I recently posted a modest Drupal Admin Manual for the non-technical admin.

Sorry to would-be readers who saw Site Temporarily Unavailable error id: "bad_httpd_conf" for an inderminate number of hours. "Now what?", I wailed...

Fortunately, this was easy to fix. It's not a Drupal thing (whew!), as spidersilk points out here. It's a glitch chez Dreamhost, which the ISP addresses in their support wiki. Calling up and re-setting my domain hosting settings fixed things within minutes.

Whew! It's up!

About a year ago, I wrote a Book of how-to pages as a beginner's site admin manual, which I used to get clients up and running. I've now relocated the Book here, for your edification and amusement as well. (Not a mean task; read more here.)

As an Ace in name only, I am only slowly realizing what the sharper cards in the deck have known all along: that for making "list of nodes" pages, Views is the way to go.

(I think I'll change my site's Mission now: "Drupalace.com: Bringing you the blindingly obvious since 2007.")

Here at the end of the year's first week, I wish all visitors a happy Year of the Mouse. Or is it Rat? Let's say Rodent; I'm in an ecumenical mood.

I've been slow in responding to recent emails and comments, here and on the Drupal forums. And for valid reasons: hard work developing some Drupal sites, plus – the big time-eater – impending arrival of a new family member. But I'll be on top of things in 2008, throughout the diaper changes and feedings and choppy sleep.

Here's a quick list of short-term tasks:

Kind inquirer Rob asks about the origins of this site's green theme, and whether it could be made available for download. Why, these pages just might go all pink from blushing!

The theme is just hopped-up Zen, as described here: http://www.drupalace.com/page_my_site_setup

First a question: Is there some Drupal name for "pages that list nodes"? Like the front page on many sites (including this one) – any web page that lists nodes, as opposed to a web page that is a specific node. For lack of a name, I'll call these "node-list pages".

Whatever your level of Drupal, you'll find something useful in this great article from Lullabot. (Me, I'm taking a special look at the Views tips, as I – like all Drupaltons must – get slowly seduced by the power of Views.) See more goodness in the article's user comments.

http://www.lullabot.com/audiocast/podcast-50-drupal-tips-and-tricks

And while you're at the Lullabot site, sign up for their Drupal podcast!

Here's a question I posted to the Drupal.org forums at http://drupal.org/node/183302 . I'd love to see an answer, so will ask it to Drupalace.com readers as well:

I am creating a new site whose topic will encourage readers to "share" specific pages' content with other people, by means such as:

* forwarding the page content to others
* pasting the page content into email (or into other sites' forums, comments, etc.)
* pasting the page URL into email (or into other sites' forums, comments, etc.)

Continued from the previous quintet of installments: a look at Rajesh Setty's Blogging Starter Checklist, with a particular eye toward applying its advice to blogging on a Drupal site.

http://www.squidoo.com/blogstarter

This time, a change of pace: I'll look back at all the past Checklist suggestions I undertook, implemented, or otherwise subjected myself to, and report on results.

Yes, results! That's what makes the world go round. Results put the spin in the globe, the worm in the tequila, the... uh... the drupe in Drupal...