Update from the Web Migration processes

Hi again all, Colm again, writing with a few updates, serving as information and as part of the ongoing email testing.

Things are progressing a little slower than I expected with the migration to Ghost, but I am still confident this is the way to go.

As reminder or informer for our newer coordinating team members: the ClimateUni membership/newsletter/website is currently administered in quite a manual way. We have static website that I manage, which has a link to a Cryptpad member registration form, the responses to which Laurie collects, and manages a central spreadsheet. New members are then manually added to the Mailchimp newsletter, and newletters are sent monthly.

Ghost (a fully open source tool, that I am self-hosting on our own server) offers an all-in-one solution for all the above. Ghost is both a Content Management System (like Wordpress) and a newsletter manager (like Mailchimp). It also has the membership control, allowing members to sign-up, sign-in, and control what newsletters they are subscribed to. We currently only have one central, all members newsletter, but it would be handy to be able to split that by geography going forwards.

Screenshot of the Ghost Admin that shows how a post can be published and emailed to various groups.

Ghost also comes with integration for once-off donations or ongoing "subscriptions". So we could eventually 'offer' an annual membership fee. This would work via Stripe, which I'm not happy with, but Web Payments are not something I want to have to spend weeks on, and the Stripe compatibility layer does allows to meet people where they are: it accepts Apple Pay, Link, CB, and other platforms. This will also be the site of future work with the treasurer, I'm sure.

I'm currently working on two fronts: 1. getting approved by the email distribution system (this is a key bit, and has proven tricky, but I think I'm getting there, the middle-bit there is called Mailgun, and should help with avoiding spam filtering etc.) and 2. migrating all the content over. Most of the bits are in place, but I need to verify permalink, and port over updates to our upcoming events. Next steps will be further front-end customisation (this is my favourite bit, but arguably not a priority, so I will work away on that later) and inviting coordinating team members to edit and use the publishing platform. If any of you want to see what it's like, let me know, I can invite you to be an admin.

I think that's most of the bits, using this as a test, and sharing updates. Hope all that makes sense.

All the best,