Dan:
It sounds like Dropbox will work just fine for your purposes, provided all that you are looking for is recovery from the save points of the entire file and not specific nodes. In my view, if users can cock up Github then the problem is with Github and not the users (an application should conform to user expectations and not the other way around). I like all the services that Github provides but its complexity and the requisite learning curve might turn it into an obstacle for your user group (expecially if you expect regular turnover). And, you can expand your cloud size by recommending all your staff for a dropbox account. I've done that on a regular basis and right now I have over 52GB of space more than enough for document handling. Or you can go for a commerical account as they have a pretty affordable sliding scale of cost.
I've used Projectlocker as an SVN, since it has a good user interface, but again it might be more than what you need.
Jim
On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 11:29 PM, Daniel O'Donnell <daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca
wrote:
Maybe I should reask it. Is there a reason for not just using dropbox or drive?
I ask this not to disparage the advice for github, but because when I switch, I need something that really eliminates this problem (that is to say: be easily trainable to skittish people) rather something than replaces it with something else. I don't mean eliminating it in my research projects; only a project where there is a lot of turnover and people who need only brief access.
On 14-12-29 05:39 PM, Abdullah Alger wrote:
Well, Github doesn't cause problems, it's really the user who messes it up.
However, if you get the idea of doing work on branches, then it is easy to delete a branch, or reset a branch if it's not pushed to the master branch. This might be a little confusing, but it's pretty easy to follow once you've done it a few times. As long as people are working on different branches and not messing with the master branch, then you should be fine. If they mess up their own branches, then there are ways they can move back to previous versions, or pull in the master again to their own project.
That's basically how Git works. As long as students cannot push to the master branch, you should be fine. They can always fork the main project and make pull requests to add to the master branch, which could be set up so that each commit (or modified file) to the master has to be approved. That way you always know what's being added to the master. Once a commit has been added to the master, then they are able to pull the new material into their projects so everyone is up to date.
I hope I didn't make this too confusing.
On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 1:09 AM, Daniel O'Donnell < daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca> wrote:
A question I'd have is how easy is it for github to cock up?
Subversion works great for us until a student does something unexpected. Then we end up having to go in and clean out all the locks and the like. That's the bit that is causing us trouble. It happens probably twice a year and leaves them all very nervous in the meantime. They aren't confident enough to google solutions and fix them themselves. So we have good interface with subversion via Oxygen; but it occasionally throws an error that sends everybody scrambling.
My fear is that Github would do the same: I'm willing to sacrifice version control for something consumer friendly.
On 14-12-29 03:38 PM, Abdullah Alger wrote:
Easy answer is Github. If your assistants do not have very technical skills and are uncomfortable with a terminal, it's very easy to use from their downloadable UI for both Mac and Windows.
https://mac.github.com/ https://windows.github.com/
On Monday, December 29, 2014, Daniel O'Donnell daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca wrote:
Hi all,
I have a technical question that isn't really medieval. I run several journals out of the Lethbridge Journal Incubator (you can learn more about the model here: http://journalincubator.org/). Until now, we've used Subversion as our central cloud storage. This year, however, I had a complete turnover in the graduate assistants, most of whom were not very technically inclined and I'm finding Subversion is more hassle than it is worth (it mostly works well, but if something goes wrong, the students can't fix it).
What we need is a cloud based repository system, preferably one that allows us access to arbitrary revisions (students find it comforting to know they can always correct mistaken overwrites), and preferably does version control of some kind--either locking or svn-type comparison. Best, however, would be something very low maintenance, drag and drop, and preferably doesn't require the use of a special client for file manipulation (that's where our subversion issues come).
I'm thinking Dropbox or Drive, though I don't know anything about setting those up for an organisation. Does anybody have any other tips?
-dan
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Daniel Paul O'Donnell Professor of English University of Lethbridge Lethbridge AB T1K 3M4 Canada
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-- From my Ubuntu notebook
Daniel Paul O'Donnell Professor of English University of Lethbridge Lethbridge AB T1K 3M4 Canada +1 403 393-2539
Digital Medievalist -- http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/ Journal: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal/ Journal Editors: editors _AT_ digitalmedievalist.org News: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/news/ Wiki: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/wiki/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/digitalmedieval Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49320313760 Discussion list: dm-l@uleth.ca Change list options: http://listserv.uleth.ca/mailman/listinfo/dm-l
-- From my Ubuntu notebook
Daniel Paul O'Donnell Professor of English University of Lethbridge Lethbridge AB T1K 3M4 Canada +1 403 393-2539
Digital Medievalist -- http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/ Journal: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal/ Journal Editors: editors _AT_ digitalmedievalist.org News: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/news/ Wiki: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/wiki/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/digitalmedieval Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49320313760 Discussion list: dm-l@uleth.ca Change list options: http://listserv.uleth.ca/mailman/listinfo/dm-l