Re: My first stab at the site

["digitect" <digitect mindspring com>]

> > As far as using the forums/news capability to replace Gnotices, I
think
> > it's work really cool. Since people can create accounts (maybe front
> > page customization at a later time?), they can also monitor postings
and
> > have followups mailed to them.
>
> The forums look more Usenet/open discussion oriented, though. We'd
like
> something along the lines of Slashdot/Squishdot/etc., more like a news
> posting site where people happen to be able to attach comments to the
> postings. I didn't see anything along those lines on the SF site, but
perhaps
> I'm wrong.

I'm curious what people envision about the functionality of News. (Is
the Gnotices name going to stick?) I like the idea of having a user
account for the site, but am less excited about customization.

Unless we think the site is going to be pulverized with content, I don't
have a problem with seeing all news items. For example, I currently
browse all the SlashDot and NewsForge stories every day. (I just don't
read many comments, which I see as a separate activity.) If we're really
worried about paring down the content (which I don't think we are), why
not just make a few different news pages for each major audience--Press,
"User" and Developer? Honestly, if a developer wants to see traffic on a
specific topic, he'll join a list. And browsing through a few
un-interesting headlines is hardly a burden.

Regarding comments viewing, amending some slight customization to our
current "it's-too-big-for-one-page" method might be helpful. Perhaps
three moderation levels would be flexible enough while keeping it
simple:
  0  Not posted from an account
  1  Posted from an account
 -1  Abuse, as moderated by the site administrator. This last level
would be useful for the removal of inappropriate comments without having
to go into the database and doing it manually (as just recently
happened). But we're still not talking about the user-moderation
overhead that SlashDot has. (Picking moderators, delivering
moderator-specific pages, etc.)

As far as interface customization, do we really need this? While I turn
off my SlashDot graphics because of their scary design and speed, I
don't think Gnotices/GNOME needs to have this kind of flexibility. The
whole "Themed Portal" concept at SourceForge is a complete waste of code
IMO. Just give me a well designed site with clear navigation and fast
graphics. With a dynamic masthead graphic/color scheme, that should keep
things fresh enough until the next re-design.


Steve  [ digitect mindspring com ]