Looking for volunteers to maintain the Polaris PWC Knowledge web site

[K447]

It has been a long time since this web project began.

I need someone, or a few people, to take over the Polaris PWC Knowledge web project and carry it forward.

Hundreds of people refer to the info found there every month. In the warmer months there are 50, 100, some days 150+ unique visitors per day.

I do not want to let the web site simply degrade over time. Without updating and effort it will begin to fall apart. Links will break and useful info and downloadable resources will disappear. This is already happening for some content and the decay will soon accelerate without some work being done.

If you are willing and able to take this on, even part time or working with a small group of volunteers, let me know.

October 2022 update:
With some tweaks along the way the Polaris PWC Knowledge web site is still (somehow) functioning.
Still needs updating and curation.

I really would like to find a few people to take this on, share the workload and make this Polaris PWC community web resource much better.

[HiPeRcO]

I can help.

[K447]

I can help.

Everyone else, this doesn't let you off the hook!

A small group will help spread the workload around.

[radio-active]

What's involved?

[K447]

What's involved?

In terms of skills, the actual editing of the web pages is not terribly complex.

I have always done web site work on a computer or iPad. Doing it on a smartphone might be possible but might be frustrating.

Most of the immediate work will be around fixing broken web links and reorganizing sub pages that have been forced/appended together.

It would be great if the overall site could be better organized and presented. It grew organically in the early days and never got around to properly planning the thing. So some sections are half duplicated in other places, some sections are unfinished. A few are still just near-empty stubs.


The hosting service for the web site has made/forced some changes which are going to break some links and certainly the page structure/formatting.

I do not have the time to go through the whole site and check/fix/improve whatever is broken.


So I am asking others to step up.


The PolarisPWCknowledge web site has dozens of web pages, but not hundreds.


There are possibly hundreds of links pointing into numerous GH posts and threads and some links to other external web sites.


When the forced changeover deadline date occurs a couple of weeks from now, some (possibly many) external links into it (like those from many GH posts) will likely break.


Some of the currently separate and organized pages will get smushed together into one long thing.


Basically the job entails learning how the web site is structured.
Then going through each web page, figuring out what is broken or needs improvement/change.
Then making the necessary changes.
And hopefully not breaking a lot of links and other things along the way.

If I was doing the work I would expect to screw some of it up. Then go back and re-fix whatever I changed. And so on.


Here is a link to the old/current web site.

http://polarispwcknowledge.shorturl.com/first-things-to-do

And this is what the 'forced upgrade' web site currently looks like.

https://sites.google.com/view/polaris-pwc-knowledge/Home/first-things-to-do

[K447]

Btw, whoever dives into this, you are probably going to learn a lot of Polaris PWC details that you may have never known before.

Not quite an Polaris PWC encyclopedia, but that is the direction it tends to go in.

[bspanovic]

Hmm, I am not very good with the web site developing or have much interest to learn about it... We definitely need the website, so much in there. Even if the links are or will get outdated there is a lot of other useful stuff.

[IveMadeAHugeMistake]

I'd be willing to help out, tech is my thing, and the only reason I'm here is to learn about (and hopefully fix and enjoy) my own Polaris ski, so maybe win-win?

[K447]

I'd be willing to help out, tech is my thing, and the only reason I'm here is to learn about (and hopefully fix and enjoy) my own Polaris ski, so maybe win-win?

Thank you.

Perhaps some combination of 'old hands' and newcomers can work together to move it forward.

Right now, the old site is still visible. BUT updates and changes are no longer going to be visible to the outside world.
It is effectively frozen in time as it was a few weeks ago. As of September it will become invisible.

- Starting September 1, 2021, classic sites will no longer be viewable by anyone.

If you want your websites to continue to be viewable, you must convert and publish them to the new Google Sites experience before September 1, 2021.

The 'new' site is visible now (per the link below) but has not been fixed or vetted.

I would like to have at least some work done before officially switching the new site to live and having it become not only visible to everyone, but also fully retiring the old site.

[Beernutz]

Is there a way to completely download the old site as it sits? I know some hosts allow you to do that. I have experience in very basic html and could possibly get everything over to the new site before it goes live.

[K447]

Is there a way to completely download the old site as it sits? I know some hosts allow you to do that. I have experience in very basic html and could possibly get everything over to the new site before it goes live.

The new web site hosting system has different limitations than the old. They did an automated transfer, and where things would not directly conform the new site now has differences.

Sure, I imagine the old site could be downloaded and archived somewhere.

It needed maintenance anyways, so this forced host change aligns with needing other work done.
Corrections, updates, add new info, and so on.

[Beernutz]

If I pm you my Gmail, could you give me access to the site? I've been doing a little research and it looks like I can download an archive and possibly get it new sites ready.

[K447]

- access to the site?

- I can download an archive and possibly get it new sites ready.

Do you need something more than this?

This is the entire 'old site', publicly online.

Here is a link to the old/current web site.

http://polarispwcknowledge.shorturl.com/first-things-to-do

And this is what the 'forced upgrade' web site currently looks like.

https://sites.google.com/view/polaris-pwc-knowledge/Home/first-things-to-do

[K447]

Posting proper links into PolarisPWCknowledge web site

From a mild rant I just posted :/

- this link, lots of good info -
https://sites.google.com/site/polarispwcknowedge/Home/first-things-to-do

How is it that after a decade people are still posting the incorrect links into that web site?

Almost every landing page has THIS at the top;
URL link to this web page ==> First things to do

You right click that link, copy it straight from the web page, then paste THAT link into your forum posts.
The proper link will have the format
something.shorturl.com

And the main front web page includes this;

Tip: When linking to these info pages please use the URL link on the actual page (as shown on the next line), not a link copied from the browser address bar.
URL link to this page - Polaris PWC Knowledge


Note: Copying the URL from the browser address bar results in the Google sites URL, which is liable/likely going to break sometime later this year.

Tip: If you are pasting from saved URL links, and those pasted links are NOT ending with shorturl.com then you have saved the wrong links. Save the correct links per the above, and please post those.

Thank you.

[sdlvx]

I've been doing web design and stuff for a long time. I would absolutely help and do the vast majority of the web design and hosting stuff if I were allowed to either put up my own ads (Google AdSense) or accept donations. I have some spare servers I could use too if no one wants to do the hosting or we want to get off of google hosting.

It almost seems like we'd be better off just converting it all to a wiki that cites GH when applicable.