- What are the requirements for an officially recognized web site?
- What are the advantages of being an officially recognized web site?
- Does that mean you will only link to officially recognized web sites from the Kingdom web site?
- What kind of server does www.eastkingdom.org run on? What software is used?
- What's the easiest and quickest way to contact you?
- Which web browser should I design for? What screen resolution/size?
- How do I get to be warranted?
- What information do I need to report and when?
- How do I get server space for my local group on eastkingdom.org?
- What do I need to know about image copyright?
- Why do comcast emails have so much trouble with the ek.org server?
What are the requirements
for an officially recognized web site?
- Place the following disclaimer on your web site:
This is the recognized Web Page for the [group name and status] of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. The maintainer of this page is [your name, with link to your e-mail address]. It is not a corporate publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., and does not delineate SCA policies. In cases of conflict with printed versions of material presented on this page or its links, the dispute will be decided in favor of the printed version.
- The gentle listed as the maintainer of the site (who is responsible
for ensuring that the site conforms to any applicable Kingdom or Society
requirements, not necessarily the person who actually does
the work on the site) is warranted by the Kingdom Web Minister.
- Follow the Privacy policy recently ratified by the Board of Directors:
Personal information will not be published on any SCA-recognized Internet site without first gaining permission from the individuals involved. Permission must be received in writing.
While the BoD has indicated that an e-mail exchange asking for permission and receiving an affirmative response back is considered "written" for the purpose of this policy.
- Be familiar with, and follow the Society Publication Policy. Specifically, I.B.10 Copyright Policies, I.C.8 Politicizing the Office and the Society Web Minister Policies.
What are the advantages of being an officially recognized web site?
(Thanks to Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
for the nucleus of this answer.)
- Your web site can get a permanent home at www.groupname.eastkingdom.org,
and a set of @groupname.eastkingdom.org e-mail aliases.
- A resident of a group could put up a page with all the wrong information about the group, but since the recognized page has the disclaimer that states "This is the recognized Web Page for the [group name and status] of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.", the group would be able to request that I link to the recognized page, and guide MOST people to the right page.
Does that mean you will only link to officially recognized web sites
from the Kingdom web site?
In a word, no. Any groups seneschal can request a link to the groups
web site regardless of its status. As long as the request comes from the
seneschal, the link will be put in as quickly as possible. Links
to other sites of general interest regardless of the status of the site will also be accepted.
What kind of server does www.eastkingdom.org run on? What software
is used?
Currently, www.eastkingdom.org is hosted on an AMD Athalon running at 800
Mhz with 512MB of RAM running Mandrake
Linux, the Apache
web server, qmail
for mail services, ezmlm-idx
for mailing lists, MySQL
for back end SQL database needs,
PHP as an embedded, server parsed scripting language and perl
for other cgi needs. The event listing page is an excellent example of PHP
and MySQL - the events are stored in a MySQL database, and when the page
loads, PHP will execute a query against that database, collect the results
and create the page you see in your web browser.
What's the easiest and quickest way to contact you?
Without question, email! I will do my best to get back to everyone who sends an email inquiry in a timely fashion.
Which web browser should I design for? What screen resolution/size?
Although the minimum standards are ever changing, it is recommended that developers design for browsers of at least 800x600, and that you test your site in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. If possible, have somebody check your work in
both browsers on a Macintosh...yes, the same browser on the Macintosh will
render your pages different than on Windows. It's a difficult task to ensure a design looks good in every browser, but by doing even a little testing you can limit the end users experience. There is a web tool called BrowserCam that developers can use to do a screen shot browser test on a number of different platforms and resolutions. The program offers a free 200 screenshot capture trial version, an amount which should suffice for anyone developing one website for their local group.
How do I get to be warranted?
To become a warranted web minister you need only send the EK webmaster a copy of your
membership card, along with a letter requesting to be warranted. The
seneschal of the group, or outgoing webminister, must also send a letter stating that the group
requests that the gentle be warranted. Once a year
(by January 31st), you have to send a copy of your current membership
card, as well as any information you wish to report. If your membership expires before then, you must send a copy
of your new membership card when you receive it. Scanned copies of your membership card/pikestaff address label are also acceptable.
What information do I need to report and when?
By January 31st of every calendar year, webministers should send a report into their Deputy Webministers and the EK Webminister by email.
At minimum, your report must include a scan or image of your membership card (or pikestaff mailing label) as proof of membership, your SCA name and the local group you are representing.
Should you wish to include additional information, you could include the following:
- An email that includes all your information (name, SCA Name, email and phone, membership card number and membership expiry, and website URL)
- The EK Webministers office needs to have on file actual proof of membership. This means a scan or photocopy of your membership card or pikestaff mailing address label. If you do not have scanning capabilities, feel free to mail a photocopy of your card/label to: Susan Richter, 62 Hubley's Road, Hubley, Nova Scotia Canada B3Z 1B9. And please consider including the information noted in item 1 above so it can be matched it up when it arrives.
- In your email, feel free to include a little information about the progress of your position - website updates, upcoming changes or turnover of the role, how long you've been doing it, interesting things you've been doing on the site(s).
- If you are webminister for more than one region of the East Kingdom please send separate reports for each (although obviously one copy of your proof of membership is all that's needed, just note in your report that you've sent it in with report X.)
- Lastly, please be sure to CC your report to your Regional Deputy Webminister, as they too need to report on January 31st and can't do so without knowing the activities of the regional.
Please note that if your membership is due to expiry before January 31st of the following calendar year, you should send another proof of membership when you have renewed.
How do I get server space for my local group on eastkingdom.org?
Any group that wishes to have a permanent home for their groups website is eligible, provided that the web site conforms to the requirements of an officially recognized web page and has a warranted webminister. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an e-mail.
What do I need to know about image copyright?
Web pages containing photographic images or portrait-style artwork must contain a clear and obvious means by which the subject(s) of the image may contact the web minister to request the removal of any image in which the subject(s) appear. Should the Web Minister receive such a removal request the image must be removed from the site, or the image must be modified in such a way as to render the subject unrecognizable. Such modification may only be made with the permission of the copyright holder. If such permission is not obtained, the image must be removed from the site. If you have questions on this, feel free to contact me.
Why do comcast emails have so much trouble with the ek.org server?
The EK server is a forwarding server. That means that it accepts mail for all the domains for which it is the authoritative host then sends the mail to the forwarding address configured for the recipient in question. The server doesn't block mail that it thinks is spam; that would be irresponsible. Instead it flags it and lets the recipient deal with it in whatever way they or their software chooses.
There are two scenarios that Comcast is trying to block: original senders of spam, and open relays that blindly forward all messages regardless of recipient or authorization. The EK server is neither, but apparently Comcast's filters are sophisticated enough to parse "sent to one address, forwarded to a second address."
It doesn't take them long to agree to unblock us, but the unblocking action takes as much as a week. Additionally, the block is getting to be a monthly thing. This makes Comcast unusable, for EK purposes, for as much as 25% of the time.
Whenever possible, if you are registering for an ek.org email or signing up to an ek.org mailing list, you will have more success and less difficulty receiving mail if you have an alternate email address (non-comcast) to send to.
