Month: July 2023

(If you haven’t already: read the Meet The Webmaster post before reading this one. Scroll down to find it.)

As you may have noticed with this site, it appears to be in an ossified state. This may be interpreted as a sign that the site is non-functional, or broken.

As the SCM66 Webmaster, I can assure you that this site is not broken; it is fully functional. That said: something is missing…

Content!

A web site like this is pretty much useless, and will appear to be broken, unless the people involved with SCM are willing to write content for the site.

As the site webmaster, I do not see my role as writing content for the site. The main reason I’ve written this is just to demonstrate that the site is working. The SCM site is based off of WordPress, a compact yet full featured web site content management system. It’s been around for many years and is maintained & updated by a devoted group of volunteers. There are literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of WordPress sites on the internet.

When I initially took on the role of webmaster for SCM, much of the content I posted was simply a copy of articles and calendar of events published in the monthly Chronicle newsletters. I also maintained an archive of the newsletter PDFs on the site.

With the advent of phones and tablets, there was a need to update the site on order to make it “responsive” (the term used to describe web sites which are displayed correctly regardless of medium – desktop/laptop, tablet, phone, what have you.) I did this, and for a time I continued to update it with the calendar of events, in addition to updating the Chronicle archive.

Frankly, I got to a point where I felt there was little point in simply duplicating the Chronicle calendar of events, and I stopped doing this.

When there was discussion among group officers to revive the site and make it useful, I felt the best way to do this was to replace the previous site with the WordPress site on which you are reading this post. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

I did not, however, and do not, see my role as being a writer, much less an editor, for the site.

Any group member who wishes to write original content for this site is free to do so. Simply send a request for WordPress login credentials to either Chris Grass or myself (our email addresses are in the Officers page of this site, link is at the top of each page) and make the request. From there, we’ll verify that you are indeed a member of the SCM 66 group, and email you login credentials. Once you are logged in, you’ll be able to write and submit posts for review. Chris or I will review your post and if it looks good, we’ll publish it on the site.

I hope there are group members out there who are interested in writing posts for this site; it’s kinda useless without your participation.

Thanks for reading.

Hi! I’m Tom O’Neill, the webmaster of this site. I’ve been involved with Internet work for longer than I care to admit. These days I’m semi-retired; I supplement my Social Security income by working as a delivery person for Silver Sands Pizza in Milford. It’s honest work, and the tips make it worthwhile. I started delivering food at the start of the pandemic, for Franco’s Pizza in Milford, and worked for them for a little over a year before switching to Silver Sands. (More on that later.)

When I’m not working for Silver Sands, or on household upkeep, or spending quality time with Lili (a fellow SCM member), I am a computer musician. A lifetime of my ambient music can be found here. Updates have been thin since the start of the pandemic; I have some new pieces completed which I have yet to upload. The past 18 months I have been working with my long-time electronic drummer & partner (we were in local bands for a time), and a mutual guitarist friend, on the Suspicious Residue project (WARNING: highly political content; if you are an alt-righty or a Trump supporter, I’d skip this link if I were you). I serve primarily as keyboardist, principal producer and audio engineer. I also shot and created our two music videos (finally getting to use those skills I learned as a film student at UB back in the day … yaaaay!). As of this writing, a third song is in the works.

I also assist my uncle as a co-webmaster of sites he and I manage for clients.

My primary duties as a SCM webmaster are:

• Keeping the scm66.org domain registration current;
• Making sure the site has a home on the internet;
• Managing the WordPress installation on which the site is based;
• Uploading a copy of new Chronicle newsletters to the site when they become available (see link at the top of this page). *

(* Please note: the archive is password protected, so as to prevent non-members from reading them. To access the archive, email me with a request – my email address is in the Officers page, link at the top of this page.)

Regarding Franco’s Pizza: I got a call from his wife Angela back in April 2023, with a request: her day driver had to leave town to attend to an illness in the family, would I fill in until his return? I already work 30+ hours a week for Silver Sands, but I volunteered to pitch in until her driver returned.

Long story short: he never returned. The added hours have pretty much killed any free time I might otherwise have to work on outside projects, this web site included.

This month, Franco’s announced they were closing the restaurant after over 30 years serving customers in Milford. (Announcement is at their web site.) I’m sad to see them close, but it will mean I will get time back for things I’ve needed to push aside since April. This includes installing a discussion forum on the site. There’s a learning curve involved, to wit: setting up the forum sections and topics, setting up the mechanism for SCM members to sign up for access and post content, ensuring proper security policies are set up and implemented – it’s a process, please be patient.

Now please see the post: This Website Is Not Broken.