QL Show 13th / 14th April 2013

[Dave]

Since it is the member who is giving the forum the information that they are members of Quanta, not Quanta - Quanta would merely be confirming or denying the claim to that member, not publicly - Quanta cannot be in breach of the Data Protection Act, as amended.

[Dave]

I hope you all had a great show I would have liked to have been there! Maybe next year

[dilwyn]

Did the banner help at all?

I'm not sure if data protection is an issue, the way I would do it. Quanta member joins forum(may already be a member) sends the quanta forum mod a pm saying I'm Quanta member X they then check their list of members and allow that person access. I don't think myself or Rob would need any details or to even be involved in the process

Attendance was a bit disappointing but I did hear from several people ahead of the meeting they'd have liked to have been able to go there but couldn't for various reasons. I think it did help to increase awareness even if ultimately not attendance.

I hadn't really grasped how you intended to implement it as I wasnt really part of that discussion. It would still involve a commitment from a committee member to spend time looking after it. I think, given that websites have never been Quanta's strongest point, some of us may be a little cautious about it - the last thing we want is a potentially great idea falling flat on its face.

Certainly the time is right for ideas like this. With QL Today closing later this year, we want to be seen to be doing all we can to keep people involved in the QL scene.

[vanpeebles]

Well the forum is more than willing. The way I was thinking would be to just have a private members only section (oo-er) and once verified you get access to that area which would hold posts on Quanta stuff. A Quanta mod would run that part etc.

[RWAP]

A Quanta committee member would not have to do that much actually - apart from dealing with forum members who want access to the Quanta area (ie validate their membership with Quanta, then grant them the necessary permissions on the forum).

A check would then need to be made once per year to see if they have renewed their membership of Quanta and if not, then remove their access to that particular area of QL Forums.

The only real work would be in uploading the Quanta library files (and possibly copies of the magazine) to this private area of the Forums.

[Mr_Navigator]

A Quanta committee member would not have to do that much actually - apart from dealing with forum members who want access to the Quanta area (ie validate their membership with Quanta, then grant them the necessary permissions on the forum).

A check would then need to be made once per year to see if they have renewed their membership of Quanta and if not, then remove their access to that particular area of QL Forums.

The only real work would be in uploading the Quanta library files (and possibly copies of the magazine) to this private area of the Forums.

That was discussed Rich, I think we are just quantifying that part.

[Dave]

One problem is phpBB is not intended for or set up for storing files and software.

There are a few solutions to this - some deeply technical like running a shared RADIUS authentication server, but others could be quite simple.

One idea is to have a global username and password, updated annually and published in the first quanta magazine of the year. Only Quanta readers would be able to see it.

The question becomes how important is security? Is it something worth spending a lot of time, effort and money on, or can a free, low maintenance system that's 99% effective be workable?

Where does Quanta draw the line?

[RWAP]

One problem is phpBB is not intended for or set up for storing files and software.

There are a few solutions to this - some deeply technical like running a shared RADIUS authentication server, but others could be quite simple.

One idea is to have a global username and password, updated annually and published in the first quanta magazine of the year. Only Quanta readers would be able to see it.

The question becomes how important is security? Is it something worth spending a lot of time, effort and money on, or can a free, low maintenance system that's 99% effective be workable?

Where does Quanta draw the line?

Am not sure what you mean - you can easily add files and upload them to a forum (as an attachment to a post) - that is all it would need.

[Dave]

Yes but...

phpBB doesn't have the architecture to do that well. It's unattractive

I think people can see the utility of Dilwyn's site, with links that are book-markable and descriptions of the contents. That can be done here but would be less intuitive. Also, it has less persistence because it is at the mercy of a mySQL database on an easily hackable forum - straight html and solid files are far more persistent and 'mirrorable'.

Is anyone mirroring Dilwyn's site?