DeKalb ARES logo
DeKalb ARES
DeKalb County, Georgia
Next meeting Sat, Jun 20 · 1:00 PM Weekly net Sun 8:00 PM Field Day Jun 27–28
All quiet · updated
For editors

Editor guide

A plain-English walkthrough of how to update the DeKalb ARES website. You don't need to know HTML or Markdown — every edit happens through a form.

First time signing in

Editing the website happens through GitHub — the platform that stores the site's source. You'll need a free GitHub account, plus collaborator access to the DeKalb ARES repository, both one-time setup steps.

1. Create a GitHub account

  1. Go to github.com/signup.
  2. Enter an email address and a password. Pick a username you'll remember — your callsign in lowercase works fine (e.g., n4rar).
  3. GitHub will email you a verification code. Type that in to finish.
  4. If GitHub asks survey-style questions ("how much programming experience…"), skip them or pick anything — none of it affects this site.

2. Get added as a collaborator

Send your GitHub username to the webmaster (KK4ODA). You'll get an email from GitHub titled "KK4ODA invited you to KK4ODA/dkares-website" — open it and click the green Accept invitation button.

3. Sign in to the editor

  1. Open dekalbares.org/admin/. Bookmark this page — it's your editor entrance from now on.
  2. Click Login with GitHub.
  3. The first time only, GitHub will ask if you want to authorize "Decap CMS". Click Authorize.
  4. You're in.

What you'll see in the editor

After signing in, the screen splits in two. The left sidebar lists every section you can edit:

Click any section to see its entries. Click an entry to edit it. To create a new one, use the blue New … button in the top-right.

Posting an alert

Alerts are short, time-sensitive messages — "Net activated tonight on 146.760", "EOC requesting 4 operators at Tucker Fire HQ 1900", "Tornado watch in DeKalb until 11pm — spotters please monitor". Active alerts appear in a banner at the top of every page until they're cleared or auto-expire.

Distinct from the Operational status pill (which is the posture — standby / monitoring / activated). Alerts are the messages layered on top.

  1. Sidebar → Alerts → New Alert.
  2. Fill in the form:
    • When issued — click Now.
    • Severity — pick from the dropdown:
      • Info (blue) — informational, low visibility.
      • Advisory (amber) — heads-up, moderate.
      • Warning (orange) — significant, prominent.
      • Urgent (red) — call to action, top priority.
    • Headline — one short sentence; the hook. Members and partner agencies see this first.
    • Details (optional) — longer body, where/when/who/what. Plain text; line breaks preserved.
    • Link (optional) — point to an SOP, an activity entry (e.g. /activity/2026-04-20-…/), or an external URL.
    • Cleared — leave unchecked when posting a new alert.
    • Auto-clear after — default is 24 hours. Use 1 hour for very short-term things, "Never" for things that need to stay up until manually cleared.
  3. Click Publish → Publish now.
  4. Within 2–3 minutes the alert appears in the banner at the top of every page.

Clearing an alert when it's over

  1. Sidebar → Alerts → click the alert.
  2. Check the Cleared box.
  3. Publish → Publish now.
  4. The alert disappears from the banner and moves to the Archive at /alerts/. Nothing is deleted — old alerts stay viewable for the record.

Auto-expired alerts (past their Auto-clear after window) move to the archive automatically — you don't have to remember to clear them.

Changing the site-wide status badge

The colored pill at the top of every page — "ALL QUIET · updated 2h ago" — is the fastest way to signal what DeKalb ARES is doing right now. Update it when a severe-weather watch is issued, when the group is monitoring a developing event, or when an activation is underway.

