Oldest news on a Wing web page

RiverAux · June 27, 2008, 07:44:45 PM

Okay, I spend (waste) a lot of time looking at various CAP web pages and for the most part our wings do a halfway decent job of keeping their web page filled with current news (except for those wings who have made a valid choice to have a more static web page).

But, I continue to be surprised at California. As one of the top 3 states in terms of CAP membership and one at the center of the US tech industry, you would think it could do a better web site.

So, I can live with a bad layout, but I just get irked when you look in the "News" section and find really old material. It just makes the unit look horrible -- like you haven't done anything of use in long time.

So, while CA has a current calender (about the only thing that seems to get updated regularly), its news section is ancient.

The most recent news story on the CA site is dated January 4, 2006 -- thats almost 2.5 years old!

And this is from a Wing which has a 4 person public affairs staff according to the web site! Most Wings barely have 1 person.

Is there another Wing out there more pitiful and with older news stories being featured in their News section?

Tubacap · June 27, 2008, 08:25:07 PM

^2.5 years, but still..Ouch.

PhoenixRisen · June 27, 2008, 11:24:24 PM

http://gp7.cawg.cap.gov/

See the notice on my groups website? (Gp 7, CAWG)

That's been there since '07. Before that, we didn't even have a group site.

I've been contemplating talking to my group commander about the position of group webmaster, seeing as how he knows I've designed and am maintaining my new squadron's site.

I didn't see anything in the CAP Internet Ops Regulation against a Cadet holding the postion, but... Would anyone have any further info as to whether that'd be allowed?

Short Field · June 27, 2008, 11:49:26 PM

"You find it, you fix it" - Lt Col "Uncle Vern" Nordman

Smokey · June 28, 2008, 01:42:55 AM

Just recently the CAWG PA Director asked all of the PAOs in the Wing to send him info for the news so he can update that site. The former Wing PAO guy let that and a number of other things get unravelled. He was a great hindrance to the PA program. But, he was very impressed with himself.

RiverAux · June 28, 2008, 03:04:25 AM

Glad to hear that this may be on the way to being fixed. I think the larger Wings have somewhat more of an obligation to be doing things right since they should also have the capability to do so. I probably wouldn't rag too hard on Vermont, Montana, or the other tiny (in terms of CAP membership) Wings.

afgeo4 · June 28, 2008, 05:00:23 AM

Turning this into a positive story... which wing have you found to have the best and most updated site?

davidsinn · June 28, 2008, 12:31:25 PM

http://www.indiana-wing.org/www/index.php There's mine.

RiverAux · June 28, 2008, 01:52:20 PM

Quote from: afgeo4 on June 28, 2008, 05:00:23 AM
Turning this into a positive story... which wing have you found to have the best and most updated site?

Thats off topic, sorry.

SDF_Specialist · June 28, 2008, 05:18:29 PM

Ohio rarely updates its main page, but the Wing/CC is good about keeping us informed via Wing email. It would still be nice to be able to re-read it on the Wing page if necessary. That's why I keep track of every email I send and receive. It surprises me about California, but if you have other issues to deal with, a website isn't the most important.

RiverAux · June 28, 2008, 05:29:21 PM

Well, my point sort of was that CA is large enough (over 3,000 members) that they don't have any excuse for not dealing with this issue. A small wing can't do it all, but California should be doing it all and if they aren't, something important ain't working. Its not a critical issue, but I believe it is an important one.

SarDragon · June 28, 2008, 10:13:04 PM

CAWG has the same personnel issues that every other wing has. In addition, we do at least one mission that most other wings don't do (CD), and that takes away from other areas sometimes. And just because we have 3000 members, it doesn't mean that we have a bigger pool of people interested in and willing to do the staff jobs.

RiverAux · June 28, 2008, 10:49:03 PM

Sure, the percentage of willing workers is probably the same as other places, but if you've got 10% interested in doing staff work in a 500 person Wing you've got 50 people. In California, that is 300 -- so the absolute number of people willing to do work (for the same number of staff positions) is a lot higher.

davidsinn · June 28, 2008, 10:57:43 PM

Quote from: SarDragon on June 28, 2008, 10:13:04 PM
CAWG has the same personnel issues that every other wing has. In addition, we do at least one mission that most other wings don't do (CD), and that takes away from other areas sometimes. And just because we have 3000 members, it doesn't mean that we have a bigger pool of people interested in and willing to do the staff jobs.

