New BC Browncoats Website

Another Drupal website released into the wild:

www.browncoats.ca

Serenity in FlightThe Firefly/Serenity fan group is organized via the Vancouver Firefly/Serenity Meetup Group. The Meetup website has many advantages the group does not want to give up, but Meetup has a rigid format which doesn't lend itself to some kinds of content. In particular, announcements for charity events/sales are awkward because of HTML markup limitations and cumbersome URLs that don't lend themselves to publishing. The group wanted to enhance their web presence without creating a split personality.

The Drupal based Browncoats.ca site displays Meetup information via RSS feeds, leaving the group's two-way membership interaction with Meetup. People visiting the new site can see what's happening at the Meetup site and if they're interested are directed back to Meetup. The Browncoats.ca site provides a location for content that doesn't work well on Meetup as well as providing a nicer URL for promotional purposes.

My involvement was translating Jen's ideas into Drupal. Although Jen isn't a web developer she has a basic knowledge of HTML and is a very fast learner. She quickly learned the Drupal content creation system and did the content on her own after I laid in the Drupal framework and theme. We did not have the benefit of a full on graphics designer. The Candy Corn theme was selected as a base and modified to Jen's specifications. There was give and take around the Meetup integration based on what Meetup provided via RSS.

An interesting wrinkle is Jen living in Australia! Although we had discussed the website before she left, the website work occurred after she left Canada. Project communication occurred with email, Skype IM and Skype voice calls. The Skype voice calls proved invaluable. In spite of the distance it was a partnership that worked very well.