We received the following item. --RL After last year's (2002's) Spring Maneuvers I had thought about making a web site to allow people to stay connected, learn about other gaming events and, perhaps, generate opportunities to get together and play more than on an annual basis. Over the last week I built a small portal/web site for that purpose. For lack of a better name I'm calling Leavenworth Area Gamers, or LAG for short. I realize that many of those that attend Spring Manuevers are from the Greater Kansas City area and beyond. Please, do not be put off by the name - LAG will be a member forum for anyone interested in checking it out. You may reach the site at the following link: http://www.subbob.net:8081/wargames/lag The port specification (:8081) in the URL is required as I designed the site using Zope - and open source content management environment. I put Zope on my server a couple of weeks ago for a client and decided I'd try it out myself. (The learning curve was steep, but there are definitely efficiencies of scale when you start modifying pages and site design.) I have the site set up as a "member only" system - there's no fees involved at all. This is just to ensure that our information is not wide open to those that do not have the need to know! Steps to Join: 1. Go to the "Join Today" on the Guest menu. 2. Enter your information as indicated. You will receive an email with your logon informatin. 3. Close your browser and return to the site. This time logging in to the Members side. (The best link to use is the Member Directory - the others are just stubbed out right now.) ** Important Note ** - If you try to login immediately after signing on (without closing your browser per step 3) you will not be able to update your profile. You may also receive a vague Zope related error message. I have not been able to track this down - it has something to do with session information and how Zope tracks your authenticated status. The member directory is active and working. There's an interface to indicate the types of games you are interested in as well as an area for some free text entry. The site tracks your logon status and will allow you to edit your own profile. Please sign on and start filling up the database - it's kind of lonely in there right now. :) Future Plans Over the next week I will add a photo gallery and upload the digital pics from this (and last) year's Spring Maneuvers. It will have an easy point and click interface where all members may upload pictures as well. The threaded discussion forum is further out, however I anticipate having a classifieds/announcement board up within the next week as well. Although many of the features are not operational yet, I decided to go public with the site so that we could start populating the Member Directory. Please let me know if you run into any problems or errors. Also, I am wide open to suggestions for site improvements. Back to 1st Quarter 2003 List of News Items Back to Master List of News Items Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com