Need some structure set up advice

  • Aaron

    (@ergate)


    17 years, 1 month ago

    Hi, I have a rather big loaded question. I need some advice on how to structure the tags, content, and maybe even what routes I should take on customizing themes. Let me explain what I have and what I am doing.

    Recently I acquired a box full of old family photos. There are a couple hundred photos, all about 100 years old if not older. Not to mention, some handwritten stories, family trees, Old family bible(s) with matching dictionary, hymn books etc. And all of this was from one branch of the family. One of the reasons why I was the lucky recipient was I promised to scan the pictures and make a cd/dvd available.

    This treasure that was dropped into my lap got me thinking. We have lots of other family photos, some old (not as old as the ones above), some family members of photos and stories, videos of old and passed on family members talking about the old world and family. I would like to create a sort of family tree but pictorially. Someplace where photos and videos can be uploaded, along with text documents. Comments can be written about who is in the photo, stories that are related to the people, transcripts of the videos, etc etc. I am sure you can see where this can go.

    Since this is an Archive project, the media is being acquired at a high resolution, and be displayed on the web lower. I will start the whole project off with what I have and others will contribute and comment on the photos and build the archive as time goes by. Obviously I will not keep the high resolution and large files online, the will be downloaded and managed on a local machine (I use Apple). People are scanning their photos and ftp’ing me the high res files. I will probably manage the photos locally with iPhoto or Aperature or most likely with Adobe Bridge & Photoshop.

    finally, my questions
    I like WordPress, It is easy to use especially for the less then average user, and most of the user contributed content will be written (I will be adding the majority of the photos) I am very familiar with WP and comfortable with tweaking and customizing themes (I use WP to power and manage many sites). I am looking for recommendations on how to structure the tags/categories, custom templates, plugins etc. Something I am afraid of is the images becoming ‘lost’, not literally lost but just buried and not easy to find.

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  • vkaryl

    (@vkaryl)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    Wow. Fun, but exhausting; exhilarating but complex….

    If I were doing this…. I think I’d set up a parent category for each “family line”. Then there would be sub-cats (children) below the parent, one for each contributor’s family. There could be other sub-cats as needed, branching out – just like a genealogical “tree”.

    Then I’d want to limit actual posting in the child cats to given individuals – those who would be responsible for generating family branch content in the beginning – this would be so that there would be an element of initial control, since this sort of thing can take on a life (and a head of steam!) all of its own.

    Commenting of course could be more open, as others in the extended family add anecdotes, etc. to the posts.

    As an adjunct, and in response to your fear of the photos becoming buried in a mass of posts and comments, consider using a gallery such as Popup Gallery to produce an “index” of photos by family galleries – this could be linked gracefully into the posting areas; it could even be set up as the opening page of the site: a photo of Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother at the top of the page, with other family branches below.

    Sounds fun! Good luck with it.

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