Posting Competition - Your choice of prize 29 July 2008 - 19:59

The forum is now almost a week old, and I decided to have a little competition to boost activity. And what is a competition without prizes? :D

The first three people, from now on, to start ten new threads anywhere but in the Spamboard gets their choice of item under $10 from Arch Linux Schwag.

Here are the current thread counts, for reference:

  • Sp4rkR4t - 0
  • ninian - 1
  • Dr Small - 0
  • jones - 0
  • codeblock - 1
  • loserone - 1
  • cmelbye - 0
  • _AA_ - 0
  • Abelian - 0
  • floke - 0

Upon starting your 10th new thread, send me a PM. I’ll check that you have indeed made 10 threads since the competition started, and that none of them are in the Spamboard. Once checked, I’ll ask for your postal address and requested prize - I’ll then order your prize.

The forum gets activity, you get a prize, and Arch gets a little donation. Everyone wins.

By Barrucadu | No Comments | Tags: ,

Recruitment drive! 28 July 2008 - 23:01

I, in my infinite wisdom have decided to offer an incentive for anyone (from now on) to recruit someone to the forum!

If you recruit someone to the forum, you will be added to a special usergroup - this will give you an orange name and access to a hidden board just for you lot! Yes, I know a hidden board isn’t much of an incentive but it’s something.

Recruitment will be verified by your recruitee saying you recruited them in their introduction post in the new introductions board.

So, what’re you waiting for? Get recruiting - an orange name awaits you!

By Barrucadu | No Comments | Tags:

New Theme - Part Two 28 July 2008 - 11:12

I’ve just finished draft one of the phpBB theme, and I’ll give the members a little time to suggest changes, which I’ll then incorporate. Unless, of course, nobody thinks it needs changing.

Well, I’ve been struggling with the phpBB theme engine all day, time to have some food and relax by starting on an IRC bot in Python :D

By Barrucadu | No Comments | Tags:

New Theme - Part One 27 July 2008 - 18:53

Someone told me that it wasn’t immediately obvious how to participate on this website, and that I should have a big "Sign up!" or something on the main page. Well, now there is!

I more or less cloned the archlinux.org theme and modified it to use the colours from the logo. I shall also be making a matching phpBB theme soon. If anyone can think of any way to improve the theme, telling me before I spend ages making the matching phpBB one would be nice.

By Barrucadu | No Comments | Tags:

New Logo 26 July 2008 - 20:03

I have used my GIMP skills to create a new logo for Archlinux.co.uk. Rather than just using the Arch logo, we now have a much more UK-centric one!

Archlinux.co.uk

By Barrucadu | 2 Comments | Tags:

IRC 26 July 2008 - 14:17

Archlinux.co.uk now has an IRC channel on irc.devnode.org. The channel is #Archlinux.co.uk, so be sure to have a look. I’m pretty new to IRC myself, so there’s a good chance I’ll do something wrong, so correct me if I do something stupid.

For those who haven’t used IRC before here’s how to create an account and join the channel:

  1. Open up your IRC client - and connect to one of the irc.devnode.org servers. Since we are (almost) all UKers, nyx.devnode.org is probably our best bet.
  2. Register a nick - this is where you’ll get your first taste of IRC voodoo, NickServ. Type the following command to register a nick: /msg NickServ register PASSWORD EMAIL-ADDRESS.
  3. Join the channel - now for the easy bit: /join #Archlinux.co.uk

You will need to identify yourself every time you connect with the following command: /msg NickServ identify PASSWORD

By Barrucadu | No Comments | Tags:

First @archlinux.co.uk email address taken! 25 July 2008 - 11:39

A day after I announced the site, and the first (non-admin) @archlinux.co.uk email address has been taken by jones, who is also the newest member to the forum. I don’t quite know how fast I expected the email address to be requested, but it seems fairly fast for it to be one in less than 24 hours. This site may just grow a little faster than I expected.

Only a few things remain to be done. I must find a new smilie set for the forum (I’m thinking of using the Gajim or Emesene default ones), because the default phpBB ones look awful, and most of the sets on phpBB.com do so too. After that, I need to think of a really wonderful, informative, and thought-provoking post for the blog to spark some discussion in the forum. Watch this space…

By Barrucadu | No Comments | Tags:

Welcome to Archlinux.co.uk 24 July 2008 - 20:35

Welcome to Archlinux.co.uk! This site is co-founded by me and a friend, and aims to provide a useful service to UK (and beyond) Archers. The site may be very small now, but we hope to see it grow in the very near future, and if you have an idea you think would be beneficial to the site please, please, please let us know so we can have a good think about it!

Here’s the current feature list. I expect this to only grow in the future.

  • Email - You can get a free @archlinux.co.uk email address, powered by Google Mail, simply by asking nicely. Because the whole thing is powered by Google mail you get all the nice features of GMail, plus the ability to use it with a regular POP or IMAP client if you prefer to use another application to check your mail.
  • Jabber - I have wanted a good Linux-themes Jabber server name since I first heard of it and decided to use it. Now I have one, and make it freely available to anyone who wishes to use it. Simply create the account the way you would on any other server with your client of choice, and you’ll be chatting like a real Archer in no time!
  • Forum - Archlinux.co.uk has (small and empty) forum right now, waiting for people to join and help fill it with posts, activity, and personality. It doesn’t have much to offer right now, but let’s see if we can make it great!
  • Blog - Again, this is a little empty at the moment but I hope it to grow. We have a few plans for things to write about, and in the future I could always ask (nicely, of course) other Archers to write guest posts for the world to see. We’ll see what happens with that - but whatever happens this will be a great Arch-themed blog.

If all that sounds good, why not go ahead and register on the forum, for Jabber, or for email? You have nothing, except a little time, to lose, and a potentially great community to gain!

By Barrucadu | No Comments | Tags: