Welcome to Joomla User Group Suffolk

Hi Dave,

Great to hear you're interested - we are hoping to move the meetings across Suffolk for that very reason - we're starting in Ipswich/Felixstowe/Bury area predominantly for logistical purposes, this is where the founding members are based and hence we have contacts & venues which we can use!

If you know of any venues that would be suitable for hosting a meeting please let us know, or even consider running that meeting yourself given you'll have the local knowledge!  I am more than willing to travel to meets - places like Lowestoft are only an hour or so away and we can arrange to car-share if necessary from this area.

Ruth

Thought I would add a couple of sites that I have created using Joomla.

www.morlingsmusic.co.uk

www.dawnslettings.co.uk

www.viking-plumbing.co.uk

Dave

Well I have signed up and it would be great to this grow. I origianlly started off using Mambo and then when changes took place I decided to opt for Joomla. I have created a number of sites using the system including the use of commercial components.

See that one or two meets are listed but the are all the best part of 50 miles away, something a bit nearer would be great

Some great ideas there Chris!

There are several security components/modules/plugins which you can use to help "hide" your Joomla site from prying eyes - definitely a good topic for a meeting, perhaps next month's at Felixstowe?

Ruth

Hi Ruth,

Security!

That module that changes the login page is fantastic! Any other bright ideas would be handy.

I would also like to know what Matt used in the search engines to find the websites as that might also be something to look into to stop hackers finding Joomla sites.

Thanks

Chris

Hey Ruth,

I would like to come on 9th - is it at your offices?

Thanks

Chris

We're hoping to arrange guest speakers for our monthly meetings, but as this is a group that is here to serve the users, we would be grateful if you could provide suggestions for topics you'd like to hear about!

I'll start the boat off with using Search Engine Friendly URL's - Matt did an awesome job of trawling the internet to find suffolk-based websites and we came up with 50-odd, and I'd guestimate about 75% of those did not have search engine friendly URL's.

This is a massive oversight on the designers, you could potentially treble your traffic from search engines by properly formatting your URL's, not to mention the fact that they're a darn site nicer when you're copy/pasting to send to someone!

Would this be a useful topic of presentation?  If so I'll knock something up together for Tuesday's session if we get enough people :)

Ruth

Hi Chris,

Great to see you here - are you able to come to the meeting on Tuesday?  Apologies for the short notice, as usual things in life got busy and we've only just got around to publicising it!

Would be great to have you come along, I'm even toying with the idea of doing a short presentation if we get enough people along!

Don't worry about not being a Joomla expert - I actually don't like that term because it implies you know everything, and with Joomla! I'm learning something new every day!

Ruth

I work for a Ipswich construction company in their IT dept looking after anything IT.

In my spare time I am a volunteer and the website adminstrator for www.teech.org - a UK charity helping some of the poorest parts of Eastern Europe. The website is a on-going project and I would like to eventually remove most of the "Joomla Feel" to the website just to make it look more unique.

If you are looking after a charity website please get in touch to trade stories/secrets & website links.

Chris

Joomla is a hobby and I am no expert!

Its a nice looking site - what module did you use to do the countdown as I wanted to use something like that for my site (http://www.c2cwalk2009.co.uk) for a 200 mile sponsored walk I'm doing in July.

I found a module but it bombed out the site when I used it, so binned it and forgot about it!

Quite like the blog page also!

Ruth

I became invoved rather late in the day and the site www.debenhamartsfestival.co.uk is a work in progress, developing as new needs become apparent.

Hello,

My name is Ruth and I live & work in Ipswich, Suffolk.  I'm a Managing Director of Suffolk Computer Services and have been using Joomla! to design websites for quite a few years now.  Although most of my interests involve something geeky, I am also quite sporty:

• I play in goal for Ipswich Ladies Hockey
• I am an adult leader for Woodbridge Open Duke of Edinburgh's Award Group
• I am a  keen walker and am doing a 200 mile sponsored walk this summer!

Looking forward to getting to know other Joomla! enthusiasts across Suffolk and beyond!

Ruth