last updated August 2022
Background
- see also: History of Berkeley Parents Network
The original BPN website was created in 1995 by Ginger Ogle to archive discussions from a mailing list she had started a few years earlier for UC Berkeley parents. At the time, out-of-the-box mailing list and blogging software were not available, so Ginger set up a web server, wrote scripts in Perl for subscribing and posting, and over the years created more than 8,000 hand-coded HTML pages containing advice and reviews she copy-pasted from email newsletters. In 2012, BPN became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and we raised funds from our subscribers for a new website that would take advantage of software that was now widely available for websites and mailing lists. Starting in 2014, Ginger worked with Amit Asaravala of Return Control to create a new Drupal website for BPN, which was based on the old site, but would allow us to accept payments and automate many of the actions we previously had to do by hand. The new site launched in 2015. We continue to add new features and enhancements working with Return Control.
Technical Components of BPN
- Drupal + customized modules created by Return Control
- Acquia for web hosting
- Mailchimp for 5 weekly newsletters (for 40,000+ subscribers)
- Paypal for accepting payments and managing paid subscriptions that renew yearly
- G Suite and Google for Nonprofits for staff & volunteer email accounts and internal mailing lists
- SurveyMonkey for member surveys
- Staff: 1 part-time director, 3 part-time assistant directors, 1 part-time business manager, technical support from Return Control as needed, and 10 volunteer moderators.
Design & Structure of the Website
- Databases: Three searchable databases were compiled from pages on the old website that contained parents' reviews of hundreds of schools, childcare facilities, camps and classes. For each school, camp, or class, we added additional information to the parents' reviews, such as childcare license numbers, legal capacity, address, contact information, etc. Each school/class/camp in the database has a profile page that paid subscribers can edit themselves, and that parent subscribers can post reviews to.
- Listings: The listings contain subscribers' current posts (posted during the past 2-4 weeks). Most of the listings also have a weekly email digest that subscribers can opt in to, which contains the week's new posts. Only certain types of subscribers can post to each listing. For example, only community subscribers can post announcements & events, and only parent subscribers can post reviews and advice. See Where Can I Post? for details. Most of BPN's listings can be viewed by the public on our website, although some listings, such as nannies and babysitters, are restricted to subscribers only:
- Announcements (public) school openings, services for parents and kids, classes, camps, workshops, etc.
- Events (public) kid-friendly events and school admissions events
- Childcare (parents & nannies only) parents seeking/recommeing nannies, and nannies available
- Marketplace (BPN subscribers only) items for sale, items wanted, garage sales, housing offers
- Parent Q&A (public) advice and reviews in a Q and A format
- Tutors & Teachers (public) tutors, music teachers, college advisors offering their services
- Parent Connections (parents only) parent meet-ups, support groups, playgroups, etc.
- Subscriptions & User Accounts: Only BPN subscribers can post new content to the website. It is free for local parents to subscribe to BPN. Some "community subscriptions" are free, too, such as student babysitters, public schools, public libraries, and city-run programs. Most other community subscribers - schools, camps, childcare providers, and other businesses - pay a yearly fee to subscribe. Each subscriber has an account page where they can view all their past posts, and edit their account information such as email address, username, and newsletters elected. All new subscriptions are reviewed by a moderator. We use Paypal to manage paid subscriptions.
- Content, Privacy, and Public Access: Most of the content on the BPN website is publicly available, but names and contact information are private, with the exception of announcements. About 95% of the content on BPN is advice from parent subscribers, and is based on a Q&A format: a parent asks a question they'd like advice about, and other parents reply. BPN receives 20-30 new questions per week, and moderators review each post before it is published, assigning a topic to each question. BPN's Advice Archive includes parents' advice on more than 8,000 different topics, each of which is assigned to one of 12 main categories, so that the entire archive of 8,000+ topics can be easily browsed.
- Posting: Subscribers can post to any of the listings they have access to (see Where Can I Post?). Access is controlled by the website, based on the type of subscription. Anonymous posts are accepted for Parent Q&A. All other listings include at least the poster's username. An email or phone number is required on announcements and events. Moderators review every post before it is published on the website.
- Messaging: Subscribers can send messages to one another using the website's messaging system. Clicking the username on a post allows one subscriber to send a message to another subscriber, both of whom are identified only by their username. See About BPN's Private Message System for details.
- Other Functionality & Content:
- Administration: Special privileges are granted to moderators and administrators, which gives them the ability to approve/reject posts, view full subscriber information, create profile pages and FAQs, and mail newsletters.
- Documentation: How-to pages for admins and moderators that document website procedures, operation and maintenance are only accessible by administrators and moderators.
- FAQs: Public "Help" and "About" Pages on the website, such as this page, that explain how BPN works and describe policies for subscribing and posting. See About in the main menu on the website.