life.dcu.ie is now dcusu.ie

Daysha

Promising enough I suppose. Just as long as it puts the content to go with it during the year.

One of the main reasons life.dcu failed was because there was nothing on it that we didn't already know through either Campus or various poster campaigns. Hope this one will give us an actual reason to check it out from time to time.

TheChrisD

So how much money then was wasted on life in it's previous format for it to be thrown away after... 3 years?


Also, the site fails without the www. That's a great start :pac:

StiLL-TrAiNinG

Daysha wrote: »

One of the main reasons life.dcu failed was because there was nothing on it that we didn't already know through either Campus or various poster campaigns.

Also because it was terrible.

It looked like it was designed by a semi-retarded gibbon with sight problems.

This one looks much better.

XPS

Daysha wrote: »

Promising enough I suppose. Just as long as it puts the content to go with it during the year.

One of the main reasons life.dcu failed was because there was nothing on it that we didn't already know through either Campus or various poster campaigns. Hope this one will give us an actual reason to check it out from time to time.

This site is vastly superior to life - in so many ways.

The content is where it will fall down. There is NO reason that the content couldn't be complete before orientation week - but even that is too late - the content should have been the first thing written - its a CMS based site, not sure if its wordpress - the homepage modular layout needs some tightening up me thinks, but they certainly took heed of the student feedback that they got via Facebook.

Can people remember if it's meant to be bilingual?

Fiftysix

TheChrisD wrote: »

So how much money then was wasted on life in it's previous format for it to be thrown away after... 3 years?


Also, the site fails without the www. That's a great start :pac:

The vast majority of students will put www. in first. and a lot was spent on life.

redout

The amount of spelling errors on the class rep portion of the site is shocking.

robby^5

Fiftysix wrote: »

The vast majority of students will put www. in first. and a lot was spent on life.

Well they did set a precedent with 'life.dcu.ie' no www needed, it's no big deal but it's just another little thing they could try to get right.

XPS

From what I gather the entire venture was a disaster from the get-go. What type of independent representative organisation has its website as a sub-domain of the hegemony? Mornonic in the extreme - should never have been allowed to happen. Alan Keegan took the right decision to get rid of it.

It's a realy pity students are not more informed about the students' union they pay into, or are more interested - you get Class Reps who are good enough to spot the reprecussions of stupid errors like this then you save money and reinforce ownership, it's the little things that can really make the difference.

andrew163

It has promise. It passed the "halp halp I failed exams need to find repeats information naow" test in under 10 seconds, the pages just need some content.

Technically it's a bit of a mess, but hopefully they're just teething problems (try using the search box). Webtrade (the current hosting/design/maintenance provider) can't possibly be as bad as the last crowd of mind-numbing idiots.

markpb

XPS wrote: »

From what I gather the entire venture was a disaster from the get-go. What type of independent representative organisation has its website as a sub-domain of the hegemony? Mornonic in the extreme - should never have been allowed to happen. Alan Keegan took the right decision to get rid of it.

life.dcu.ie was not owned or operated by the SU - they just contributed content to it like the clubs and socs - so the name didn't affect their relationship with DCU. The domain name was meant to be read literally as well as being the proper domain name.

The site had potential but it was badly let down by the implementation company who were piss poor and produced a product that no-one wanted to use because they couldn't figure out how to update it.

XPS

You will have to forgive my confusion its often difficult to differentiate the two the way decisions are made there.

The Union should have set its own up - hence leading to this confusion - and I dont think it ever had potential - I remember their site previous to life and it was actually better at times.

markpb

XPS wrote: »

You will have to forgive my confusion its often difficult to differentiate the two the way decisions are made there.

No problem, most people mis-understand because DCU operates differently to other colleges - it's the only one I know where the clubs, socs and SU are on the same level instead of tiered.

One of the reasons for giving them the same site is because most students don't care about the structure of the SFC and didn't need to understand it to know which site to go to.

wolf99

Fiftysix wrote: »

The vast majority of students will put www. in first. and a lot was spent on life.

strange how the first thing I typed was without the www and got a page not found error....this is not a hard thing to correct, just 301 the non www address in the .htaccess file. (you may also want to set the www version as the canononical or prefered domain in google and code)

yes lots of people type the www, but more are becoming used to auto correction in browser address bars and consequently dont type the www. Its best to cover your bases, also is better for SEO.

404 is not a great first impression....

Urizen

I personally the site itself is vastly superior to life. Better layout (the drop down bars are pure WIN), colour scheme is actually the DCU colours now, as opposed to that green mess. I'd imagine it'll be filled in pretty soon, at least with the basics on every page. More content will be added as the year progresses, as stuff develops, all that jazz.
The photo albums, I think, are a fantastic addition. That's what students will look at; life. That's what the last site promised and never really delivered, an actual look at what DCU life is like. I has a hopeful.

The www. thing doesn't bother me much. If people type it in, as I did my second time on (oddly, I got it right the first time :P), they realise soon enough their mistake.

