[EDIT: I've dealt with your actual question in the PS
]
Hello Joel and great to hear from you
!
All's well thanks - since last hearing from you, I'm definitely older, wiser
and $50k poorer
. I haven't lost my enthusiasm though
.
Spent a lot of 2016 and early 2017 working full-time on the site. Had some solid help from Sarah and Mikey and a hell of a lot was achieved however bank account ran out about 9/10 months ago before anything could actually be implemented "on site". I'm only now just setting up for another big stint at everything.
What I Thought before the Last Big Stint
I thought the major challenge for turning the site into what I have envisioned would be developing a visually pleasing and intuitive design where the user would find themselves accessing the right info/components/tools for their needs. That's actually a very daunting task, a bit like desigining a mandala.
Mandala Design.gif
I thought that once the design was finalised, it would be pretty much just be writing the content (laying the grains) and, job done!
What I Learned from the Last Big Stint
A mandala is constructed indoors by a dedicated team of skilled monks with steady hands. Our
tiny team of three had a lot more challenges; we had to work outdoors, in windy conditions (hundreds of IT challenges being thrown at us); one of the team could only do a day or so a week; we had far more innocence than skill (in IT stuff); and, with Sarah and I on the team, our hands were often unsteady!
Mandala Wind.jpg
The wind beat us - temporarily - sort of.
Before this Next Big Stint
Any spare time I've had over the last few months, I've spent on thinking on what we're really trying to do here.
Over the years, we've actually had many little teams of monks create wonderful mandalas.
Mandala Team.jpg
The end result of any mandala is that it is swept up, in a specific order and then "returned" to nature.
Mandala Dispersion.jpg
The work is not lost - it contributes to something much bigger.
From Mandalas to a Cathedral
[When starting to write this post, I didn't intend to write on mandalas and cathedrals
But, did you really want to hear about all the things that have gone on here? (Just today, I've spent on ftp, sftp, html, css, duplicate file finding on 2 1TB discs, "access denied" issues and a hundred other things as part of getting ready for the next big stint.)
I think mandalas and cathedrals are much more fun.]
Slowing down in that spare time over the last few months, has lead to me realising that we are building a cathedral here. I'm quite clear on that now. Once designed, building a cathedral is a bit of a job, but, it really boils down to the efficient collection and expulsion of members' passion/skills/resources.
That will be the initial focus of my personal next big stint and hopefully my last big stint*
Pat
* PS: Joel, I would love to be able to just focus on the BIABacus. One of my major frustrations is having that brilliant tool being so daunting for the new user. I do Know how to solve that (and add heaps of other stuff) but I'd have to stop working on everything else. So...
It gets back to my last sentence two paras above - we need to solve that - it takes many coordinated hands to build a cathedral
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