Re: Making websites for gnome-apps sexier

[Andreas Nilsson <nisses mail home se>]

Luis Villa wrote:

> On 6/10/05, Andreas Nilsson <nisses mail home se> wrote:
>  
>
> > I dare to claim that the websites for various gnome-apps needs to get
> > sexier.
> >    
>
> Yeah, the average site could stand to be nicer :) It would be nice if
> there were a
> gnome.org/projects/sample/ or something that included standard links
> like where to get it, hacking tips, so on, so forth, that people could
> copy/paste to do their own site from.
>  
Sure, I'll get on that one as soon as possible.

> [Oh, and a sexier http://gnome.org/projects/ would be a nice one-time
> fix for someone too!]
>
>  
>
> > Right now it's a bit hard to find information on how to start hacking on
> > your favorite gnome-app. This might lead to people intersted in
> > contributing to a project, don't have a clue where to look. Some
> > projects have websites on www.gnome.org/projects/, some of them are nice
> > (the evolution site is fantastic), but some are really unmaintained and
> > are in desperate need of updates (like the nautilus website and the one
> > for g-conf).
> >    
>
> To a certain extent, we do want to centralize that information, since
> there is so much that would be repeated, and because we want to
> publicize hacking on many things, even things that don't really
> need/deserve a website (like gnome-session, for example.)
>  
Perhaps both. Imagine someone surfing gnomefiles.org and finds, lets 
say, eye of gnome. Click the link that leads to the website for that 
project, tries it out and feels the need to say draw a new icon (!).  If 
there are some nice information on how to reach the developers right 
there on that site it would be really nice. But yeah, I see your point 
that it would be a lot of work to maintain websites with somewhat the 
same content for every module in gnome. A lot of stuff could probably be 
generated automaticly though.

And yes, there defenetly needs to be some easier way to find the 
relevant information on how to start hacking on some project, what 
urgently needs to be fixed and stuff like that. Someone really needs to 
overlook developer.gnome.org and figure out what is outdated and if it 
is possible to make start hacking on gnome sound like fun. More on that 
later down.

> > The other day I came across the new gedit website
> > (www.gnome.org/projects/gedit) and it was really nice.
> >    
>
> Yeah, it is. Other nice ones include:
> http://www.gnome.org/projects/sabayon/
> http://www.gnome.org/projects/epiphany/
> http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/
>
> Note that only one of those follows the gnome template; that's not
> necessarily a bug, but it would be good long-term to figure out why
> that is, and what changes they make should be incorporated into a
> gnome project 'demo' web site.
>  
There are so many things i love about the Evolution site. Garrett did a 
great job on that one.
One thing that I think the site does very well is to make hacking on 
evolution sound like fun. Right on the frontpage it basically says This 
is a Cool Project and You Could be Part of it!
One other nice thing is does is the list of contributors, showing the 
huge amount of number of people that have been involved in the project, 
making it feel less like a private club (something that gnome is accused 
of from time to time). It also lists what people have been hacking on 
what part, and say you want to do some documentation you got the names 
of the people that knows all the details about documenting evolution and 
those are the ones you can ask for tips.
Oh, yes, and there is no link to a screenshot page on the top, like in 
most projects but it is lurked into the content in a smart way.
I probably could go on like this for hours about the site... ;)

>  
>
> > It included how to get the software both via ftp and via CVS for those
> > interested in hacking. It also included some nice screenshots and a
> > short description of the software.
> >
> > I also discovered that it was really easy to alter the gedit-site to
> > make it fit for other projects and gave the nautilus website a try...se
> > here for my results: http://ramnet.se/~nisse/diverse/nautilus.
> >    
>
> Cool! Screenshot, maybe? :)
>  
What, of the page? It is right there...

>  
>
> > Hopefully
> > it will be up on the main site in a couple of days.
> >    
>
> Do you need help getting it committed?
>  
Yes, I don't have cvs access of any kind. Alex asked me if I could 
maintain it and I have mailed Christian Schaller that was in charge of 
the old page...but yet no response. Should I send a tarball to you so 
you can put it there?

- Andreas