WordPress.com is a company that provides two ways to run WordPress: as a site hosted on WordPress.com or to use software from WordPress.org with a different company. You can install this yourself, as Phil did, or you can find a company that hosts WordPress.
Current situation:
- Phil wants to move on
- Stand-alone WordPress software running on Phil’s AWS (Amazon Web Services) plan.
- Costs $15-$18/month.
- Site is customized with 10-12 plug-ins including proprietary ones
- Some parts of the site are broken
- Site has outdated information
- Site is static
- Photos are shown to you one at a time; can’t download an album
- Can’t upload photos to albums
- RSVP function not feeding into Internet Advancement – Scouts not getting awards for 25 Nights of Camping, 50 Nights of Camping, etc.
- all@troop351.org mailing list very useful for letting anybody in the troop mail everybody in the troop
Possible solutions
WordPress.com free plan
- Pack 351 is running on this
- You can type in Pack351.com but end up on pack351.wordpress.com
- Only cost is cost of domain
- New WordPress.com accounts have a banner promoting WordPress.com at the top. Not removable. Older accounts like Pack 351 don’t have this.
- Absolute top-of-the-line security and performance
- Ability to have many users with different levels of permissions (all WordPress sites do)
- No plug-ins
- Limited themes
- Prototype site has all pages from Troop351.org
- probably can’t use all@troop351.org mailing list
- Subscribe button at bottom of page emails you new posts (like Camporee 2022) but not other changes (Good!)
Hosted WordPress site
A variety of companies offer “hosted WordPress”. This means that they run software from WordPress.org on their computers. 3 that are recommended by WordPress.org are:
- SiteGround.com: $47.88/year, offers migration app, free email accounts
- DreamHost.com: $35.40/year, offers migration app
- BlueHost.com: $35.40/year, no migration app
I’m not sure how much the migration app matters since you can just export a WordPress site into a file, then import it into a different copy of WordPress.
- they upgrade WordPress for you automatically as new versions come out
- can run plug-ins
- no banners or other advertising
- URLs show troop351.org
- Ability to have many users with different levels of permissions (all WordPress sites do)
- may be able to use all@troop351.org mailing list
This article slams BlueHost pretty hard for their plans being cheap but also very slow. This might apply to the other companies. All of them offer plans that promise better performance but cost more money. In some case, more than Paid WordPress.com. But they also include email, which is very expensive on WordPress.com
It would be possible to have everybody in the troop have an @troop351.org email address. However, there’s no easy way to enforce two-deep messaging. If you use Scoutbook to message a Scout, it enforces two-deep messaging by not allowing you to send until you include another adult.
Hosted site
Even cheaper than a hosted WordPress site is just an account on a shared machine via companies like Dreamhost, Digital Ocean, RackSpace, etc. The problem with this is that we would have to install and maintain WordPress ourselves. That means upgrading the WordPress software and any plug-ins, plus fixing any problems that might happen because an upgrade was buggy. This does not seem like a great solution.
Paid WordPress.com site
Our timing is bad: if I’d set up the prototype site a month earlier, we would not have had the banner at the top and we could have picked from a variety of price plans. As things are, WordPress.com offers two options: free, as described above, or $180/year for a paid plan. Here’s an article talking about the differences.
- they upgrade WordPress for you automatically as new versions come out
- can run plug-ins
- can use premium themes
- no banners or other advertising
- URLs show troop351.org
- Absolute top-of-the-line security and performance
- Ability to have many users with different levels of permissions (all WordPress sites do)
- probably can’t use all@troop351.org mailing list
- Subscribe button at bottom of page emails you new posts (like Camporee 2022) but not other changes (Good!)
Requirements
The troop website needs to provide:
- a few pieces of information for potential parents
- a few links to critical info (medical forms, Scoutbook, etc.)
- a few pieces of history (Pongracz Scholarship, Eagle’s Nest, etc.)
- short articles about activities with a link to a photo gallery (ideally Google Photos). This ideally would be updated by a Scout Webmaster after each event.
- Must work well on phones and tablets as well as desktops with big screens.
- Does not require programming or other specialized knowledge
- No worrying about security, performance, or reliability
- Ability to make a post “sticky”, means it’s the first post. Good at Christmas for the tree lot.
- Wiki approach to pages. Instead of opening a menu and selecting an item, the logical next links should be on the page for the reader. Make it easy for people on phones.
- Site is not static but changes only once or twice a month.
- An easy way to hand over responsibility to the next group of leaders
Rosters, RSVPs, etc. are done via Scoutbook. It’s possible through Scoutbook to mail just a patrol or people who RSVP’d Yes. Scoutbook also lets you “text” instead of email by sending an email to 5037896032@tmomail.net or similar.
Recommendation
Pointing Troop351.org to a wordpress.com site will get 90% of the benefits of WordPress.com for free but with the disadvantages of the banner at the top and longer URLs.
If that’s not acceptable, going to the paid plan will remove the banner and keep the URLs as Troop351.org.
Either way, the PDX.Troop.351@gmail.com account, not a personal account, should be used for the new site. Ownership of the Gmail account should be passed on as new leaders replace old ones.
The Troop351.org domain is registered through TuCows. It may be possible to set up an email address for all@troop351.org with them that goes out to everyone. If it is not, it’s easy to set up a Google Group for the troop that would have basically the same functionality. This would allow for the mailing list to be moderated (hopefully not necessary) with multiple moderators. This page says how you can transfer a Google Group from one person to another. Unfortunately, there can only be one owner at a time.
6 years ago, the Pack351.wordpress.com site was set up. A year after that, it transitioned to new leaders. It has transitioned several times after that. Jennifer Merrill can talk more about that.
All of the relevant information from the current Troop351.org site is on troop351org.wordpress.com. If a WordPress.com solution is selected, it should be able to be implemented for Court of Honor.