Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 16:06:28 -0500 From: Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.org> To: underway@comcast.net (Gary W. Swearingen) Cc: Mark Linimon <linimon@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: RFC: Restructure of the front page Message-ID: <20031201160628.3df5ff8e.trhodes@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <6cad6cjo0q.d6c@mail.comcast.net> References: <20031201133128.1eee8ecf.trhodes@FreeBSD.org> <6cad6cjo0q.d6c@mail.comcast.net>
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On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 12:12:21 -0800 underway@comcast.net (Gary W. Swearingen) wrote: > Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.org> writes: > > > o Removing the 'News' section. Most of the information there is > > repeated on the right bar. > > Good move, but what's to happen to the /news/ pages? > > http://www.freebsd.org/releases/index.html has a link to > http://www.freebsd.org/news/newsflash.html All but one of the 'Press' pages had links on the right side bar. This will be fixed in a later commit. > > Maybe replace news/*.html with "no longer in use" pages, to cut down > on bug reports, etc. Maybe, but I would like a wider review on it first. After the first change is made, another patch can be forged for this purpose. > > > o Adding a supported platforms section (replaces the above). This > > will help users locate information on arch support without going > > through a maze of links. > > The center section already mentions supported platforms. The stuff > proposed for addition seems mostly for developers and belongs in the > development section or one of its linked pages. If someone wants to > add platform-related user stuff outside the handbook, it could be > linked to off the "release info" page, or from the web page navigation > "Software" section. The key word here is 'mentions', and the idea here is not to just mention, but link to information. Say for instance that you are not a developer, but own a Sparc. Would it not be easier to just click a link on the corner than to see its supported and hunt down the link yourself? I honestly don't think that everyone who owns a Sparc, Alpha, or AMD64 system is a developer, nor would they care. They would want quick access to the information about FreeBSD on their CPU. The Development section could also include platform information, however, most of the development work is aimed at every platform supported. KSE for instance is a good candidate for the development section. > > > Under Development, remove the Release Engineering link (we have > > a section on it already). > > The front page should be moving to a layout that segregates stuff for > developers out of the way of other users. The "Software" section > should be for non-developers but should have an RE intro (preferably > just a link to a handbook section) and most or all of the RE > scheduling info. The "Development" section deserves its own RE link > for things like developer-only RE docs and RE team member lists, etc. I completely agree with this first statement. We should have the information divided between users and developers. But we should also include support and documentation, projects that are under active development, and other resources. The information should be easy to find, even for new users. An idea I had after sending my initial RFC. It was to get a series of questions together about FreeBSD. Send about 5+ users to the site and see how long it takes them to answer those questions. These people should be familiar with the Internet, but unfamiliar with our website. > > > For the same reason, the "Doc. Project" link should be moved to the > "Development" section; it's of no interest to typical users. A similar idea was going through my head, but I don't want to make a huge change in one commit. > > Along the same lines, "Release Information" is rather esoteric and > could be confused for a verb phrase. How about "Version information" > or "FreeBSD versions"? > > The "Release Information" link should be above the "Getting FreeBSD" > link, because one should learn about the releases before getting one. > > The link "Ported Applications" is more esoteric than it needs to be; > the first word is not helpful and only makes newbies scratch their > heads. The linked page is about ports for now, but someone could > later replace it with a more generic page about applications, with a > section on ports. Now we are getting ahead of ourselves. Your commits hold merit with this little project of mine, but I'm not ready to tackle the entire front page/site at this time. -- Tom Rhodes
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