The forum and the website have now been in operation for five years. The website contains information about the current meeting as well as a number of tools such as registration for the meetings and the hotel in the three language - english, french and german. In addition, the site supports the local organization team with up-to-date overviews of registrations.
The website really came into use for the preparation of the DmD 2018 in Tarrenz, but first information was already available parallel to the website for the DmD 2017 in Eberbach. This was followed by the DmD 2019 in England and also the preparations for other meetings were supported by the website. The local organization teams provide the information, but do not have to worry about the technical details of the implementation, but can instead focus on things on the spot.
In the meantime, the archive of past meetings has become quite complete. So you can find at least some informations about all meetings from 2003 until today. Information from the old system could not be transferred automatically, but had to be transferred manually and in some cases had to be searched for.
The forum, which for technical reasons is a separate system since the conversion, is also in operation since April 2017. Social media and communication via messanger have now superseded the forum to some extend. Therefore, the use is not as intensive as in the past, but some steadfast inform us very reliably about the remaining days until it finally goes, the bikes should be fully fueled and the suitcases packed.
The website is based on the Content Management System Typo3 while for the Forum the software phpBB3 is used. These systems are supplemented by self-developed tools, which provide needed information targeted to the needs of the community and the local oragnisation team.
The server uses Linux, also an open source product. Costs are therefore only for the rental of the server and the cloud storage for the daily and monthly backup.
We can look back on a stable operation of both systems in the last five years. Apart from the announced maintenance windows, there were no unplanned downtimes so far.
The only downside is the large number of spammers and bots that like to visit the website and more and more often the forum and the hackers are also constantly knocking on all doors. Here, some "creativity" was needed to prevent this as far as possible, but not to restrict the usage too much. This also worked quite well up to now.
Only the registration process at the website and the forum is interrupted by a necessary interaction of the admin. This is where the plausibility check and, if applicable, the release takes place.
With the conversion and the operation of the website and forum, it is hoped to contribute to the future of the DmD meetings, a meeting of friends.