[Chapter-delegates] Chapter Website(s)

Thu Apr 30 06:40:29 PDT 2026

https://internetsociety.uk.

This is still using wordpress. Albeit I recently shifted from a pioneer
html5 theme - very simple - to another free version theme of Astro.

It's been really important to avoid the mess of Wordpress "classic"
themes, page and site builders which often store data in entirely
incompatible ways. Making migration a real pain.

Migration has been a fact of life for all of us. I started the chapter
as england.isoc.org with a redbourne dynamic html3 postgres
blog/membership site that lost support and then ISOC stopped supporting
sld domains for its chapters. I then moved to html5 and very simple
layout design on a domain I registered (isoc-e.org).That simplicity and
compatibility with bog standard Wordpress made migration reasonable. I
replaced this with WP Astro when implementing our domain
internetsociety.uk in the last year. 

Given the bloat in Wordpress "classic" and the slow lumpy emergence of a
consistent site to page to element design environment in the Wordpress
"blocks" new way of doing things. I've also considered moving off
Wordpress to a static architecture.

ISOC could consider commissioning using open source tooling simple html5
based design templates, web fonts, menu layouts, css and media libraries
along with adding reliable rss / atom feeds can offer free hosted
lightweight and very fast information services.

Static sites or dynamic ones or Wordpress blocks can be built from such
elements with simple tooling or via typescript development environments
for static websites such as Astro (no relation to the wordpress theme)
or in haskell, python, php even elisp etc. or dynamic sites again via
Astro, or Vue/Nuxt/ React/Next and so on.

That might be a better "architecture" for us than assume Wordpress is
the way to go. 

Christian

Jeffry Fernandez via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> writes:

> Special mention to the Catalan Chapter they add a beautiful web design 
> -
> Jeffry S. Fernandez
> 
>  El 23 abr 2026, a la(s) 3:28 a.m., Klaus Birkenbihl via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
>  escribió:
>
>   
>
>  Dear Chapter Leaders, (especially those responsible for the websites),
>
>  I'm not sure if this is the right place to bring up thism topic. On the other hand, websites are an important part of
>  our public relations, and we at ISOC.DE don't seem to be the only ones having issues. If you have an answer but
>  don't want to leave it here, feel free to send me a private email at Klaus.Birkenbihl at ISOC.DE.
>
>  Initial Situation:
>
>  After several attempts in recent years, ISOC.DE has decided to seriously undertake the relaunch of its website.
>  After all, ISOC is providing support and guidelines for the relaunch in the form of the "Genesis child theme for
>  Internet Society chapters". This should make switching a WordPress site by changing the theme manageable with
>  reasonable effort.
>
>  Expectations:
>
>  Besides all the dazzling, great features that make a theme attractive, there are a few basic requirements:
>
>  1 The most important components of a WordPress blog—posts and pages—should be recognizably displayed,
>  2 There should be acceptable default styles for frequently used elements such as forms (form controls) or tables,
>  3 The remaining elements (menus, sidebars, categories, archives, etc.) should be easily customizable via CSS and, if
>  necessary, a few scripts.
>
>  Experience:
>
>  So far expectations 1 and 2 were a disaster. After just installing the theme, the site looks like this:
>  https://www.isoc-german-chapter.de/. (Before: https://www.isoc.de/). Apparently, even the structure hasn't been
>  preserved. Forms and tables are displayed unusably. Well, maybe we just make dumb mistakes and don't get the
>  glue.
>
>  Learn from the winners:
>
>  We thought we simply should take a look at how others managed it. So I investigated: who is using the theme? I
>  examined 114 chapter sites (source: https://www.internetsociety.org/chapters/#find-your-chapter). Of 93 sites I
>  could access, 5 are using the theme. Of these 5 sites, 3 look kind of successful. Congratulations to https://isoc.nl/,
>  https://www.isoc.cat/, and https://isoc-ontario.org/. https://isoc.mk/ seems to be under construction without
>  existing content.  (Fun fact: https://www.isoc-aragon.org/ looks pretty much like
>  https://www.isoc-german-chapter.de/). 
>
>  So 3-5 out of 93 Chapter websites use the Theme? Doesn't sound too encouraging. Were my investigations wrong?
>
>  Open questions:
>
>  * Did I miss a Website using the "Genesis child theme for Internet Society chapters"? Which one?
>  * Who tried using the theme but then gave up? If so—why did you give up?
>  * To those who are successful:
>
>  * Would you recommend using the theme (migrating a lot of existing content)?
>  * Do you have any tips or tricks on how to affordably switch a regular WordPress site with traditional structure
>  (chronological posts, pages, menus, some forms, categories, archives, etc..,) to this theme?
>
>  Best regards
>
>  Klaus
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  As a Chapter Leader, you are automatically added to the Internet Society’s Chapter Leaders Community Group and
>  the Chapter Delegates e-list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society Chapter Portal (AMS):
>  https://community.internetsociety.org.
>  The Internet Society has a legitimate interest to communicate with its chapter leaders, you will therefore remain
>  subscribed for the duration of your term and will be unsubscribed automatically when your term ends.
>  Please note that the archive of this list is publicly accessible and may be viewed by anyone. By submitting
>  information to this list and contributing to the communications, you acknowledge that the contents will be publicly
>  visible.
>  View the Internet Society Code of Conduct: https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/
>  -
>  Unsubscribe:
>  https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/9b6ef0621638436ab0a9b23cb0668b0b?The%20list%20to%20be%20unsubscribed%20from=Chapter-delegates
>
> _______________________________________________
> As a Chapter Leader, you are automatically added to the Internet
> Society’s Chapter Leaders Community Group and the Chapter Delegates
> e-list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society
> Chapter Portal (AMS): https://community.internetsociety.org.
> The Internet Society has a legitimate interest to communicate with its
> chapter leaders, you will therefore remain subscribed for the duration
> of your term and will be unsubscribed automatically when your term
> ends.
> Please note that the archive of this list is publicly accessible and
> may be viewed by anyone. By submitting information to this list and
> contributing to the communications, you acknowledge that the contents
> will be publicly visible.
> View the Internet Society Code of Conduct: https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/
> -
> Unsubscribe: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/9b6ef0621638436ab0a9b23cb0668b0b?The%20list%20to%20be%20unsubscribed%20from=Chapter-delegates

-- 
Christian de Larrinaga