[NCUC-EC] New NCUC Website Launch

Wed Jul 26 21:24:19 CEST 2023

Hi Ben!
Essentially it is a simple decision on which hosting to operationalize a website. Ideally, it was supposed to be a quick upload of new website on current hosting but when I sent new website copy to Tapani it appeared that our current hosting systems need to be upgraded to be compatible with latest version of Wordpress used for website. And that’s where the process got stuck.

The only difference is that one option with new hosting provider can make website up instantly and the other option with keeping on current hosting will require additional efforts and time for Tapani to make necessary upgrades in the system to ensure compatibility with the latest WP and plugins, cos otherwise the moment when website crashes again is very close. This is an EC decision, I don’t see much value in extending this conversation to anyone else. 

So if you want a call, let’s make smth quick for 30 minutes max with EC inviting Tapani who can explain what is the challenge on his side. I can make it for a call on 31 July after 6 pm (Kyiv time, UTC+3), 3 August after 4 pm and 5 August any time at the moment. 

Btw who is part of NCUC eTeam? It would be more practical to talk to those people once decision on hosting is made and website is up and running to handover to them all admin details needed to maintain the website. And it would be very valuable to have someone in charge.

Another issue that I would like us to finalize asap is payment for website redesign in the amount of 1500$. Irrespective of how long this conversation on hosting will last (even we could make this decision in few minutes), the redesign was completed. You can see the result at test.dukes.in.rs. The task I had was redesign and we used the latest templates and plugins fixing a lot of mess and errors in old design. Hosting incompatibility/upgrade is separate issue. Prolonging with payment makes me feel very uncomfortable in front of the person who invested best efforts and time in our website, which was ready two months ago. 

So, let’s start from approving the payment for redesign and speed up hosting decision. For that can I kindly ask all EC members to respond to this email at your earliest convenience to give your green light for processing payment?

On that, Ben, do you need invoice for making payment? Do we have any template? How payments are processed?

Best,
Olga

26 липня 2023 р. о 14:19:13, від "Benjamin Akinmoyeje" <benakin at gmail.com>:

> Dear Olga,

Good day to you and I hope you are doing well.

Please do you have an opening in your appointment schedule to meet with ECs and the NCUC eTeam to close this issue.

Kind regards,
Benjamin 

On Tue, 11 Jul 2023 at 10:27 PM, Benjamin Akinmoyeje <benakin at gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Olga,Thank you for this update. I must apologize that I was caught up with things and I just read the mail now.

Suddenly it makes sense what you were saying during the meeting, in respect of making a decision.

I will have to consult with Tapani and read up on the best approach to take. My question to you is what option would you recommend for NCUC?

I also would like other ECs to contribute to this conversation and we can also try and get feedback from the community members or selected community members to get some buy-in.

Finally, it is in the purview of the ECs to approve the payment.

Thank you for the enormous work you have put into this.

Kind regards,
Benjamin

On Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 4:33 PM Olga Kyryliuk <olga_kyryliuk at ukr.net> wrote:
Dear All!

In anticipation of our today's meeting I want to share an update on website redesign. The website itself has been ready a month ago but there have been some questions around how to operationalize it that we've discussed with Ben and Tapani. As time is passing, I would like us jointly to take a final decision how to move forward and to finalize this task.

The newly designed website is available at test.dukes.in.rs

All content was transferred to the new website. I fixed some very obvious outdated places. However, the website was not updated with new content for the last few years. Therefore, I would suggest releasing the new website as soon as possible and simultaneously start a call for volunteers (or as I recall we already got some interest during the last two ICANN meetings) to work on content. Another crucial point is to assign a dedicated person as web admin to be in charge of website updates and upgrades, otherwise this whole exercise with redesigning website will be pointless. Someone needs to preserve a memory of what changes have been made and keep an eye to timely upgrade plugins. This can be someone from EC or any community member who is ready to dedicate at least few years to supporting NCUC with this. It shouldn't be very time consuming but it is important that someone takes care of this.

Recently at EuroDIG, I had a chance to meet in person with Tapani and Dusan Stojicevic, who helped us with website upgrade, and we came to a conclusion that we have two options to move forward with operationalizing newly designed website:

1. Buy new Virtual Private Server to locate new website
NCUC's VPS is presently running Ubuntu 20.04, which only has php 7.4. The new website was created  to run with latest PHP 8.1 or 8.2. If we do not upgrade it’s just a matter of very short time until the website cracks down again. So, consider efforts wasted. Upgrading current VPS is a bit complicated as it also hosts NCUC mailing list that is using mailman. Tapani said that mailman is using PHP 7.4, so it would be costly (or even impossible) to upgrade mailman and website to new PHP versions. That is the reason behind new VPS. And he said the price is 5 USD per month for another VPS. It will also take some time to set up.

2. Divide hosting, keeping mailing list with Tapani and leaving website with another hosting provider that currently has the test version. We can make website live instantly. In this way we will also secure proper compatibility with plugins. The price is 4320 RSD (Serbian dinar) with VAT, without VAT 3600 RSD - around 36 USD per year.

I leave it open for discussion but time- and technically-wise second option is more preferable.

On a different note, it would be good to proceed with the payment for website redesign in the amount of 1,500 USD. Do we have any specific invoice template or Dusan can submit it in any form? Do we need anything else apart from invoice to process the payment?

That has been indeed a lot of work as all content had to be transferred manually, there have been a lot of errors, absolute links, and incompatible plugins, which significantly complicated the process. This is why now when technically things are fixed, I want us to take website support with proper seriousness and dedicate efforts to its tech upgrade and contents update.

Looking forward to hearing your opinions during our call!

Best,
Olga

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