Interactive webpage…?

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Hope this is the right place to post this question…?

A friend who runs a small local charity has asked me to create a webpage for him that will enable him to post a list of items that the charity needs and then allow people to sign up to donate them – without any need for logging in etc (and so successive viewers of the page can see which items have been ‘sorted’ and possibly by who).

I can’t immediately think of a way of doing this and so wondered if anyone here has an idea. I did wonder about using Doodle but it wouldn’t be ideal.

Please, any suggestions?

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Hello and thank you for your question.

This is the tricky part:

allow people to sign up to donate them – without any need for logging in

I dont know how much skilled programmer and webdesigner you are, but there are lot of “free” tools (for free, there will be some banner embeded on the webpage or something like that).
I can remember Wix, WebNode, Weebly, … for basic webdesign.

Better should be some CMS – WordPress, Drupal, etc. – and you can use plug-ins from GitHub for example.

In most CMS, you can register visitors based on their email address validation. Principle should be, that, they can “add post” which item they want to donate. Admin can communicate with them via email. After the item is donated, admin can delete the item from “wanted list”. This will also be as validation, that promises made by “anonymous donors” (or even bots) are kept.

if you dont want user to oblige to register, then add some captcha-like code, to prevent bot from filling your website with junk.

Just my idea, solutions are numerous.

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WSVictor Delta

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[geekdom]

Will Fastie has posted an entire series on website development in AskWoody. Here is one article:

https://www.askwoody.com/2020/web-presence-working-with-search-engines/

Here are all of them as posted from the above article:

• What is your Web presence? – 2020-06-22
• Getting the perfect domain name: The brand – 2020-07-06
• Choosing an email provider: Your biggest decision – 2020-07-27
• Choosing a web-hosting service: The ins and outs – 2020-08-17
• Building your business website: Understanding the options – 2020-08-31

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
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• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by geekdom.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by geekdom.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by geekdom.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by geekdom.

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WSVictor Delta

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The original poster is not an Askwoody Plus member, so won’t have access to the links provided

 

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WSVictor Delta

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The links are due to be released from behind the paywall shortly (due to the time since publishing). Check again soon.

UPDATE: some more newsletters have now been released to all

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WSVictor Delta

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WSVictor Delta wrote:

…then allow people to sign up to donate them – without any need for logging in etc (and so successive viewers of the page can see which items have been ‘sorted’ and possibly by who).

Please, do note that there are some fairly major privacy considerations in such an endeavor. Do make sure you fully grasp the implications, before getting too far into the planning

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WSVictor Delta, Paul T

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Thank you for all the helpful responses.

In the end, I had another look at Doodle and, although it is primarily a meeting scheduling and polling website, I was able to create a page which achieved essentially what my friend wanted. (And by the way, doriel, you might be interested to know that despite using Doodle on many occasions over the years, I have never experienced any problems with bots or hackers etc. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky..?).

Very conscious of privacy/security concerns (especially since GDPR) but, since responders will be known to my friend, they can respond using initials or a nickname etc rather than full name (or other personal data). Not full-proof I know but…

Now up to my friend as to whether he wants to use the page or not!

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Kirsty, doriel

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And by the way, doriel, you might be interested to know that despite using Doodle on many occasions over the years, I have never experienced any problems with bots or hackers etc. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky..?

I was speaking from my personal experience, few years ago when I had Drupal-based webpage, I had forum for posting anonymous opinions – there was two text fields (Name and Text) and OK button.
Some bot filled my page with thousands of posts.

Im not saying that it must happen to you (I wish you no such experience), all I am telling is to be “better safe than sorry”.

I am glad you found the way how to do what you wanted.
Have a nice day.

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WSVictor Delta

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Doriel

Thanks. Yes, I’ve had similar experiences on one of my WordPress sites, until I learned how to secure the comments facility properly!

Doodle is an interesting case because it’s whole business depends on bots and hackers not attacking the polls etc of it’s users. I wonder why this doesn’t happen in practice…?

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[doriel]

I dont know Doodle in personal. But maybe attackers do not consider Doodle as very tempting target. Dont know if there is some built-in payment method they could attack or not.

But its always good to have some validation filed implemented on your website. Now I am creating such validation in PHP for http://www.primabazar.cz, where some bot posted several consecutive offers in a row. Interesting is, that there is security question – for example “Which of these animals does not have a tail?”
There are 10 radiobuttons and bot/hacker noticed, that radio button 9 is always the correct answers. Sometimes, its very interesting to watch “AI” learn things.

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• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by doriel. Reason: oh grammar

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WSVictor Delta

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