  1. Sidebar → Operational status. There's only one entry — click it.
  2. Pick the Current state:
    • All quiet (standby) — green. Default. Normal operations.
    • Monitoring conditions (amber) — we're watching a developing situation (severe-weather watch, an incoming storm system). Not activated yet.
    • Activated (red) — DeKalb ARES has been activated. Net is up, members are deploying or relaying.
  3. Short detail (optional) — a one-liner shown next to the state. Examples: "Severe T-storm watch until 11pm", "Monitoring Hurricane Zeta", "EOC activation — check 146.760". Leave blank to hide.
  4. When was this set? — click the Now button on the datetime picker so the badge reads "updated just now" instead of showing a stale timestamp.
  5. Click Publish → Publish now. Every page updates within 2–3 minutes.

When the event is over, come back and flip the state to standby with the note cleared. Always update the When was this set? field so the "updated Xh ago" reflects the change.

Adding an activity log entry

After a meeting, drill, activation, or public-service event:

  1. Sidebar → Activity log → New Activity entry.
  2. Fill in the form top to bottom:
    • Sort date — the event's date in YYYY-MM-DD. Use the start date for multi-day events.
    • Display date — how the date should read on the page. Free text: "June 22–23, 2024", "April 2026", "July 4, 2026".
    • Tag — pick one from the dropdown (Activation, Drill, Field Day, Meeting, Public Service, Training, Outreach).
    • Title — one-line summary.
    • Summary — 1–3 sentences shown on the activity cards.
    • Image (optional but recommended) — click Choose an image → upload, or pick from previously-uploaded images. If you leave this blank, the DKARES logo is used as a placeholder. The card still works, but a real photo (even a phone snapshot from the event) looks much better.
    • Image alt text — describe what the image shows (for screen readers). Skip if you didn't upload an image.
    • Image credit — if required: "Photographer Name · CC BY 4.0". Only needed for stock or third-party photos.
    • Body (optional) — a longer write-up. See below for when to use this.
  3. Click Publish → Publish now (top-right).
  4. Wait 2–3 minutes, then refresh /activity/ to see it live.

Don't worry about typos — you can always come back and edit. Deleting an entry permanently removes it, so prefer editing over deleting when possible.

The Body field — writing a longer story

Every activity entry gets its own page (at /activity/<slug>/) when someone clicks its card. The Summary field is the 1–3 sentence teaser on the card; the Body field is the longer story that appears after the summary on the detail page.

Use the Body field for entries where there's more to say — after-action notes from a drill, a personal recap of a deployment, extra photos from an event. For most routine meetings and short training events, leaving the body blank is fine. The detail page still works, just shorter.

The Body editor has formatting buttons at the top:

Tip: bodies for older entries can be filled in whenever there's time. Doing it in batches works fine — there's no deadline.

Updating the Net Control schedule

Weekly rhythm: when a member signs up for a Sunday, add an entry so it shows on the /nets/ page.

  1. Sidebar → Net Control schedule → New Weekly net.
  2. Fill in:
    • Sunday date — YYYY-MM-DD, must be a Sunday.
    • Net Control — callsign + first name.
    • Alternate — callsign + first name.
    • First-Sunday simplex test? — check only on the first Sunday of the month when the simplex test runs.
  3. Publish. The Nets page updates within 2–3 minutes.

You don't need to clean up old Sundays — the page only shows entries from this Sunday forward. Past Sundays stop appearing on their own.

Editing the Equipment hub

To add a new equipment category (e.g. "Antennas"), reorder the hub, or flip a "Coming soon" item to live:

  1. Sidebar → Equipment items.
  2. Click the item to edit, or New Equipment item.
  3. Fields:
    • Display order — 1 appears at the top of the hub, 2 below, etc.
    • Title — e.g. "Antennas".
    • Description — one short paragraph.
    • Link URL — leave blank for now; fill in when a dedicated page exists.
    • Status — live hides the "Coming Soon" tag and shows an arrow; soon shows the tag.

Documents & SOPs

When a new SOP is published or an existing PDF's URL changes:

  1. Sidebar → Documents & SOPs.
  2. Click the doc to edit, or New Document.
  3. Fields: Display order, Title, URL (full https:// or http:// link), and an optional Description.

If something looks wrong