Static Site Conversion

[Ramsus]

I'm announcing a new project for the Compendium. One that will ensure it continues to live well into the 21st century.

Starting next year, The Chrono Compendium will be a static site, generated by Middleman and available for forking and merge requests on Github. I'm setting a hopeful deadline of January 1st, 2015 for the full conversion.

What does this mean for contributors? It means you'll need a Github account and have to learn how to fork repositories and submit merge requests. It also means you'll have to be able to install the Middleman gem and run it locally to see your changes.

What does this mean for users? It means a faster, sleeker browsing experience and a more consistent and reliable website. It also means better security, better organization, and the ability to generate more useful indexes and tables for site content.

Unfortunately, it also means a lot of pages will need work to reformat them or fix conversion errors. I will be writing a set of tutorials or maybe even making screencasts on how to use Github to make contributions and fixes to the site. If you would be interested in joining this project next year, feel free to reply to this thread and I'll get ahold of you when the time comes.

Finally, I would just like to thank the community and its commitment to the site. I hope that by transitioning to modern tools, we can make the site and the series more accessible to future generations.

[Kodokami]

Sounds like an even bigger change than before! I like it. I have no idea if I'll have the time available to help, but put me on the list just in case.

[itoikenza]

wow! good luck! and long live the chrono compendium...

any chance a chatroom might be in the works? Ramsus?

[Ramsus]

This project is being postponed indefinitely.

It looks like we'd need a custom static site generator due to the unusually large size of the site (Middleman chokes on processing thousands of pages).

Probably, I'll look at maybe rewriting the site's content backend in Go to serve pages dynamically without the overhead of PHP and MediaWiki instead of converting the site to a statically generated site.

[itoikenza]

@Ramsus, what exactly was this github hosting going to be like? can it host forums? with avatars/sigs? or would i have to use my github to comment on anything?

[ZeaLitY]

For anyone wondering about updates, I'm currently in the thick of it at a Big Four accounting firm. I've been in busy season since the end of September (some 90-hour weeks in there...'Merica!) I'm in that critical phase now where I'm trying to learn a couple languages as fast as possible so I can finally get out to the European promised land. The next six months are going to be absolutely critical, as I'm going to start making applications this summer. Little to no hope of an update until then. Because I seem to feed on feeling productive, I naturally favor projects like this over hard but more important personal projects, so I've frozen everything else in my life until I can manage the jump.

[Magus22]

Z,

Wishing you all the best. That is a huge endeavor! I really hope everything works out for you. I have been dealing with huge decisions lately, and my equilibrium has not been the same for many months.

Many moons ago, a foreign company took the my workplace, and I was among thousands of individuals who were laid off. However, I fall under the NYS Trade Act, and I can essentially go to school/training for free, as long as the program in question offers suitable employment after courses are completed. Then I got offered a job at a hospital with decent pay and excellent benefits, but no room for advancement. At this moment, I am still jumping through hoops wondering what to do. I hope to choose the right path, as my deadline for each decision is rapidly approaching...

[Ramsus]

The static site conversion has been canceled and the site has been migrated to a Digital Ocean VPS.

I'll be doing some server tuning and reevaluating the registration system before reopening it.