ZendCon Panel: Online Group List

I managed to listen to the download. ( First, I want to thank Chris  
Cornutt for representing DallasPHP on the panel.  He did a great job,  
and I hope to do as well when I can attend ZendCon! )


First Suggestion: An Official Online Directory of User Groups

I have never seen an online user group list that wasn't a "Fire and  
Forget" arrangement: Submit an entry, get a password and it is your  
responsibility to keep the entry current or the site owner's  
responsibility to clear out dead entries.  The result is a too-large  
list full of outdated entries because registrants forgot they were  
there, lost their passwords, or abandoned their email old addresses.   
The PHP.net meeting calender is a prime example of this: There are  
two different entries under different names that actually all refer  
to DallasPHP.  Each has incorrect information / descriptions.  I have  
tried to have the entries consolidated and corrected before, but my  
efforts to provide corrections were just appended to the old  
incorrect ones.

What we need is a Group List that operates somewhat like a Job Board,  
in that it must maintain itself.

1) I submit an entry for DallasPHP.  I must submit both a responsive  
website address and a valid email address.  The application comes in  
as "submitted", and a confirmation email is sent to my email.

2) On confirmation, the application is changed to "confirmed", and a  
notice is sent to the administrator.

3) When the administrator confirms that the site is relevant, he  
changes the status to "approved" and the site enters the online  
directory.

4) Every month, a report is generated for the admin that is made of a  
list of links which he/she can follow and confirm for himself that  
the site is still relevant.  If this link is not relevant, the admin  
can mark the site "suspended", which takes it offline, and a renewal  
notice is sent to the registrant via the supplied email.

5) The registrant can follow a link to let them update the entry and  
re-submit it for a new "submitted" status.  If the email doesn't  
reach the registrant, the suspended site will be "retired" after a  
week or so.

6) Every month, any site that has not been renewed or updated in 6  
months will send out a renewal notice via the supplied email. (Not  
taken offline, but possibly marked as "Currently Being Renewed")

7) The registrant can follow a link to let them update the entry or  
confirm it for a new "approved" status.  If the email doesn't reach  
the registrant, the site will be "retired" after a week or so.

8) Listed sites may be "contested" by visitors, which may move the  
site to the "suspended" at the discretion of the admin.  If the site  
doesn't meet whatever standards the site initially defines for PHP  
User Groups, the admin may retire it.

9) Upon "Leadership Transfer Request" for the User Group, the  
initially submitted email address will be used to contact the  
original registrant.  Perhaps a keyphrase can be generated with  
original registrations to ease leadership transitions for groups  
after entries have expired.

All decision of the list admins will be final!



This setup still requires the list administrator to review sites on a  
periodic basis (preferably monthly or at least every other month),  
and still makes it the responsibility of organizers to keep their  
information current, but it removes the need for passwords for  
maintenance, guarantees that abandoned entries will be removed, and  
that irrelevant or misleading entries have a relatively simple and  
direct removal process.

Tim Stiles,
Co-Organizer, DallasPHP
WatchMaker, Icomex.com