Recommended SIMPLE free drag & drop website for community ventures etc.

[MR GUS]

Having come across this I thought i'd share.
I guess alot of you folk, due to the nature of green(ery) have local groups etc which may require a basic web presence but probably pressed for time with the one person capable of maintaining & updating it.
I'm cr@p at that sort of thing too!  

However i've been using a site called weebly which is literally drag & drop, then "infill" ..& it works a treat.
any confusion is allayed by having a 2nd window open on the help page, with simple step by steps that work well.

please have a look at Weebly.com if this sounds like your basic entity requirement! ..easy to have multiple access so those with limited knowledge can actually locate a page & infill then update!

http://www.weebly.com/

I highly recommend it's simplicity (& am thankful too)
No personal interest, just found it incredibly useful as a  p.c .i.t. idiot.
Heres my  few hours effort to be refined, however this infers how simple it is, whilst it aint perfect it would suffice for the majority, & yes there is a selling option too!

http://pumpkinpalooza.weebly.com

hope someone gets some use out of this company, they are heavily backed, so inevitably there will be change at some point, however right now they are going great guns!
& their transfer for domains is simple too (which i need to get sorted soon)  


Cheers
Gus

[martin]

"http://pumpkinpalooza.weebly.com/" - "site not published!"

[MR GUS]

I was playing around with the title to see what it looked like & now it's showing as not published, should take a bit of time to catch back up, as i've accessed it this morning

it works ok but the changes didn't hold (me I guess) easily rectified & back to normal within 10 seconds, & via the above link)

[martin]

Now pumpkining away furiously!

[MR GUS]

Now pumpkining away furiously!

well, if I were you i'd try signing up (it's the sort of thing that sticks in the mind once you've played with it for 10 minutes, I'm thinking this format would be especially good for the elderly who can point, click type a letter on a keyboard & POSSIBLY, locate & post a pic from their pc)

The free picture option via flickr , complete with photographer credit is a nice touch too! adds a more pro feel to your page if required.

[martin]

Can you use other image sources? (won't use Flickr as it's part of the evil "sell all your details to the highest bidder" Yahoo empire)

[MR GUS]

YES! from your own pc or a wed trawl, so no problem.
sign up & try, you'll be straight in & running. just do a test page to get a grasp / watch their video..

Simple embedding of you-tube bits literally a visible 1,2,3, "done".

I'd never embedded a you-tube clip till the other day, & did it 1st time, it is very simple & offers good results for a basic site, there is another section with a small monthly fee, but i'm not using that till i'm ready!
That said Martin, if you go for the pro (small fee) version, you can have up to 10 sites under your belt, so very good for steering either small companies or under one roof projects etc at really low & affordable price...

There is also this shameless  self promotion  of 1 month free pro (up to 6 months) for each sign up for a published site, not that thats what i'm after however heres the link...
http://www.weebly.com/link/gda1pb
 effective incentive as it allows you both to play with the pro version (which is so cheap anyhow)

[martin]

Even someone of my advanced years.......

http://organnyx.weebly.com/ - a good find!

[MR GUS]

 that works, go play & enjoy, i've scoped out a cheap uk site for web names that works out at around 3,50 -£5.00 for 2 years, (not inc transfer), so if folk don't want the "via" weebly option it's very do-able! ..i'll post the link up later if required.

[MR GUS]

If anyone would care to use that  last link I can take a gander at the pro version (& so can they when they publish a couple of pics or something) which will give me an idea of the full service without it costing anyone a bean,

..& that person (or up to 6) will get a month free too, then i can get "critical" on it as to genuine advantages or otherwise, being the inept soul that I am!
let me know if anyone fancies it & has 5 minutes to spare uploading a couple of bits.

The pro version (also allowing up to 10 sites creation & additional features) is $27.49 for 6 months.
don't think this is self advertising, i'd like to back up my current recommendation to the hilt OR just be able to say, go for the free account!  

heres a link to the upgrades page, which again would be extremely useful for communities wanting to  embed documents so folk have it to hand rather than download.. also good for archival aspects with groups documenting councils possible u-turns etc.
((just a thought)) 
 

[dhaslam]

Very useful.  More homework to do.

http://gysve.weebly.com/

[MR GUS]

Here is the blog link to the community editing doohickey!

http://blog.weebly.com/2/post/2011/04/introducing-collaborative-website-editing.html

Seems a very handy tool!

[MR GUS]

Well a wee while later i'm taking the plunge into their pro section having had a month of freebie & watching the excellent video tutorials (as much as an hour long) a commercial website for a mate & another one on the way so that I can hopefully get them into a bit of self promotion (both sparky's) ...learning alot fast via it's "wipe on wipe off" access mentality.
Learning alot in terms of lay-out & checkouts etc, over coming ,months i'll hopefully have something worthwhile compared to my initial entry into the websphere.
cannot recommend it enough, like having a private tutor! ..perfect.