Hi Lars!
lars.sonchocky-helldorf@hamburg.de wrote:
> - We are not Window Maker and "Window Maker is not GNUstep“ (add a
> link to WINGs here: https://www.windowmaker.org/docs/wings.html )
> - We are a cross platform implementation (Linux, BSDs, Windows) of
> Cocoa, formerly OpenStep (link the Cocoa and OpenStep specs here too)
> - We are up to date (link to latest release and GitHub)
> - We are themable
> - We have software (link to software index)
>
> everything as link/anchor to a section further down the page where we
> explain it in more detail but not to extensive, about five to eight
> sentences per section should be enough. If there is more to explain
> link a subpage, like
> https://gnustep.github.io/experience/Theming.html in that section.
>
> We don’t need a myriad of subpages. Keep it as minimal as possible.
I agree that these concept should be present on the site and quickly
accessible - but as explained in other mails - disagree they should all
be direclty on the homepage.
I think that in order to put our best foot forward we should show what GNUstep is capable of on the front page without the user having to click anywhere. Hiding things (yes HIDING) behind multiple clicks is a huge mistake as it invites the user to go someplace else or to lose interest. Yes, these are marketing concepts, but how we present ourselves is what is at issue here.
The site has had its current look for the last several years and its organization has not helped to drive new membership at all. The current approach does not work and I think we need a fresh approach.
It is bad to define yourself with what you are not! and I disagree
putting it prominently on the homepage. It is a one-click away.
The link you mentioned was added though, since the WINGs acronym is
always cited.
I agree that we should not define ourselves by what we aren't. We should, however, CLEARLY and UNEQUIVOCALLY state what we ARE on our homepage. We fail to do that in a clear manner. We also need to make sure the latest documentation is posted whenever we do a release. Currently they fail somewhere in base due to a parsing issue.
The Software Index is still there but broken - all our dynamic part of
the site is still down, thus both the wikipedia list as well as software
index. We should accelerate on that. Next think to discuss with Ivan and
Fred at his retour, I propose.
I'll wait... our pace on getting the new website going has been glacial.
>>
>>
>> I answered that GNUstep already has themes, but when searching
>> for https://gnustep.github.io/experience/Theming.html I found out
>> that this page is nowhere linked from the front page, so I knew
>> it exists but I had to google it. All in all our web presence
>> (while looking somewhat sleek) is in a kinda sorry state: It
>> doesn’t get those messages around:
>>
The page (to be updated itself... started work on that) is both
experience and development interesting, so it needs to be linked by both
areas. Did so.
I would invite you to share your link on what you're working on the site publicly so that we can comment on it. I believe it's www-gnustep, correct? I would argue that any work done on that should be posted to the
gnustep.github.io repo before it's posted anywhere else.
> As I said: Our Website is the key to this. This would include to
> finally get a SSL-certificate from https://letsencrypt.org/ since the
> link https://gnustep.org/ is still not working (just
> http://gnustep.org/ ). But who am I to demand things here, I can only
> ask friendly … :)
It is on our todo list, Ivan said he would work on it... we shall remind
him of that.
Thx...
Riccardo