Re: Taking a step back for a moment......

[Joakim Ziegler <joakim helixcode com>]

On Wed, Nov 22, 2000 at 01:20:10PM +0530, Sai Kiran wrote:

>> 1. Navigation
>> we don't need to plan out elaborate schemas for navigation.  Just a
>> simple one that works.  I think that we have basically all agreed that
>> we should organize navigation by task.  This makes sense, as this is how
>> people want to use websites.  I agree with Shawn Admunsun that we want
>> to make the names short and easily scannable.  I also think that it
>> should be text-based.  If we want to get fancy, we can do a javascript
>> tree expansion type thing so someone can (if they have a browser that
>> supports it) get to the page they want right away.  This wouldn't stop
>> normal users from getting there in a normal fashion though.
 
> 	I really think we should try to avoid JavaScript etc. More so
> because this is a technology developed by the browser makers. Please try
> looking at a page with pop-up layer based menu in IE 3.0 or something. It
> totally destroys the page's look. Even if we decide to do something fancy,
> let us try to avoid JavaScript and DHTML. What do people think about a
> Java Applet ?

Using Java for navigation is totally broken. Using DHTML/JavaScript is
better, but should really be avoided too (I succumbed to the temptation on
the existing www.gnome.org pages, and it works great under browsers that
support it, but it sucks on older ones. Not that I think that's a must, but
it often happens).

By the way, avoiding something because it's "a technology developed by the
browser makers" is totally lame, in particular considering that 90% of the
widely deployed web technologies that work fall into that category, and the
W3C takes a lot of its inspiration from the browser makers. But I digress.



> 	I think we should list components in the developers section rather
> than the Software Map. I agree with Sarel that most people searching for
> applications might not even lnow what components are. 

This should, as others have pointed out, probably be two views of the same
database.


>> We should try and gear the site towards pushing the GNOME platform.  To
>> do that well, we need to offer ways for people to get involved.  I
>> suggest that we prominently feature a "Projects of the week"
>> section.  Basically, it would be a place for new people to get involved,
>> by doing a fairly straightforward task.  There could be a listing of
>> needed projects broken down by different areas: translation,
>> documentation, website, etc.  I am sure that each project under the
>> GNOME umbrella has a decent sized list of simple things that the core
>> members just don't have time for.  We could post a list, with
>> descriptions and contact info for people to browse.  When someone
>> completes a task, we post it on a "new developer of the week" section or
>> something similar.  Mozilla does this with their "Friends of the tree" -
>> this seems like a good community-building technique.


> 	Sounds like an excellent idea. Probably we should also maintain
> some list like "Latest Members of the GNOME family" or something similar
> with the list of people who have joined the GNOME project in the last
> week. Anyways, I think it's a great idea. 

Knowing when people "join the GNOME project" is hard, beyond the idea outline
above, because of the informal structure of the project. People usually start
out submitting some patches, and then become more and more involved. There's
no clear point where they cross over into being a part of the project as such.

-- 
Joakim Ziegler - Helix Code web monkey - joakim helixcode com - Radagast IRC
      FIX sysop - free software coder - FIDEL & Conglomerate developer
            http://www.avmaria.com/ - http://www.helixcode.com/