Rabbit Stew Lounge (RSL) is an online community and information project. With a casual, family feel, RSL has become a meeting place for its members to discuss everything from current events to personal matters. There is nothing exclusive about this community, however. All are welcome and encouraged to join and contribute. For more information about how to join, please read below.
Contents
RSL Evolution
The first go-around (RSL1) was nothing more than a discussion board hosted on my other site grengama.com. A chat room and home page was quickly added and the community suggested and voted for the domain name. After a series of design changes and tweaks, RSL2 was unveiled to include a blog system, news feeds, cookbooks and a media center. After a good solid year on RSL2, we release RSL3. RSL3 was a scaled-back, web standards compliant site that features a user forum, blogs, media center news feeds and chat window.
The latest generation, dubbed RSLG4, is a total re-write. I’ve moved away from providing ‘discussion boards’ in favor of blogging. Instead of relying on a PHPBB backend, we are now using WordPress — by far the best blog software around. In the process, the media center and user forums are now gone. Blog instead!
RSL Revolution
So you say you want a revolution? You want to change the world? Help us bring grassroots projects, good causes, and charitable endeavors to our reader’s attention. Start a blog that will reach hundreds (hopefully thousands soon) of readers. RSL is not an exclusive society: come one, come all. To join, read below.
In Strict Moderation
The saying goes that all good things in life should come in moderation. We live by this adage here at RSL. We have rules — strict rules — regarding decorum. We enforce our terms of use and expect that all members respect these rules. This accomplishes several things: First of all, spammers beware. Secondly, our members have a strong feeling of security when sharing their ideas and opinions. Third, we like children and have several in attendance. We appeal to those who have something important to say, and would rather not spend time wading through inappropriate material while trying to say it.
Disclaimer
You use this site at your own risk. I take privacy very seriously, but cannot guarantee that names, email addresses, or other private information will not be stolen by some third party. I even hear that the government is in the market for these sorts of things (sarcasm). The bottom line if you are concerned: Be careful what you post. Hide your email address if you want. Don’t show your name. Be general in your bio. Don’t include your birthday. Log out of RSL after each use — especially if you are on a public or work computer. If you take these steps, you will enjoy greater anonymity. Again, you use this site and every other on the Internet at your own risk and you hold RSL and its owner harmless of any damages or losses related to its use.
Design Notes
This site is driven by PHP and mySQL, using the WordPress core. PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML (www.php.com). MySQL is a key part of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python), a fast growing open source enterprise software stack. More and more companies are using LAMP as an alternative to expensive proprietary software stacks because of its lower cost and freedom from lock-in (www.mysql.com). These technologies form the backbone of what you see herein. WordPress is an open source blog project used by thousands of people on the Internet; we use it too. Our version is heavily modified with additional features, security, and other enhancements.
The rabbit logo was found in an archived wmf folder on my old work PC (I have no idea where it originally came from). I took it and turned it into the more earthy, pencil-like design you see today. The colors (shades of brown) were selected for their earthy feel (perhaps I was trying to stick to a rabbit-in-the-burrows sort of theme). I also recently re-designed the entire site using web standards (XHTML and CSS) as pioneered by Zeldman.
Joining RSL
To join Rabbit Stew Lounge, you need to be invited. For a limited time, you may register with invite code ‘STEW4U’. We’ll leave this active for as long as it takes the spammers to figure it out.