initial structure ideas

[Ryan Muldoon <rpmuldoon students wisc edu>]

I thought that it may be a good idea to talk about how we want to
organize content.  Since this is my main area of interest, I thought
that I could give a quick proposal.  The big caveat on what I am
suggesting is that I have yet to see a complete list of all the content
that is needed on the gnome websites, so I am just including what I know
we need.  I will ignore the issue of localization for now, as that is a
somewhat separate issue.

Quick structure proposal:

Main site
-->project information
-->information on free software (link to fsf)
-->friendly links to other sections
-developer.gnome.org
-->tutorials
-->whitepapers
-->reference docs
-->cvs stuff (bonsai, lxr, etc)
-->project of the week (HP's former weekly list of quick projects)
-->gnome roadmap
-->translation info
-->IRC info
-projects.gnome.org
-->documentation project
-->ui hitsquad
-->gnome sound project
-->whatever other projects are being hosted by gnome
-software.gnome.org
-->hosted gnome app websites
-->application list, broken down by category
-->new gnome software announcements
-->new gtk software (?)
-news.gnome.org
-->some kind of web-board system like gnotices
-foundation.gnome.org
-->foundation meeting minutes
-->board members, with contact info
-->advisory board info
-->application form for membership
-->charter
-mail.gnome.org
-->list of public mailing lists, and archives
-->improved search interface
-people.gnome.org
-->list of developers, by region
-->interviews with developers? (Is this still happening?)
-users.gnome.org  (needs a better name)
-->how to get gnome
-->screenshots of gnome in action
-->frequently asked questions (for users)
-->link to themes.org for gtk and sawfish
-->gnome user's guide
-bugs.gnome.org
-->bugzilla system
-->nice bug reporting assistant (like Eazel's)


This is off the top of my head, after a little bit of research.  But, I
think that making clear sections
allows for a few things:
1. the user knows where he/she is.  Each 2nd-level section can have a
slight variance of the main
site's look, so the user knows that she/he is on a gnome site, and can
quickly tell which part
2. It helps in dividing up the teams of maintainers.
3. It really helps in the initial templating of the site - how
header/footer/sidebar inheritance works, etc.

Of course, there will have to be some crosslinking and such, and
multiple avenues to the same information, but this seems to be a pretty
logical division of content.  The main page needs to do a
good job of helping people get to each section quickly and efficiently
(which, for the most part, it does now).  I also feel that we should
immediately assert the fact that gnome is Free software, in the FSF
sense.

As an obligatory implementation-related comment, I strongly feel that
CSS should be used across the board......it simplifies things, and
speeds up downloads.  Also, I really disagree with using images for
text.  That is what CSS is for, and it slows down translations.

Anyway, hopefully this is of some help.


    --Ryan