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                WebWord.com Newsletter
           "Industrial Strength Usability"
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                 Newsletter Editor
                   John S. Rhodes 
                     John@webword.com
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April 20, 2002                      Newsletter #67
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Table of Contents


1.  From Greymatter to Movable Type
2.  Some Thoughts on Extranets
3.  The Voyeur Web
4.  A Clever Web Site: ollllo.com
5.  Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery
6.  What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


       
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ITEM #1

Editorial: From Greymatter to Movable Type

On 14-July-2001 I started using Greymatter to manage
the content on WebWord.com. Greymatter is a content
management system built by Noah Grey. Given that I 
was using FrontPage and "hand coding" WebWord, the
Greymatter system was a radical leap forward. It did
some wonderful things for me. For example, I was able
to set up an RSS (XML) news feed, archiving was done
automatically, and posting news was simple. Overall I
was very pleased with Greymatter and told many people
that it was wonderful. I even made a donation to Noah
Grey.

Then, after several months of happiness, I started 
having problems with Greymatter. First, the RSS page
broke. Then, when I tried using the site rebuild tools,
the software (written in Perl and running on my web
server) failed. I got in touch with my hosting provider
but they were not able to help; yet they are talented.
Noah Grey is no longer working on Greymatter and does 
not support his free tool.

So, I starting hitting the Greymatter support forum
looking for help. I tried to figure out if other folks
were having the same problems. Unfortunately, there
were other people having the same issues. For some 
reason some people have problems with Greymatter once
there are several hundred postings in the system. What
a shame. 

Despite these problems, I did not give up on Greymatter.
Instead, I started reviewing the code and tweaking the
files that Greymatter outputs. That didn't help. I
decided to live with the problems since most people
visiting WebWord did not experience the problems that I 
was experiencing. 

Unfortunately, a couple of months later the problems 
started to impact users. There were two main problems.
First, users were being forced to wait for a long time
when they reviewed their comments and when they submitted
their comments. Second, some people (including me)
were getting strange errors when they posted comments.
This was depressing, so I started to look for other
content management systems.

I don't have the space here to discuss my search. I'll
just say that I decided that I should install and 
configure Movable Type. From what I could tell, it did
everything that Greymatter did, but was perhaps more
stable and easy to use. Also, the Movable Type folks
were kind enough to explain how to convert a web site
from the Greymatter system. 

The Movable Type installation took me about 20 hours
and was more painful than what I expected. However, 
most of the pain was caused by my lack of system
administration skills and dislike of these kinds of 
tasks. Some people like tinkering and fixing and 
tweaking. I don't. 

The biggest trick was to figure out how to use the 
Movable Type tags. They are kind of like HTML tags.
Fortunately, Movable Type offers great a installation
manual and user guide. I printed them both out. The
installation guide is 12 pages and the user guide is
56 pages. Not too shabby.

I'm still dealing with some minor configuration issues
with Movable Type. But, overall, things are going great.
I'm very happy and I plan on making a donation to the
Ben Trott and Mena G. Trott, the Movable Type creators.

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of this issue of the
WebWord Usability Newsletter. Welcome new subscribers!




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ITEM #2

A new WebWord.com article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/extranets.html


"Some Thoughts on Extranets"

The purpose of this article is to help you understand
some business and design issues related to extranets. 
This article will also get you thinking about the 
kinds of tools you might offer to your customers. 


You can read the new article here:
--> http://webword.com/moving/extranets.html




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ITEM #3

A new WebWord.com article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/voyeur.html


"The Voyeur Web"

The purpose of this article is to explain the voyeur 
web. The central idea is that it is easy to view what 
other people are doing and experiencing on the web. A 
list of voyeur tools are provided.

 
You can read the new article here:
--> http://webword.com/moving/voyeur.html




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ITEM #4

A new WebWord.com article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/ollllo.html


"A Clever Web Site: ollllo.com"

The first purpose of this article is to briefly 
explain why most web sites should be bland and follow 
standards. Trying to be clever is usually a bad idea. 
The second purpose is to review ollllo.com, which is 
a clever web site. 

 
You can read the new article here:
--> http://webword.com/moving/ollllo.html




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ITEM #5

A new WebWord.com report is now online:
--> http://webword.com/reports/content.html


"Book Review: Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery"

The book does just what it should do: It makes you 
think about the true nature of content management and 
it keeps you focused on your end users. The focus on 
usability more than makes up for any potential issues 
I have with this book. The bottom line is that if you 
need a rock solid introduction to content management, 
you should read this book. 

 
You can read the new report here:
--> http://webword.com/reports/content.html




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ITEM #6
    
What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


WebWord.com Services
>> http://webword.com/services/index.html

Articles (Moving WebWord)
>> http://webword.com/moving/

Expert Interviews 
>> http://webword.com/interviews/

Career Center
>> http://careers.webword.com/

Recommended Books
>> http://webword.com/books/booksindex.html

Newsletter Archive
>> http://webword.com/archive

Weblog Archive
>> http://www.webword.com/weblog

Usability Reports 
>> http://webword.com/reports

Recommended Web Sites
>> http://webword.com/hotsites.html



----- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #67 -----

      (c)2002 by WebWord.com and John S. Rhodes. 
                 All rights reserved.