a exploit, please check it.

Anonymous's picture

It sucks...

On November 15th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Get off your arses and program a real site, and if not, at least use postnuke or something better.

Anonymous's picture

Re: It sucks...

On November 17th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Here we go! A demostration of the spam made from people over postnuke (spamnuke). You're falling down... down...

Anonymous's picture

Re: It sucks...

On November 18th, 2001 Anonymous says:

no, point being, the use of php-nuke is evidence of pure laziness and apathy towards creating a decent site... and if linux-journal is going that route, at least go with a secure, faster alternative...

Anonymous's picture

Re: It sucks...

On November 21st, 2001 Anonymous says:

How so?

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 15th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Excelent !!! no more words...

GMan's picture

My website ideas. (good ones)

On November 15th, 2001 GMan (not verified) says:

Personally, I feel that the topic graffix for each story is taking up too much space; it gives the impression of a lot of wasted space on the front page. Maybe shrink the pics even more? I don

scott's picture

Re: My website ideas. (good ones)

On November 15th, 2001 scott (not verified) says:

Thanks for the comments on the style, Gabe, everyone.

If anything else springs to mind, drop me a line at webmaster@ssc.com

Thanks,

Scott Blanchard

BillTotman's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 15th, 2001 BillTotman (not verified) says:

Lose the second box benieth each story. Don't lose the contents just the outline and the extra color. It seems too busy the way it is now.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 15th, 2001 Anonymous says:

EHhHH!! I am very happy, This site looks nice, You choose an very good tool, I am happy for you guys ... welcome to the gpl org. You need more work in your graphics, a pet will be a good Idea ... you can use a less default THeme. congratulations.

Now that you don't have to work a lot in your site maintenance.. you can do a better job with international costumers... WE WANT OUR ISSUE ON TIME !!

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 15th, 2001 Anonymous says:

It looks OK. It would have been better if it looked similar to www.computercontractor.net. It is also powered by PHPNuke.

Other than that, good work and long may open source rule.

afroginthevalley's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 14th, 2001 afroginthevalley (not verified) says:

I like the functions but not the style... too "slashdotty"... round corner on top, black background on top, grey box for coment headers... But I guess since this is now managed by php nuke design will be easier to refine... I just think that linux journal personality is diffused in this slashdot styling.

My 2 Canadian Cents...

erikj's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 14th, 2001 erikj (not verified) says:

I like the new look and operation. I was wondering how long the python site would last ;)

sjlinuxfreak's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 14th, 2001 sjlinuxfreak (not verified) says:

I love the new site. I think interactivity will bring more people to the site. You may become a top linux portal with this new design. I for one am always looking for new news and gossip.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 14th, 2001 Anonymous says:

My link to your old `What is Linux?' page is busted and I can't find it anymore. Also, links to some stories on some pages seem to loop back to the same page ... can't bring them up. I guess the new site will be an improvement when it's working.

Oh yeah, it took a while to realise what was going on with the search thingo at the top of the page ... no button anywhere, and then when I get it figured out I go to a page where I fill in my search term again anyway.

Anyway, LJ is still the only linux journal I read :-)

fyl's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 14th, 2001 fyl (not verified) says:

What is Linux? now lives under the FAQ. As for loops and such, we had to change a whole bunch of DNS records {www,www2,www3,noframes}.linuxjournal.com and the changes slowly reach name servers. Hopefully, in a few days, all will be well.

That said, keep pointing out problems--we know there are still some things to change but we are very hopeful that additional capabilities here (such as discussions and forums) will encourage more community participation. After all, that's what Linux is all about.

Anonymous's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 14th, 2001 Anonymous says:

Too visually active for my tastes. I think the teasers for the forums are spaced too close together. The one line blurbs contribute to the manically repetitive feel (its like I've had a six pack of Mountain Dew after taking a multivitamin with ginseng).

On the other hand, I think using PHP-Nuke will be a good move when you guys fully break-it-in.

clj's picture

Re: Welcome to the New Web Site

On November 14th, 2001 clj (not verified) says:

Great new site... This is a massive improvement over the old site. The interactivity which phpNuke provides is great as well, and should give LJ readers a good excuse to "waste" their time.

I think Nuke is a very good choice as a backend for the site. I run a Nuke powered site myself (www.q2central.com) which our community loves hang around on... They can do stuff, like post comments, submit their own articles, moan at each other on the message boards... all good stuff... hopefully the LJ community will like that as well!

Unfortunately this site also provides lots of distractions to the LJ team, as they will most probably be looking at the on-line counter 24x7 now, rather than producing new content for us :p

Ahh... is this the first comment posted... I think so... l33t :)

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