Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Fwd: master storage software

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> From: "Maraiah (Lynn) Nadeau" <welcome [at] olympus.net>
> Subject: master storage software
> Date: January 29, 2022 at 1:12:09 PM PST
> To: cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org
> 
> At RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA, for years we have used Google 
> software for storage of our documents (minutes, budgets and financial 
> records, rosters, calendar, mailing lists, etc.) This was free. We have now 
> learned that starting in July it will cost thousands of dollars.
> 
> We don’t necessarily need software for meal accounting, reservation of the 
> common house, or banking.
> 
> But we need a home for all our archived and reference materials. 
> We welcome recommendations for what to change to.


I turned sour on Google’s free stuff years ago when we were using Google Sites 
which was a wiki software that we were very successful using to keep track of 
all the information about our facilities — correct brand names and sizes, 
repair history, manuals, vendor information, etc. Anything a member thought 
should be recorded and might be useful later. It was history. I was especially 
pleased that two of our least likely recorders but very active workers loved 
it. It was the only wiki in the world that was WYSIWG. Even one line of code 
makes some people freeze and run, at the same time.

Then with no notice, they said we were over the storage limit. There was posted 
no where a size limit. And it was impossible to download our data.

I was able to reduce the size of a bunch of PDFs and we were back in business 
until they started making other unannounced changes. And then announcing 
changes that didn’t happen. Then completely transforming the platform and 
continuing to post misinformation about it. I asked many questions before 
continuing to use the new platform — everyone of the answers was not true. They 
don’t have to lie — they just have so many young people involved and hiring and 
firing all the time that no one knows what they promised last month, certainly 
not last year.

I spent a continuous 36 hour period furiously learning and testing wiki 
software that we could host on our own server and be protected in the future. I 
set up one that lasted a few weeks but I wasn’t able to program it to do the 
stuff we wanted — Google spoils you for ease of use. 

I finally put up a Wordpress Wiki Theme that has been wonderful in terms of 
controllability, multitudes of features, ease of use, etc. No coding apparent 
to people writing posts. I have not, however, found a plug-in that allows 
people to make entries from the front end that include attachments. Text works 
find but the link to the Media Library isn’t good. The most active users, 
however, have no problem posting from the dashboard. Those who want to post 
using the form can and the program generates an email that send the attachment 
to me, and I can post it.

But transferring stuff, even though Google promised me this would not be the 
case, required cutting and pasting hundreds of pages of entries. 

So based on several years of experience specifically with Googles “free" online 
services, my advice is do not use them beyond the most and time limited needs — 
a letter being joint drafted, a poll that will be deleted next week, etc. If 
Google has warned you now about upcoming costs, they may not happen for 2 years 
but you need to figure out where and how to transfer data.

I know Wordpress is a big program and I underestimate how much time I have 
spent learning it, but it really does allow you to manage your own archives on 
your own server and does everything.

Mosaic and Gather do many wonderful things. I don’t know about archiving 
material or a workable wiki.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org