All posts in the topic Is GroupServer right for us?
Summary
- There are 7 posts — by 4 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Dave Hrynkiw at 2007 Jan 25 22:26 UTC
Hallo!
It doesn't look like this group is used much so please direct me to a better
place to ask questions, if there is one.
I have been browsing around the site for a few days and, while on one hand I
think GroupServer might be perfect for us, I also have gotten thoroughly
confused by the admin manual and that worries me :)
I am the Webmistress for a small, U.S.-based, non-profit organization. We have
about 50 groups worldwide that each have their own private YahooGroup and we
have a few administration Yahoogroups for our Leadership Council. We would like
to leave Yahoo and switch to hosting everything on our own server. Right now my
priority is switching our Admin. groups with the rest of the groups being
switched in the next year or so, as we get the money to do it.
Our main website is powered by a CMS so the only thing we need is a mailing
list that offers full web archives and the ability to post online (and maybe a
chat function for each group). All this looks like exactly what GroupServer
offers, but I have some reservations about the backend user friendliness and am
wondering if we can even install it on our site. I am quite web/tech savvy, but
only in certain realms. I am not a programmer and most of the programs I use
have fairly simple web-interfaces, so I am not used to having to run scripts
for everything, which looks to me like what GroupServer needs, but I could be
wrong there.
Our site is hosted on a shared Linux server and we access everything via
cPanel. I have access to everything on our site, but not to the entire server.
We might be able to afford to switch to a dedicated server at some point (and
that will probably be neccessary if we want to host 50+ groups) but we'd rather
not do that at this moment.
As far as I know we do not have Python, libxml/libxslt (though we have several
other xml apps), or postfix. Are these non-negotiable or are there other
options? Or can they be easily installed?
So, basically, while I think GroupServer will do exactly what we're looking
for, I'm not sure if we have what we'd need to run it. I'd love some feedback
about this. Oh, and I should say up front that we have no budget. We've only
been able to use OpenSource applications that I have to figure out how to
install and use myself. We may be able to get some help from college students
who are studying programming and the like, but we aren't sure when we'll be
able to get that help and I would need to know what to tell them to do.
Thank you very much,
Robin H~ in Los Angeles
Hi Robin, Yes, this is a quiet group - but a good place to ask your question. GroupServer is a relatively complicated product, because it does a lot. Its administration is therefore somewhat complicated. In the first instance, GroupServer is closely integrated with both a Web server and a mail server. Administration of any server dealing with tens of thousands of emails per day is never straightforward. This is why we offer the hosted service at: http://onlinegroups.net Once the GroupServer is installed and running, the administration of sites and groups is not as complicated as our Administration Manual suggests. That manual is oriented towards custom administration and configuration of big sites, and assumes "behind the scenes" knowledge. You can get some idea of the admin features available through the regular interface at: http://groupserver.org/groupserver/features/administration During the part few months however, we have added a lot of polish to these features, which will be in the next release of GroupServer. Even if you wish to host GroupServer yourself, you are welcome to try out the admin interface for yourself by starting a site and some free trial groups at: http://onlinegroups.net/start_site If you do find someone to help you get GroupServer going, there are installation instructions in the download. I'd also recommend that they join the GroupServer Administrators online group. http://groupserver.org/groups/groupserver_admin
I think I will start a site at OnlineGroups to get a better feel of the admin
interface. I'm sure they aren't that complicated or at least that they will get
easier with use, and I have read some messages on the groupserver admin group
about changes you've been making that aren't included in the admin manual yet.
I think it really is more the installation that I am concerned with and whether
or not our current site is adequate to handle it. Is there a way to get a copy
of the installation instructions without downloading the entire package??
Perhaps reading through them will make more sense to me and clear up some
things.
We really do not want to have our groups hosted by someone else (hence the
desire to switch from Yahoogroups), and we do realize that we may have to stick
with Yahoo until we can afford to upgrade our host server to accommodate
everyone. So, if we have to wait to set this up, I am OK with that, especially
if the program is as perfect for our needs as I think it is =)
BTW, when do you expect to release the next version?? I understand the
"constant beta" that you follow, but if the next version will be more polished
than the current one, I'd rather wait for that.
Thanx again!
Hi Robin,
We don't have the installation instructions as a separate download, I'm
sorry.
We are hoping to get the next version released by the end of the year.
go well,
Oh, well, I'll just download the whole thing. It might help me to see the
actual files and templates and such anyway.
Is there someone specific that helps with installation questions (because I am
bound to have more!) or shall I just ask on the admin group??
On Mon, 2006-10-02 at 20:47 -0700, Robin Hagerty wrote:
> Oh, well, I'll just download the whole thing. It might help me to see the
actual files and templates and such anyway.
>
> Is there someone specific that helps with installation questions
> (because I am bound to have more!) or shall I just ask on the admin
> group??
The admin group is the best place Robin.
Best regards,
So it's been about 3 solid months since this post. Any conclusion Robin?
I'm in about the exact same state. I've got a CMS set up on a standalone Linux
box, and really like the look of Groupserver for email/web interface, etc...
I think we'll try installing GS too, just to see how well the two "play"
together.
GS is a fine looking system!
This site is provided by OnlineGroups.Net, where you can start your own free online groups site, using the open source web-based mailing list manager GroupServer.