howto: Website build agreement rev 7 may 2019 This is for sending to prospective (or current) clients. ....................................................... my blurb: As i explain below, building a CMS website is not trivial. As our first step, i would like to get you up to speed, and have you read the information below. In the meantime i will try to set up a sample CMS for you to try out, that could eventually grow into the new tibetwrites.in. Then our next step will be, we meet and decide if a self-hosted website is really what you need, or if something like Wix or Weebly would serve you as well. Intro: Making a good website takes time and skills. By agreeing to help build website for you, i need to be sure that the investment of my time and energy is not wasted (for me, "wasted" means, taking time and energy away from other clients!) I do not charge nor accept any money for my services. If you actually follow through on everything that i tell and teach you, and are fully involved with the content, and some admin, of your website -- well, that is why i do this, and i will cry in gratitude. The points i want to make below are: 1) The Web: Is important and we are serious about it. 2) The Jobs: My job and your job. 3) The Software: A CMS called ClassicPress. 4) The Very Serious Stuff: Security and standards. 5) The Principles and some Information I know it is long, and i appreciate your commitment to your website in reading carefully through it and the accompanying links. ....................................................... 1) Web is important. I take it seriously and expect you to. 1a) owning your works “The one place you truly own your content is on your website. By publishing on your own website first, you own the copyright on whatever you publish there. I advocate for everyone to have their own website, publish there first, and then repurpose content for social media.” "By publishing on your website, ... there’s no fear that the platform will get acquired or shut down. Plus, publishing on your own site first creates a verifiable date that proves you had the content before anyone else." https://www.dreamhost.com/blog/6-content-ownership-mistakes/ Even if you do keep copies of your works locally, having them on your own website enables your readers to access them all. Scatteted around on Facebook, online journals, etc, they could disappear from the Web or change. Some sites, such as FB, explicitly say they own everything you post, and can use it however they want. 1b) having a website Having a website has gone a long way from the easy-come-easy-go days of the 2000s. Now web tech/html/css have gotten more complicated. And privacy, security, and longevity are *huge* issues. As you may have heard from others who have tried to work with me on websites, i take these things extremely seriously, and i do not compromise. That is how important the Web is to me -- it is why i still do it after all these years! 1c) what i need from you to build and maintain for you The standard pattern has been: An organisation asks me to help build a website. I explain my conditions, (at one point even giving a printed version for them to sign off on). They happily agree and give me what turns out to be a token developer to work with. The developer fades away, i build the site, and often the site fades away as well. I am not doing this any more. Between that scenario, and the massive privacy/security problems these days, i have been very close to completely quit doing this work at all. If i have even agreed to consider working on a website with you, it means i think your work is that important, and that you will follow through. ....................................................... 2) My job and your job. Notice i didn't say 'working on a website *for* you. If i am not working on the website *with* you, i am not following my responsibility to you or to the Web. My job: is to build and maintain the strong and sturdy vehicle that carries your content out to the World Wide Web. My job is also to teach you as much as you can absorb about how your site works. Your job: The content on the website is *yours*, and is completely outside my domain. (We are assuming that i agree with and want to fully support your content, or we wouldn't be having this discussion!) Your job is to produce that good content, and add it to your website. To do your best to understand my decisions, make good decisions for yourself, and eventually take over more and more of the administration of the website. Your job is also (and i know this is a big one!) to trust me. If i say some security or technical procedure is necessary, you will learn as much as you can. But even if you don't understand it you will trust and follow my advice. Trust, but verify! Always ask me questions. :) ....................................................... 3) The software. * Using a CMS: Note that the point of building a CMS is so that - the website owner can add and manage content themselves; (notice: *C*ontent *M*anagement *S*ystem - woo!) - can manage more or all of the site themselves; - things like tags, links, and images can be added much more easily; - design and even structure of the site can be changed easily, - and more. But the first is the most important: ** The point of building a CMS is so that the website ** owner can add content and manage the site themselves. To get these benefits, building a site with a CMS is, and has to be, - hugely more complicated than building a flat-file site. - It also has wayyy more security issues (whereas a flat-file site has pretty much zero). - Requires continual observation, maintenance, and software updates. * Deciding that your site needs a CMS: This is why we do not take the decision lightly to build a site in a CMS. Or we use a Web service provider like WiX, Weebly, or WordPress.com to take care of a lot of these issues for us. If i have agreed to build your site with you in a CMS, it's because we agree that your content and other site needs are more than you can get from a Web service provider. * ClassicPress: For many years i have been using WordPress CMS. As of 2018, WordPress have been going The Wrong Way. (I can of course bring you up-to-date on these issues, but won't muddy the waters here.) After a lot of research and consideration, i have put my faith in a fork of WordPress called ClassicPress. https://www.classicpress.net/ As a content author of your website, you shouldn't see any difference, except that admin screens and the site footer will say "ClassicPress" instead of "WordPress". Also as time goes by, you will find that your site runs faster, is more secure, and is easier to take care of than WordPress sites! ....................................................... 4) Security and standards. As mentioned, privacy and security are huge huge issues these days. I cannot stress it enough. A large part of what i do in building your website is to address those. And to teach you about it so that you can protect yourself, your website, and your users. ....................................................... 5) Here is more about the principles under which i build websites, and some information about the building. Please read over them carefully. "Technology that respects human rights is decentralised, peer-to-peer, zero-knowledge, end-to-end encrypted, free and open source, interoperable, accessible, and sustainable. Technology that respects human effort is functional, convenient, and reliable. Technology that respects human experience is beautiful, magical, and delightful." -- Aral Balkan, https://2017.ind.ie/ethical-design/ * How Long Does It Take to Build a Website? https://www.dreamhost.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-website/ * How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website? https://www.dreamhost.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-website/ * How james protects your website and your users - representative page https://www.kowthamcenter.org/the-center/about-the-website/privacy-and-security/ I will put this page on your website, edited of course for your site. * Ethical Design https://2017.ind.ie/ethical-design/ (Their "ethical design" logo will be in the footer of all your site pages.) If you can sincerely and seriously follow up on these ideas, and practically implement them (or have a committed person who can) then i can work with you, and am more than happy to do so. This is what i am here for. thank you, -- james ....................................................... steps: 1) You - get or have a domain. 2) You - understand the terms and conditions in which i will work for you. n) ... Cloudflare ... n) ... hosting ... n) Learn how to enter content. _______________________________________________________ Keywords: build client wordpress website since: 28 mar 2019 -- 0 --