Imperial Home Page -> Standards -> What is a webmonster
What is Webmonsters?
Webmonsters is a separate, much smaller mailing list that is similar to the Imperial Mailing List in that it is a subscription-based mailing list that includes the volunteer folks that maintain and expand the imperialclub.com website.
Our volunteers have chosen the areas that they want to focus on, and we keep a list of who's doing what here on the MAILING LIST PAGE:
/OIC-specific/TeamOfVolunteers/index.htm
We are interested in hearing from you what your exerience/interests/skills are, and we are happy to discuss having help in areas where your skills are needed.
There is also a (seperate) volunteer mailing list called ADMIN that is comprised of the people that administrate the IML and keep things on topic/slap hands when people post off-topic. New Admin members are not added unless they apply to join Admin, and admission is generally by request/existing list vote/acceptance.
Many of the Admin folks are also on Webmonsters (WM), but not all. This list is volunteer as well, and open to people interested in helping in this area.
There are generally one or two moderators that have primary responsibility for dealing with mailing list messages, with other members there as backup who mayat some time rotate in to spell acting moderators as needed.
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The Webmonsters do several things.
1. Administer the website, including the collection, scanning, image manipulation, and posting of material and information to the website. This would include maintenance of the Imperial Registry, Imperial Highway, Donations page, and Club Store.
2. Respond to inbound queries from visitors to our club website. All CONTACT US messages go to the webmonsters and the person or people that have an answer will reply.
Inbound messages that are written by people not subscribed to the WM list come to all WM people. An individual webmonster's reply goes to the WM list but not to the original author unless the original author is cc'd (they aren't subscribed, remember?).
The messages are automatically sent to the rest of the WM list so that everyone else will know that the message has been addressed. Watch how messages are handled for awhile and get a feel for it. When you start to feel comfortable, feel free to answer them. It is never considered bad form for another webmonster to follow up a message if they have more to add. We try to help people but do not always go into great detail for non-imperial messages, somewhat like what we have going on with the IML. You'll find that certain people are generalists, while others are more specialized, with focus on such areas as the technical aspects of the Registry, additions to the Imperial Highway, and so forth.
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New content:
New printed literature and photos are procured and then scanned into the digital domain and saved as electronic files.
They are then uploaded to the TEMP directory, which is a holding pen of sorts. Uploading is done via FTP, which is File Transfer Protocol. FTP bypasses email and allows the upload of multiple images, files, and documents to a space off of one's own computer in an automatic manner.
You can get a free FTP program here: http://stud.fh-heilbronn.de/~jdebis/leechftp/files/lftp13.zip
TEMP is located at: www.imperialclub.com/temp
Raw images or finished material are deposited there for storage until they can be manipulated and then placed onto the site by the webmonster that is responsible for that area. We have quite a bit of content, (especially MTSC Booklets/Service Manuals at this time), and need volunteers to assist in formatting these images for posting to the site.
When new items are posted to the website, it is also announced at the WHATS NEW page located on the front page of the club website.
When you "take" an item out of TEMP and copy it to your computer and start to work on it, it is expected that you'll delete the file from temp so that another person will not start working on the same file at the same time. Please be VERY cautious about deleting only the correct files when you are in TEMP.
Most raw scans are very large and are rarely in the shape that they will be in when posted to the website - more on that later on other pages where we have detailed information explaining how to manipulate images to prepare them for the website as well as how to upload images to TEMP using free software that can be downloaded.
The Crucial thing to be aware of as you go into working on the website is that we strive for consistency whenever possible. Before working on new material for a particular section, please take a look at what has already been done. Considerable energy has been spent to make the site look like a cohesive, consistent website, and it is not obvious to most people that this has been created by a group of volunteers with differing interests and backgrounds.
This page was last updated 31 March, 2005. Send us your feedback, and join the Imperial Mailing List online car club today!
