Webmaster transition
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Topic created by kent on Wed Apr 20, 2011 at 11:03 amJust wanted to let everyone know that I will be stepping down as DVOA's webmaster later this year. We moved to Vermont about five years ago and I'm finding I would prefer to donate my volunteer efforts to our local community. I believe and hope that being a long distance webmaster has worked pretty well over the years, but I do think it's time for DVOA to have a local webmaster who is an active participant in the club.
Dan Felitsky will take over the webmaster duties sometime this fall. He is working now on converting the existing site to a new design, which will better enable the site to meet DVOA's needs. I'll leave it to Dan to introduce the new changes. Until the changeover, please continue to contact me with web related questions and concerns.
I'd like to thank everyone in DVOA for their cooperation over the years – it's been appreciated. I'll certainly miss being in touch with everyone! We don't get back to PA very often, but hopefully one of our trips will coincide with an event.
Kent
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Reply by Sandy on Wed Apr 20, 2011 at 12:09 pmThank you, Kent! You have been unbelievably generous with your time and talents over the years. DVOA has been very lucky indeed. You set the standard for club websites and every time I thought it couldn't get any better, you came up with a new design taking things to the next level.
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Reply by Steve on Wed Apr 20, 2011 at 1:16 pmI would like to echo Sandy's thoughts, and also say thank you to Dan. You have a tough act to follow, but I am sure that you will excel. you have a good starting point, and a club that will support you how ever you need us.
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Reply by Vadim on Wed Apr 20, 2011 at 2:15 pmThank you Kent for all of your efforts, time, skills, and enthusiasm making DVOA web-site of the best among orienteering clubs. It's been a pleasure to have you as a web master for so many years. DVOA web-site evolved from what was good into even better so many times and all because of you. People do make a difference and you are good example of that.
Thank you very much.
We'll try to make transition as smooth as possible and follow high standards you've set. -
Reply by sfmones on Wed Apr 20, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Vermont ... wow ... that's a really long walk to a DVOA start! Thank you for the best orienteering website around.
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Reply by Guy-O on Thu Apr 21, 2011 at 1:39 amI agree with everything that has been written here about Kent's website.
My advice to Dan F: If it ain't broke, don't fix (change) it! -
Reply by Sandy on Thu Apr 21, 2011 at 10:22 amI disagree Guy. I think we should give Dan the support to go ahead and make whatever changes he wants. He and Kent have discussed things and Dan knows what's important to the club. I think he should feel free to put his own stamp on the club's website including a total redesign.
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Reply by o-maps on Thu Apr 21, 2011 at 11:40 amKent, thanks so much for everything you've done in the past decades for DVOA! Your legacy is invaluable, and beyond compare. Not only has our website been the standards other O'sites are measured by, but you've done so much with the rankings/stats that one could literally spend hours digging through historical data.
Vermonters are very lucky to become the recipient of your fantastic energy!
And I look forward to the next stages, fot you and Jean as you've greatly deserved them, nd for our website, as Dan has large shoes to fill, but I have no doubt he'll keep our site on the forefront. Websites are dynamic spaces and I'm sure this one will live long and prosper :) -
Reply by wilburdeb on Thu Apr 21, 2011 at 12:01 pmThanks Kent for providing a professional web presence for our club. It was the DVOA web page you designed/engineered that re-introduced my family to the great sport of Orienteering.
Dan and Zac
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Reply by Guy-O on Thu Apr 21, 2011 at 11:28 pmAll too often, when a website gets a total redesign, it becomes difficult to find pages that used to be straightforward to find. That's an example of what I mean by "ain't broke".
On the other hand, one desirable added feature of other new O-club websites (COC, NEOC) has been content management -- whereby designated users can add/revise content without involving the webmaster. I suspect this to be part of Dan's plan.
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Reply by edscott on Fri Apr 22, 2011 at 7:49 amI agree that change for the sake of change is not good. I'm still trying to find my way through the redesigned USOF/OUSA site.
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Reply by Orienteeringmom on Fri Apr 22, 2011 at 9:56 amI 'm with you Ed, I really don't like the new OUSA site, I can never find what I'm looking for when I go there. I don't feel that it is very user friendly like DVOA's is. Again, Kent and Jean thank you for all that you have done over the years for DVOA. Having spent a number of years as the USA Junior Team Administrator, I truly understand the time commitment you have given to our club and our sport. Enjoy your next endeavor and your retirement together.
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Reply by Vadim on Fri Apr 22, 2011 at 10:24 amOrienteering USA web site is, in my opinion, 100 times better and more attractive than old version, which was just a shame to have compared to other orienteering related web sites. Yes, it takes some time to adjust your way around new design, new structure, new features, etc.
Time never goes back. We should learn from the past, grab only good things, and go forward. -
Reply by kent on Fri Apr 22, 2011 at 1:32 pmThank you for your comments. Knowing my work has been appreciated is the best paycheck!
A clarification: DVOA’s website does use a Content Management System (CMS) and has done so for many years. The difference is that instead of using a freely available package, I wrote DVOA’s admin pages to meet the specific needs at hand. There are quite a few of these administrative pages that club members use to keep the site current. One of the earliest ones was the schedule admin page used by Ed Scott to maintain the club’s schedule. There are other admin pages used to:
- maintain the map database
- upload the raw results files
- maintain the educational activities page
- add/edit news articles on the home page
- configure the club officers
- manage the RouteGadget page
- plus a few more
My understanding is that Dan will be moving DVOA’s site to a modern CMS. This is a good move for both DVOA and the website. For me the fun was always getting down-n-dirty in the code, but that’s really not a good long-term solution for an organization that depends upon volunteers to keep running.
Several of you mentioned that at times you thought the site was good, and yet I was able to make a change that made it even better. As webmaster that’s great to hear, but keep in mind that if I was able to make it better, than Dan is capable of making it even better yet.
kent
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Reply by randy on Sat Apr 23, 2011 at 10:29 amKent - truly an awesome job building and operating the web site over the years! Thanks so much.
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Reply by bobburg on Sun Apr 24, 2011 at 9:36 amI have marveled at both the committment and the quality of what you have provided over the years, Kent. You have been remarkably generous with your time, and patient beyond belief with stupid and/or trivial questions I have sent you over the years.
I will love crossing paths with you in the future. Thank you so much.
And welcome Dan. I look forward to seeing how our superb website continues to evolve. -
Reply by Trazy on Sat Apr 30, 2011 at 9:50 pmAwww, Kent, even though you've decided to step down from webmaster duty, I hope that doesn't mean you will not keep in touch with us DVOAer's on website and out in the field from time to time. It would be nice to hear from you every now & then. You and your work have been invaluable to us, plus I've always been impressed with your great attitude. It was great working with you whenever I needed to put something in the announcements and so forth. Thank you so much!! Good luck in your next endeavor...