TheChrisD

All it needs is a good bit more content.

And probably some work on the front page as well...

public_enemy

The Societies Life Committee (SPC) governs and drives policy and funding for societies at DCU.

wut?

Urizen

... You'll probably have to be more specific. Is it just that they said SPC instead of SLC?

public_enemy

Well are they renaming it or what? Is that just some weird mistake on the page name and in the content? I'm confused. Are you not confused?

Overall the site is an improvement, certainly a lot more info there than on life, but it still seems a bit of a mess.

XPS

public_enemy wrote: »

Well are they renaming it or what? Is that just some weird mistake on the page name and in the content? I'm confused. Are you not confused?

Overall the site is an improvement, certainly a lot more info there than on life, but it still seems a bit of a mess.

They renamed it.

Urizen

Yup, renamed. The SPC (Society and Publications Committee) is now the SLC (Society Life Committee), and the SCC (Sports Clubs Committee) is now the CLC (Club Life Committee)

Art_Wolf

TheChrisD wrote: »

All it needs is a good bit more content.

One person whose sole responsibility would be to update the content would be great.

I also hope they bring back the forum and integrate your classes into them.

Landa2

The forum might not return as there was a grand total of maybe 10 posts (possibly a little more but not much) on it in the entire year this year.. Between the SU facebook and boards i dont think a new forum will be used.. but as you said it would be nice..

XPS

Art_Wolf wrote: »

One person whose sole responsibility would be to update the content would be great.

I also hope they bring back the forum and integrate your classes into them.

Well there are two possible people for that - The Campus Ed or Campaigns Deputy President, take your pick really.

I dont think they should put a board on the site - this is a much better forum and its independent enough to allow free discourse without having to tie up an officer or staff member constantly having to mod (I know people can volunteer to be mods, but really can imagine the people who would volunteer for that job as it's an SU thing?)

And if the behaviour of whoever was updating the facebook page over the summer is anything to go by, I'm not sure if it's a good idea at all!

Landa2

Ok, i can assume that the site is being operated in a similar fassion to what life was.. There was 6 moderators selected from the SPC SCC and SU on life.. on top of the Sabats..

I can see the reason for a forum on the Union Web Resource.. Communication is what we have always lacked in this college.. when life was actually active a few years ago it was a very good board.. You also forget the vast majority of DCU students dont know what boards.ie is, where as when you log into a machine anywhere on campus and open a browser the DCUSU site is one of the default tabs..

As for

independent enough to allow free discourse

You are clearly very new to boards.ie..

The life forum was much more open with what could and couldn't be said, it was a resource for the students of this college to not only discuss amoungst themselves but also let the union know about both their qualms and queries..

But alas as i said previous i dont think it will return, but that is a shame in my opinion..

Cid-Highwind

XPS wrote: »

I dont think they should put a board on the site - this is a much better forum and its independent enough to allow free discourse without having to tie up an officer or staff member constantly having to mod (I know people can volunteer to be mods, but really can imagine the people who would volunteer for that job as it's an SU thing?)

I was a moderator on the old life.dcu.ie forum (did anyone even ever use the new one?). It was a lot less strictly moderated than this place.

Landa2

As was i in the same year i think, and neither of us were sabats..

john.needham

Site seems decent, however am I the only one who's surprised it was given to an external web development company? There are many tallented designers and developers in DCU between the media and computing courses, surely this could have been opened up to some of these people?

I dont know the specifics of how this site was done but I can imagine it would have been cheaper with students, and looking at the site theres nothing on there which couldn't have been done by a competent 3rd/4th year computing student.

Small gripe but one which kinda bugged me.

Cid-Highwind

john.needham wrote: »

Site seems decent, however am I the only one who's surprised it was given to an external web development company? There are many tallented designers and developers in DCU between the media and computing courses, surely this could have been opened up to some of these people?

It is a pity. The problem is maintenance though, getting some 3rd/4th years to build the site during the summer is simple enough, but someone has to run (databases, servers etc.) and maintain the code (bug fixes, feature requests) for the next few years.

I'd have liked to see the work go to students too, but I can understand why you'd choose to get a professional company.

john.needham

Cid-Highwind wrote: »

It is a pity. The problem is maintenance though, getting some 3rd/4th years to build the site during the summer is simple enough, but someone has to run (databases, servers etc.) and maintain the code (bug fixes, feature requests) for the next few years.

I'd have liked to see the work go to students too, but I can understand why you'd choose to get a professional company.

I get what your saying but any well documented site should be easy to handover, even if it just takes an afternoon running over the backend with the new person (it doesnt look like it would be particularly complicated given the requirements). Anyway, too late now i guess. Hope someone keeps it in mind for the inevitbale redesign 2-3 years down the line.

public_enemy

I don't think it's even a case where they should have hired someone from DCU instead of an external company. The site still seems to be in its infancy and a lot of content is still absent, but from what I can see there now, it looks like they could have just used a Wordpress install instead.

