Re: [cobalt-users] Path to users web directory question

["Carrie Linn Bartkowiak" <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

> I was told by someone that you can use the path with the users
> www.domain_name.com in it instead of the site number.
> I really dont want to have to tell each user what site number they are
since
> its more difficult for them to remember and I dont think they need to know
> if there are 150 sites on the server or 15 sites on the server.

Adam,
I can't help you on how to fix that, but I'd like to throw out another
perspective.
Most CGI scripts I install won't swallow the /sites/www.domain.com/web thing
either, I have to put the real path (since www.domain.com is just a
pointer).
I sat and thought over this for a while, because at first I thought it would
be difficult for the users to remember as well, and they'd know what number
they are.

But here's how I settled my thoughts on it.
First, in my "detailed" welcome letter (I just do a quickie 'here's your
username and password' email for those people I know are really adept, and a
more detailed, step-by-step welcome letter for people I'm not sure of or
those who've said up front they'll need hand-holding), I give them the path
to their home directory, web directory, and sendmail. Kinda like:
Here are some paths you may find helpful:
Perl-
/usr/bin/perl
/usr/bin/perl5.00503
Sendmail-
/usr/sbin/sendmail
Path to your root directory-
/home/sites/site15/
Path to your home directory (where your html files go)-
/home/sites/site15/web

This way, I don't have to worry about them remembering; they can always
refer back to their welcome letter for details.
I think I still have in my FAQ though that they should put
/home/sites/www.domain.com/web
that was before I found the problem for myself, so I'll need to change that
(thanks for reminding me!)

Now, about the site number; it's really irrelevant. Because if your second
client leaves, the next client that goes onto the server will be site2 -
even if they're the 50th site you've added. The users don't know that persay
(unless they're familiar with Cobalts already), but it's interesting, and
you might want to put it in your FAQ. Something like "My path says I am
site36. Does this mean there are only 36 sites on the server?"  Answer- "No,
these numerical slots do not correspond with how many sites there are on the
server. The Cobalt system simply sets up a numerical assignment to sites,
since internally it works with numbers rather than names."  *shrugs* You can
prolly come up with something better, I just smacked that out right now.
Plus, I've promised my customers that I won't have more than 100 sites on
the server. This is for both them *and* myself, as I don't want *my* sites
on a server with more than 100 sites! I know how sluggish things start
getting. Unlike some hosts we know about who have their sites on completely
different servers than their customers (gee, who do we know that has
customers whose servers are unreachable while their site is just fine?), I
have my own sites on the server as well. (I'm not just the administrator,
I'm also a client! LOL)
Anyway, I think that the number their site is can be a reassurance that I'm
keeping my word. If they are site 67, they'll know that I'm not lying to
them, whereas if they were site 167, they'd have me strung up in a minute.

Just a different perspective. It's really not such a big deal, once you
think about it.