Recommended chess club website software?

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Philip Adams
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Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Philip Adams » Tue May 30, 2017 9:53 pm

I'd welcome some advice!

My club (3Cs) used to have a perfectly decent website, hosted by BT. Since BT pulled the plug on it some time ago we've somehow managed without one, but we're now thinking that a replacement is long overdue. In the absence so far of a rush of volunteers within our club, I might well end up having to sort it out myself.

A quick googling left me overwhelmed with detail and (like so many things these days) too much choice. I'd therefore be very grateful for some recommendations regarding suitable software and hosting, from those of you with appropriate knowledge and experience of these matters. We don't need anything too fancy or expensive. And please assume little more than elementary I.T. skills on my part!

Cheers,

Phil Adams

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Wed May 31, 2017 12:00 pm

Depends what you want to do/what look you’re going for.


For most purposes blogspot or some other blogging platform is more than enough. If you want more of a website look and feel - or less of a blog one, perhaps - then you could possibly check out wix.com. That will host your website and has various design features that will help you construct it.

Michael Flatt
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Michael Flatt » Wed May 31, 2017 12:17 pm

Unless you are an out and out computer programmer, it is simplest to develop your site using a Content Management System (CMS). In increasing levels of sophistication the choice is: WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.

The basic functionality of each of these can be extended by the use of Plugins (WordPress) and Extensions (Joomla and Drupal).
My preference is for Joomla, but I am currently also experimenting with WordPress.

With regard to Hosting I am more than happy with http://www.cloudaccess.net who also offer domain name registration. Management of the site is by means of their own Cloud Control Panel (CCP).

Technical support is through a 'ticket' system but that is rarely needed. When I have requested technical support it has been very good.

Examples of my websites are:
St Albans Chess Club (Joomla): https://www.stalbanschessclub.org.uk/
Hertfordshire Schools Chess Association (WordPress): http://hsca-chess.com/

Another site (not mine) gives an example of using Drupal:
Hertfordshire Chess Association (Drupal): http://www.hertschess.com/

John Reyes
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Location: Manchester

Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by John Reyes » Wed May 31, 2017 5:44 pm

would you help us do a club website for us or help 3c's set one up?
Any postings on here represent my personal views only and also Dyslexia as well

Michael Flatt
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Michael Flatt » Wed May 31, 2017 8:58 pm

Setting up a website is not the difficult part. The real difficulty is keeping the site maintained and being able to source new and interesting material that encourages viewers to regularly return to the website or visit the club.

The Junior club, in particular, attracts enquiries from the parents of prospective members, but our greatest difficulty is not having sufficient space or supervision to be able to accept them all.

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Martin Blasczyk
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Martin Blasczyk » Wed May 31, 2017 10:28 pm

Hi Phil,
You can start your fee Joomla-website here: https://www.joomla.com/; later you can, if you want, move your website to a hoster, without any problems using Akeeba Backup and kickstart.
Joomla has a very good rights management system. You can give club members rights as front-end authors or publishers enabling them to contribute e.g. articles to your website. Additionally Joomla is not so basic than Wordpress and not so complicated than Drupal. There are lots of extensions available enabling you to match all your requirements.
Examples for chess club websites wit Joomla:
http://www.merseysidechess.org.uk/
http://www.atticus.merseysidechess.org.uk/
http://www.clm3.merseysidechess.org.uk/index.php
I can recommend our hoster https://www.34sp.com/ in Manchester: very good support, no problems
[url]https://merseysidechess.org.uk/index.php[/url]
Chess League Magagement:
see main menu: "MCA Leagues and Tables"

Brian Towers
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Brian Towers » Thu Jun 01, 2017 11:00 am

About a year ago there was an advert here - http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8554 - for free, Joomla-based, league management software. For a club I would have thought it would make sense to look at that first.
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.

Michael Flatt
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Michael Flatt » Thu Jun 01, 2017 11:29 am

Brian Towers wrote:About a year ago there was an advert here - http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8554 - for free, Joomla-based, league management software. For a club I would have thought it would make sense to look at that first.
The League Management software is actually one on the extensions available to Joomla. As it name implies it is a facility specifically to run a league and other competitions. In fact, this past year I have been using it to manage the Southern Counties (SCCU) County Championship. The only difficulty I had with it is that it doesn't apply SCCU tie break rules, but that is something that can be added for next season.

The OP, I believe, was asking for advice on setting up a club website for a variety of purposes and making use of League management software is probably best left until one has gained some experience in the basics of running a website.

Philip Adams
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Philip Adams » Thu Jun 01, 2017 12:13 pm

Many thanks for suggestions so far!
To give some idea of what we are seeking, thanks to the wonderful Wayback Machine (Internet archive) you can still see snapshots our old 3Cs website, for instance:
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/200710 ... net.co.uk/
Some of the links on the left still work!
Cheers,
Phil

Angus French
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Angus French » Thu Jun 01, 2017 12:40 pm

It's possible to set up a website without, I think, much technical expertise using Google Sites. A clubmate used this to set up a site for the chess group he runs at the local library: https://sites.google.com/site/chessatstreathamlibrary/.

Michael Flatt
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Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Michael Flatt » Thu Jun 01, 2017 2:47 pm

Philip Adams wrote:Many thanks for suggestions so far!
To give some idea of what we are seeking, thanks to the wonderful Wayback Machine (Internet archive) you can still see snapshots our old 3Cs website, for instance:
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/200710 ... net.co.uk/
Some of the links on the left still work!
Cheers,
Phil
That's good. So, should we expect a new 3C's website to appear in the near future?

Philip Adams
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Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:25 pm

Re: Recommended chess club website software?

Post by Philip Adams » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:08 pm

Michael Flatt wrote:
Philip Adams wrote:Many thanks for suggestions so far!
To give some idea of what we are seeking, thanks to the wonderful Wayback Machine (Internet archive) you can still see snapshots our old 3Cs website, for instance:
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/200710 ... net.co.uk/
Some of the links on the left still work!
Cheers,
Phil
That's good. So, should we expect a new 3C's website to appear in the near future?
We're hoping to have our new club website up and running for the start of next season.

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