Sure it's nice to have your own site and your own look, but they might have designed a theme instead of a whole site. I guess we'll see eventually how much it cost them and whether or not it stirs up some juicy controversy.

Landa2

john.needham wrote: »

I get what your saying but any well documented site should be easy to handover, even if it just takes an afternoon running over the backend with the new person (it doesnt look like it would be particularly complicated given the requirements). Anyway, too late now i guess. Hope someone keeps it in mind for the inevitbale redesign 2-3 years down the line.

Again i agree its a shame, many talented individuals on campus, but it is at this point that it goes beyond "Getting a student to design it" to pretty much hiring a student onto staff to maintain it.. It is probably cheaper to just give it to a company who is doing the same for many sites..

Cid-Highwind

public_enemy wrote: »

Sure it's nice to have your own site and your own look, but they might have designed a theme instead of a whole site. I guess we'll see eventually how much it cost them and whether or not it stirs up some juicy controversy.

From reading their website it appears that Webtrade have written their own asp.net cms that they use for all their projects. Since there's plenty of well known and mature free CMSes I doubt they'd get away with charging much more than they would if building the site from drupal/joomla etc.

I'd be shocked (and horrified) if this site cost anything like what life did.

Art_Wolf

XPS wrote:

Well there are two possible people for that - The Campus Ed or Campaigns Deputy President, take your pick really.

Well I would see that as adding to another position which I am pretty sure are already pretty busy.

XPS wrote:

I dont think they should put a board on the site - this is a much better forum and its independent enough to allow free discourse without having to tie up an officer or staff member constantly having to mod (I know people can volunteer to be mods, but really can imagine the people who would volunteer for that job as it's an SU thing?)

I think a single forum is far too little if it became popular. I would still love to see every class have it's own forum - I would login to see all the classes I am in plus some general SU forums and links/forums to any clubs/socs I am a member of. Make the class reps mods for all their year forums, clubs and socs have their own.

Landa2 wrote:

It is probably cheaper to just give it to a company who is doing the same for many sites..

Plus with the security issues around accessing student information, having a contracted third party who you can hold accountable would be much better and who can provide on-going support.

john.needham

Art_Wolf wrote: »

I think a single forum is far too little if it became popular. I would still love to see every class have it's own forum - I would login to see all the classes I am in plus some general SU forums and links/forums to any clubs/socs I am a member of. Make the class reps mods for all their year forums, clubs and socs have their own.

I really like that idea myself.

Art_Wolf wrote: »

Plus with the security issues around accessing student information, having a contracted third party who you can hold accountable would be much better and who can provide on-going support.

Makes sense, wishful thinking on my part maybe.

[Edit] Having said that, without a forum there isn't really any student info on the site.

Urizen

Art_Wolf wrote: »

I think a single forum is far too little if it became popular. I would still love to see every class have it's own forum - I would login to see all the classes I am in plus some general SU forums and links/forums to any clubs/socs I am a member of. Make the class reps mods for all their year forums, clubs and socs have their own.

That could actually be epic. Wouldn't be difficult to do either. And spreading the work of modding around would mean that it's very little work for each individual. I like.

XPS

Art_Wolf wrote: »

I think a single forum is far too little if it became popular. I would still love to see every class have it's own forum - I would login to see all the classes I am in plus some general SU forums and links/forums to any clubs/socs I am a member of. Make the class reps mods for all their year forums, clubs and socs have their own.
QUOTE]


In theory I suppose it would be great, but I just don't think it will generate enough of an interest amongst students - most classes have a FB page these days and the hardly use that - and each class does have a discussion forum on moodle - but then again lecturers may be able to read that, so possibly not the best place for it.

I just think if you set up a forum and it has bugger all use it just reflects badly on the Union, may indicate a lack of interaction with the membership even more than not having one at all - why put the doubt into people's head when students are already facilitated by boards, facebook and whatever else.

Also can I just also say that there would be a real danger of creating an atmosphere of hostility in the class -we know how these message boards get and if things get out of hand it could destroy the atmosphere of the class and nobody wants that - no matter what moderation is done once something is said it is said even if its deleted - I think the class community is just too small for this, but it may be just my experience in these matters - I've seen this happen before.

Urizen

You have some good points there, one out of place thread or careless comment could ruin a class' sense of comradery. Especially since the meagre degree of internet anonymity that we have on Boards would be essentially removed if there was only 25 or so possibilities of who it could be.

I don't think it'd reflect on the Union if the forums weren't heavily used, though. As I see it, the Union would be providing the forum for academic and social purposes of individual classes. Lack of use would reflect on the students, not the Union.

I still maintain that it has great potential, if people would use it maturely.

andrew163

The pages seem to be slowly becoming more and more populated with content. This is good.

I agree with the external company thing to a degree. It's easy (well, relatively) to develop a site, but the process of handing over maintenance to someone year on year becomes a right mess. Look at how much trouble some societies have keeping their websites running each year. Not because it's difficult, but because its not seen as a priority with the new management.