Just a quick entry to congratulate Bloc-Online for coming 2nd in the Guardian Student Media Awards for Best Student Website.
Two things about their site I really, really like - one is that it runs on Mambo - same as UPSU.net - which is a scarily-customisable content management system. The best bit about that is that it's free of course ;o)
In a slightly-less geeky way though, the aspect of their site I like the most is how everyone is encouraged to submit articles, and the site is updated regularly with this new content. In Geek-speak, it's (I think?) a very refined and effective Web 2.0 model for a student magazine, and it's something I really, really want to see on UPSU.net, but before we can see that happening, I need to take some of the fear and confusion associated with working on UPSU.net out of the equation.
Put simply, it's a daunting task to add an article, news feature or web page on to UPSU.net. I want to change that, and I want this change done yesterday. The problem for me is that there are loads of other things I also have to be getting on with, so this job keeps slipping further down my to-do list until it's merely a speck in the distance (yes, I know what time-management is. I just don't like the idea of having to expend any more brain power than is absolutely necessary on trivial gumph like - oh, I dunno - thinking. And stuff...).
Thankfully, with my latest toy - the toolbox - created and alive, I can start adding little toys onto the site now without having to hack existing code about - now I can make my mistakes all in the same file. Woohoo... I think... ;o)
Pugwash magazine's print deadline is coming up, and with it looms the first episode of Pugwash online. Fraggy's just sent over an e-mail containing all the articles to go into the magazine, so now it's up to me to figure out what order they're going in, put them online, add some pretty pictures, and make up a front/index page.
If any of the Pugwash team would mind terribly offering a hand, I'd be really, really grateful... Hint hint, nudge nudge... ;o)
Anyway, back to my original point. Check out Bloc Online. It's rather superb :o)
Update: I've just been (jokingly) told off by Fraggy for singing Bloc's praises since UPSU.net didn't win anything this year. Credit where credit's due to Bloc, so this article stays :oP
