• PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.

Site update - progress and request for members to help out

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pain

GotMead Owner
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Apr 5, 1996
1,698
18
38
North Carolina
gotmead.com
Hi all!

As you've likely noticed, the GotMead update hasn't been finished yet. There is a rather large pile of data that needs to be gone through, updated and reloaded into the new site to get things back up and running.

I apologize. My regular work, which is running my business coaching company, has kept me pretty much buried up to the neck since the beginning of the year with 60-80 hour weeks, and squeezing out time to work on anything else has been hell on wheels. This is good for my company, which will, I hope, turn a decent profit this year. But it has eaten my life while getting there.

And it isn't fair to you guys, but there you go. I'm trying to block off at least a day a week where I do nothing but GotMead stuff so I can get this project done. And I really want this to happen, because I can't move forward on the *new* things I want to do until I've brought the *old* things back into production in the new framework.

All of the old articles are still there, but not linked just yet as I slowly dig through them to make sure the information is still good.

I am finished with updating the list of worldwide meaderies and suppliers, but awaiting feedback from the software people who designed the directory software to help me diagnose an upload glitch that is happening. There are nearly 1,000 directory entries, too many to input manually. And their csv upload is glitchy.

Recipes: I have two tasks here: 1) finishing the category creation (for regular and GM certified recipes) and 2) entering the regular recipes and Gotmead Certified Recipes. This must be done manually because our old recipe software is not compatible with the new software I had to buy (because the old software was no longer offered). Part of the recipes is going through a very large pile of recipes I've compiled from around the web over the years, and deciding which to post. Frankly, some of them are pretty stinky, and we need to pick out the good ones, and leave the ones that will have folks making gacky mead. And someone has to look them over and decide if they can go up or not.

I also want to put recipes from the forum in the recipe database, because we've some good ones there, and the recipe DB will allow for much better searching. And of course, I'd like to pull our proven recipes from the patron recipes for the Gotmead Certified recipes (because they're dang good).

The Good News is that the new software will make it easy for folks to enter their recipes into the recipe database for forever tracking (I back up GM daily). And we'll have the capability for you to create your new recipes right there in the database if you like.

Articles: Some are good, some are great, and some are outdated or not really anything that got read. So that needs to be looked at, and outdated info either updated or discarded, including checking links for validity.

The Good News on articles is that now I've the capability to accept article submissions from authors through the new magazine software I'm using in the site. If you're a writer/reporter/mead lover who has some articles you'd like to write about mead, then let me know, and we'll get you set up. I'd love to put together a group of mead lovers who can contribute interesting stuff for the world to read about mead, mead making, new meaderies, travel articles that have mead-related info, meadery visits, etc. I also invite op-ed stuff on commercial meadmaking issues, techniques, market growth and other industry commentary as well.

And, I'm having a devil of time getting the Mead Calculator to work in the new site. For some reason the code won't execute, and I haven't had the sustained time to take it all apart and try to fix it so it will work right in the site format. It did in the old format, so its likely something I'm just not seeing. I think I need some fresh eyes for that.

Finallly, I am in the process of hooking the main site back to the forum so your login will be over the whole site again (our old software for that is also no longer offered, so I'm testing new software).

Other items that will be brought back/added once the rest of the items are back online:

  • chat function for patrons
  • gotmead blog
  • (possible - still testing) user pages for patrons
  • ....and several other things that I'm still playing with and will surprise you with when they are ready


So if you're a Gotmeader with some time you can spare, and you want to have some input on the info the New GotMead will be presenting to the world and help make it happen, I'd love to hear from you.

The main site runs in Joomla, v2.5x, and you would need to have some experience in working in content management systems (no programming skills required, but a good familiarity with how to do articles in Joomla or Wordpress is really helpful).

If one of you *is* a programmer geek, and wants to help me figure out what the heck is going on with the calculator, I'd love to hear from you. I'm thinking we can maybe take the opportunity to update it a bit, our last update was in 2010, I believe.


If you wish to help out, drop me an email at gotmead@gotmead.com and let me know what you're thinking, what your skillset is and how you'd like to help out.

The people that join the GotMead update and maintenance team will be brought into the project document I'm working on with all the details, and I'll do a training showing what we're planning to do. I can't offer much by way of pay. I can offer patronage memberships and extensions for those who choose to help out.

Please don't reply here, unless you have comments around the overall update, I'm always open to suggestions and ideas. If you have new things to propose for us to look at, please be detailed, with links and whatever documentation. I am too buried to be able to research possible new tools and toys, so if you think we really need something, do the homework and show it to me so I can see how it might fit.

And as always, thanks bunches. I've been blessed these 20+ years to have the privilege of running this site for the best bunch of folks any webmaster could wish for. All y'all are amazing, and thanks so much for making Gotmead so amazing a place.
 
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Barrel Char Wood Products

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