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| Why a Chapter Web Site |
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On the most basic level, it is today's business card on steroids. You don't have to distribute the card - the visitor comes to you, if you set up your site properly. At this point, my own chapter has gained about 4 members who "found us on the web." (The web page does not get the man of note... THAT goes to a riser buddy). They used Google, got to our web site, read about us, came to rehearsal, and greeted us as if they were old friends, all because they read through our web site. SO. They can find you, learn what you are all about, and GET to you, hassle free.
Sidebar: The basic ingredients of a Chapter site are:
- WHO you are
- WHAT do you want to achieve?
- What can they get out of membership?
- How do you GET to rehearsal?
Instead of thinking about seetting up a web page that throws barbershop whizbangs and animations - none of which will get people to your web site, think about what you want to say, and say it in a way that makes them want to come.
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| Where Do You Start to Build a Member Only Site? |
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You start with a database of some sort, housed on your web server. You set up a login screen so that the login script can look up the login information and validate whether that is a correct username and password. If not, you bounce them out and send them to some hard-rock web site that bvlasts nasty music.
I wish it ended there, but it does not. If the member is validated, what do you do? Send him to an HTML page? Bad Idea. Here's why.
If Google knows about your site in any way, it has programs (called spiders) that go out to your site and sifts through all "static" content (and more, actually). It indexes not only the static HTML page, but also, any documents that are LINKED from that page. If you link to PDF or DOC files, yup, Google will index them and cache even those. So much for privacy. Furthermore, people can bookmark the pages BEHIND the member login, effectively defeating the purpose of the login page.
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| Why Member Only Sub-sites? |
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The purpose of a Member site is to shut out the outside world and display private information. The principle is easy, but implementing is far more complex, so you need to NOT GO THERE unless you have the web talent to bring you there.
For example, suppose you will display a member's phone number, just as you would in a printed directory. If you put the member information manually on the web page, Google will find it and list it. Google will even Cache a copy of the page and keep it in their cache for months, no matter what you do. If that includes a private phone number that the person did not want published, you are at risk of having violated the Privacy Act. Let's not even THINK about what would happen if that person wants to get nasty.
Another example is that you may want to get into Web Distribution of learning materials. These materials should NOT be available to non-members at all.
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| How secure is secure? |
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Each and every page behind a member site needs to validate whether the visitor has logged in and is a valid member. This is much trickier than an HTML page. What you need is a way of checking
Has the member logged in? If not, bounce them out to a loud nasty page somewhere else in the world. If they HAVE logged in, let them pass through to the information.
It is important that you understand this principle if you want a secure site.
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| How do we achieve this security? |
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The average reader who knows nothing about scripting can hopefully understand the NEED for security and the need for validating each and every page behind a member site. The HOW is only for programmers.
For more scripting details, click on the sub-page in the Menu: Locking Down Member-Only.
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