Lately, “form spam” has been the bane of my existence. Anyone who runs more than one or two Web sites has probably had the experience of dealing with what can amount to hundreds of junk messages a day coming through different types of Web-based contact forms. “Report a bug,” “Contact the Web team,” “Write a letter to the Editor,” etc. — they’re all targets for malicious spam bots and their ilk.

Recently I decided to double my previous efforts to find some solutions to Web-based form abuse.

Many of the organizations that I’m working with rely on a number of different systems to deliver content to the Web, which makes it more challenging to find a one-size-fits-all solution. That said, they all use a LAMP stack and several of them are using the Drupal content-management system in some capacity, e.g., to provide some front-end interactivity, user management, etc. So, the real opportunity was to find something that either played nice with Drupal, or was built in PHP/Perl/Python so that it could be integrated with Drupal where necessary. read more »

Big week in nerd world!

First, the exciting re-launch of the Social Source Commons. This platform has been a work in progress for over a year now, under the of astute guidance of Aspiration. In their own words:

Social Source Commons is a place to share lists of software tools that you already use, gain knowledge and support, and discover new tools. It’s a place to meet people with similar needs and interests and answer the question: what tools do they use?

The re-launch incorporates lots of improvements, including a user interface overhaul, new “Community Toolboxes” that allow users to share lists, and greatly enhanced searching, tracking, and browsing. Not to mention, the darn thing is way cooler than it was before. Yeah Gunner — nice work!

Next up: DrupalCampTorontoII

Just announced, DrupalCampTorontoII will take place on May 11 - 12 at the Bahen Centre. This two-day event will attract over 100 participants — both Drupal “newbies” and ninjas — from far and wide. There will be sessions for all experience levels, great parties, t-shirts, and, well, that’s about it.

If you’ve ever had the slightest interest in learning more about one of the world’s most popular open-source content management systems, or if you are currently managing a Drupal site — or several of them! — and want to know more, or if you’ve been working with Drupal for years and experience to share with others, this is the event for you.

Go get registered today. Space is limited to 150 participants and it will go fast.

That’s it for this week: over and out. read more »

There’s been lots of renewed discussion recently on two important questions for Canadian civil society:

• Why are there so few Canadian online advocacy systems? (As defined by the ability to send e-mails and faxes to your MLA, MP, MPP, etc., based on your postal code)
• Why is Canada’s postal code and electoral district data stuck in draconian licensing / copyright schemes?

This came up a few months ago, when some Web of Change alumni asked the first question. I struggled with this just a little over a year ago while working on the Kleercut campaign (you can read a bit about it here). Basically, as ActionWorks (a hosted advocacy system that licensed the aforementioned data) was being purchased by AdvocacyOnline (who also licenses that data), we had to find another way to provide similar tools on the site (for less than the $9000 - 12,000/year licensing fee that AdvocacyOnline wanted for its tools). read more »

If you caught my earlier post about CivicSpace On Demand service — a Web-based solution for content management, contact management, e-mail communication, and fundraising directed at progressive non-profits — you may be interested in this note from David Geilhufe and the Civicspace team:

We are happy to announce the open public release of the CivicSpace On Demand service, offering a complete, integrated solution for your community website, online donations, blast email, and supporter database needs.

Based on your past interest in our services, we’d love it if you would be among our first customers to get Groundswell Professional, an integrated fundraising, email, website and database solution at $50 per month with your first 30 days free.

There was talk of a Canadian version of the service, hosted in Canada, but it seems that those conversations have stalled. Hopefully the fine folks at Civicspace will find a friendly Canadian partner soon! In the meantime, go check out what they’re offering in Groundswell Professional.

Recently, I asked a colleague why I couldn’t comment on their fancy, new, corporate blog and this was their response:

Yeah, it’s pretty unfortunate at the moment, I’ve had to turn off commenting for unregistered users on the site, because we were getting spammed so heavily and even though I had the Spam filter on at full strength many were still getting through. I’d like to find a better solution, though, because right now you have to create an account to be able to post comments (which nobody will do, I’m sure). If you have any wisdom or suggestions from your Drupal experience on how to deal with such massive spamming issues, I’d love to glean some knowledge

At the risk of attracting a line-up of comment spammers determined to make me look bad, I offer the following recipe for fighting comment spam with Drupal (as I do on my Drupal-powered blog): read more »

After stumbling on the new Civicspace On Demand demo late last week, I got this public announcement from the Civicspace team:

CivicSpace On Demand, our CivicSpace service (ASP), is in production with customers and offers:

Turnkey online fundraising, email marketing, website and supporter database. No installation and upgrade hassles. All Drupal/CiviCRM upgrades are automatic. No servers to maintain. You access CivicSpace On Demand via your web browser. Blast email & donations up and running in minutes. read more »

So you want to run a DrupalCamp in your town? Well, reflecting on the experience of helping to organize and facilitate DrupalCampToronto, I have a few ideas to throw into the pot. By most measures, DrupalCampToronto was a success: the event was at capacity, there was a fantastic mix of people, the presentations were excellent, and we raised a bunch of money for the Toronto Drupal community. Add to the ingredients that it was relatively easy to put together and that our organizing team was doing it off the side of their desks, and you've got a pretty good recipe for low-stress face-to-face learning events that help to build the Drupal community. All of that said, I feel that we could have tried a few things that would have made the event even better.  read more »