CD is huge here and we have a pretty good PAO. We only have 1000 people total. About 300 of those are cadets.

RiverAux · June 28, 2008, 11:05:57 PM

One possibility for why some of the larger Wings are "weaker" in some areas is that they often have a tremendous amount of talent sucked up by the Group command structure. I bet there are a couple of good Group PAOs and webmasters out there in CA who would make a fine Wing staff member if they didn't have the option of working at a smaller scale.

Tubacap · June 28, 2008, 11:49:06 PM

^I completely agree. There are some things that need to be done at a group level, but not everything. I am a fan of one wing website hosting all the information. Take the six different website admins in PAWG and let them all help on the wing one and make it outstanding with little shoot offs for group specific announcements.

JC004 · June 29, 2008, 01:19:30 AM

Quote from: Tubacap on June 28, 2008, 11:49:06 PM
^I completely agree. There are some things that need to be done at a group level, but not everything. I am a fan of one wing website hosting all the information. Take the six different website admins in PAWG and let them all help on the wing one and make it outstanding with little shoot offs for group specific announcements.

Yes.

PAWG doesn't maintain a comprehensive news section because we simply don't have the people to do it. I add important announcements that the Wing CC asks for, but I don't have time to update the news several times a week. Another problem is actually GETTING news items from the units, which was the trouble when I actually tried to make a news section.

There is a lot of talent in PAWG, but it's hard to find the right people. I've asked around a lot, but most of the people I come up with are hardware/network admin people and don't know anything about web sites. Taking the approach of using PAOs, we're seriously short on those too.

RiverAux · June 29, 2008, 02:31:09 AM

QuotePAWG doesn't maintain a comprehensive news section because we simply don't have the people to do it. I add important announcements that the Wing CC asks for, but I don't have time to update the news several times a week.

I think that is a valid approach. Obviously a web site with a lot of current news on it is preferable, but isn't necessary. What gets me steamed is web sites with "News" in the "News" section that is ancient history. The best move in that situation is to just take that section out until such time as you've got someone that can keep it up to date.

mikeylikey · June 29, 2008, 04:28:31 AM

Quote from: JC004 on June 29, 2008, 01:19:30 AM
I add important announcements that the Wing CC asks for, but I don't have time to update the news several times a week.

For that action alone, they should have promoted you to CAPTAIN! Here is some ancient news you can post on the PAWG Website............."where the crap is COLGANS AFIADL 13 test???"

Colgan......PAWGS site is awesome, you put in many hours of hard work, much more work than many new CAP members that come into the organization as a CAPTAIN because of advanced degrees, or FLY. Be happy knowing you have done more in the past year for CAP, than they will do the entire time they are in CAP.

BTW.....I hear you are looking for someone to update the news section on the website. I suggest you just shut the entire site down until they deliver the AFIADL test to you. A big middle finger pic would suffice.

JC004 · June 29, 2008, 11:44:01 AM

PAWG's site has far to go. There is a lot we can do, an unfortunately I can't bring the entire capability of what I do for clients, since I pay people for the work. The site will be upgrading soon with any luck, though.

To address the issue of talent again from a webmaster's prospective, the people are hard to find, busy, or uninterested in working at the wing level. Some perceive wing as a place where old CAP members go to die, or they are offended by wing not always meeting their expectations - say not having an ES rating processed or whatever. I can certainly sympathize with this now. There is also the difficulty of getting information that I mentioned. I hardly have time to do the updates I need to make, or develop some cool stuff I'm working on - I can't possibly write all the news items too.

RiverAux is right - there is a lot of potential. I see the difficulty, at least in PAWG, as the above issues. Another avenue, although not specifically for your news sections, is to have webmasters from different wings work together on projects. I'd be interested in seeing something like that, like for building intranet applications that can be used at the wing level.