Norwescon.org
The norwescon.org website is the primary repository for disseminating information to prospective members, current members, and ConCom staff.
The webmaster's primary responsibility is backend administration and adding/removing/updating content as requested by the various departments within Norwescon. This role may (and often does) also include some amount of content creation (text and graphic elements).
Backend
The site is built using the Wordpress CMS with a commercial theme and several plugins to expand functionality. Which theme and plugins are used may change from year to year.
Theme
Wordpress themes define the overall look of the website. The design may be changed when transitioning from one year to the next, either by altering the options of the current theme or switching to another theme entirely, but should not undergo major changes otherwise.
The site currently uses the The Conference Pro theme.
Plugins
Currently active plugins (not including any theme-specific plugins) are:
- Akismet Anti-Spam: Provides spam filtering for the various forms used across the site. Historically also provided spam protection for comments, but comment functionality is currently disabled.
- Classic Editor: Restores the "classic" WordPress editing interface as an alternative to the recently-released (but in some ways less functional) Block Editor.
- Duplicate Post: Adds one-click duplication of posts and pages for easy re-use.
- Gravity Forms: Adds complex form creation and management. Used in several locations across the site.
- Jetpack: Adds various security, performance, and site management features.
- Last Modified Timestamp: Adds a "last modified" shortcode that can be used in any post or page.
- Maintenance: Adds the ability to put the site in "maintenance mode" with a placeholder page while larger-scale content or design changes are in process.
- Page Excerpt: Adds an "excerpt" field to pages as well as posts so that when pages are linked on social media a hand-written excerpt can be extracted for preview text rather than the first few lines of text.
- Redirection: Allows creation and management of 301 redirects so when a page is moved, visitors are automatically sent to the new page rather than receiving a 404 error.
- WPBakery Page Builder: Adds drag-and-drop near-WYSIWYG layout editing.
Organization
The front page of the website should always display the most pertinent information about the convention (what are people most likely to be looking for?):
- The name of the convention.
- When is it?
- Where is it?
- Who and what will be featured?
- Pricing for and how to get convention memberships and hotel reservations.
Other information can be included as desired and as appropriate for the design and time of year.
Internal pages are organized into four main sections. Each section has a top-bar menu item with several sub-items.
| About: General information about the convention | Norwescon (year): Information about the upcoming convention. Items and sub-items may vary from year to year, the following is a snapshot and not a comprehensive list. | Get Involved: Information about how members can be more involved with the convention beyond just attending. | Media: Covers both information for media (papers, blogs, etc.) and media (photos, posters, banners) related to the con. |
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