Las Vegas Drupal Users Group Website

I updated Drupal's core (again) to 6.6. These fixes seem to be coming pretty quickly lately. I was kind of thinking that it would be pretty stable by this point, but what do I know? :P

Last night I upgraded the server to 6.5. I then backed up the filesystem and database so that I can begin moving to a new host. I've been very displeased with both the quality of service and the Nazi-like censorship policies at BlueHost.com so I'm switching providers for the Las Vegas Drupal Users' Website.

I got everything over to our new host and pointed DNS to their nameservers. Once DNS propagated there was a small glitch with the database hostname because of the way the new provider works. I got that resolved quickly and we look to be all good at our new home. Now on to moving the rest of my domains off of BlueHost.com - viva la boycott!

Since quite a few of us attended the LA Drupal Camp Conference, we thought it would be a good time to continue the interaction and held a meeting to continue discussing the plans for the Las Vegas Drupal site and catch up.

Discussions During The Meeting

• Discussed the happenings at both DrupalCamp LA and DrupalCon Boston and what were the highs and lows of each
• Made a note that we may have to fill out an application to use the Drupal name in our site title but probably won't have to since we are a non-profit informational site about Drupal in the community. Also talked about how the Drupal name itself ranks in Google
• Casey presented a suggestion for the group to configure profiles for the users to have links on the Las Vegas Drupal site and to enable blogs to discuss what projects we are working on. Considered using the Sign-Up module, Content Profile module, and Advanced Profile kit to add to the site as well.
• Discussed how the former moderator of the http://groups.drupal.org/las-vegas had moved to the East coast and after many attempts to turn the role to a local member failed, it has now been turned over to Christopher. Soon it will be updated with the new options on the http://groups.drupal.org site of using Panels and creating a more up to date looking groups page.
• Discussed a module development utilizing Amazon to grab and image to cache in Drupal for a project

Thanks to everyone for attending, by Skype or in person. Our group has grown a bit and have now added Nick Manteris and Rich Costello. Welcome you guys!

So after about twenty-two weeks of hitting and missing on group meetings, et cetera, we met up tonight and actually got some plans accomplished for the Las Vegas Drupal site. Here are a few of the things we've talked about and where we are heading with this site.

Major Site Objectives

• Video Podcasts in small bite-sized pieces, including introductory instruction for Drupal newcomers
• An email listserver for the Las Vegas Drupal community to extend and compliment functionality of our group at http://groups.drupal.org/las-vegas
• Instructional blogs and Drupal design and development resources in various formats
• A Drupal showcase of Drupal design and development work done by members of the Las Vegas Drupal community

Beyond that we discussed some information architecture issues on the site, including primary links and that sort of thing. I personally showed the design comp I've pieced together for the Las Vegas Drupal website. I intend for this to eventually be a contributed theme on http://drupal.org.

Further, I updated the Las Vegas Drupal group website to Drupal 6.2 tonight. We discussed possible modules to meet our project objectives, as well.

Please feel free to sign up for an account on this site, even if you don't live in Las Vegas, but are interested in participating. We're a very small group and you're more than welcome!