weird question i know

[redelevencreative]

Hi

This is probably not the best place to post this but here goes.

A while ago I set up a thread about placing my motocross reports online via fabrik and joomla. It is a kind of personal scrapbook at the moment, printed. I have 600 reports spread over 24 years....each report contains a written report, some stats, maybe some pics, a programme, a newspaper cutting and some lap scoring sheets.

Obviously for me to 'turn' this into a website ois going to take a lot of work!

Has anyone else faced this dilemma?...do I keep it in printed format or do i invest some time into creating a site?....i know this is a personal decisoon but just wondered what people think. The biggest factor is going to be scanning in 1000's of images etc lol.

does anyone have any pluses or minuses in making the BIG switch

....I would like it to be something my daughter etc to read as she grows up etc and maybe something the goes through generations....is joomla and fabrik a good way of futureproofing the site as when i am old and grey I want to enjoy reading back, not having to transfer the data accross other platforms etc.

so...printed or online?

Thanks for any info

 

[cheesegrits]

Interesting question.

We obviously can't make any predictions about the future of Fabrik. If Rob got run over by a bus tomorrow, I doubt I would be able to keep thing going by myself.

And obviously trying to make predictions about decades into the future is impossible. Both Rob and myself are mortal, so we'll grow old and die. Some of us sooner than others (I'm already in my mid 40's). And at some point before that we will no doubt either have to give up on Fabrik or pass the torch on to a younger generation - such is the way with Open Source projects. So that depends on there being people willing to pick it up and run with it at some point in the future.

So ... if you are looking for a generational, future proofed application ... Joomla/Fabrik probably isn't the way to go. Joomla stands a good chance of surviving long term, but I wouldn't even like to predict how long the whole "web as we know it" will last. The 'net is unrecognizable from the one I started with in 1982, and no doubt in another 25 years or so it'll be equally unrecognizeable. Who knows what apps will survive and which ones will die off?

-- hugh

 

[CyberFabrik]

Well i guess, when you digitize your material and organise it properly into a database it does not matter if you publish it with Joomla/Fabrik or any other solution.

As for creating the project i reckon it will take you 90% to digitize your material and only 10% creating the web site (at least this is the case with most large content web sites in my experience).

Another motive for you to go on might be the following:

Once you digitize all your material and you put it in some database you can then easily reorganize it and who knows? publish a book?

 

[cheesegrits]

That's a very good point.

In fact judging from past trends, the basic SQL format (be it MySQL or any other flavor) is likely to outlast most file system formats. In the umpty-ump years I've been dealing with SQL, I've seen file systems come and go (I think I'm on my fourth or fifth Windows file system format and third U**X format), but SQL soldiers on, essentially unchanged as far as the actual basic table structures go.

We don't store image data in the db, so you'd always be having to migrate those forward. But as a way of indexing, notating and cross referencing the data ... MySQL is as good as anything to rely on. I have basic .sql files from almost two decades ago I can still schlep straight into MySQL with only a tiny bit of massaging.

-- hugh

 

[redelevencreative]

great - thanks for the advice

i guess i am wrestling with the fact i have designed 25 beautiful paper folders, one for each year but yet nobody can see them as they are stuck on my shelf lol

cheers