[Vit-discuss] Brainstorming

[Christian Neukirchen]

Ben Giddings <bg-rubytalk at infofiend.com> writes:

> Curt Hibbs wrote:
>> - What should [it] be/do/look?
>
> * Appeal to newcomers, and point them at the info they need/want quickly

- Downloads
- Pickaxe
- Online RDoc
- Links to various mailing lists, IRC channels, related websites/blogs
- Upcoming Conferences?

> * Promote hot projects (Ruby on Rails should promote Ruby, and Ruby
>   should promote RoR too)
> * Contain an easy-to-find site map and search engine
> * Have a few things I don't think exist yet:
>    * Ruby for (Perl|Python|PHP|C++) programmers

Don't forget our java friends. :-)

>    * A taste of Ruby -- a 10-minute glimpse at the language that gives
>      a hint of the syntax, of what makes Ruby unique, etc
> * Provide a way for people to find out what's new with Ruby without
>   having to join the mailing list

RSS/Atom feeds are a must if you want people to come back.  RWN should
possibly get it's own ML and feeds.

> * Have information in many presentations / languages so it is
>   accessible to everybody, even French-speaking PDA-users with limited
>   vision (not to pick on mes amis francais)

Multilanguage is essential for better acceptance.

> Ok, and here's a hard one:
> * Give a reason for *us* to keep using the site
>
> I don't know about you folks, but I really have no reason to use the
> Ruby site.
> * I get Ruby from my distro
> * I know to go to RAA or rubyforge for libs/apps
> * I know to go to ruby-doc.org or rubycentral.com for API docs, or to
>   remember how to use something
> * I have a whole set of other bookmarks for ruby-related things, few
>   of which point to ruby-lang.org, and few of which are linked to from
>   ruby-lang.org

I have to admit it's quite the same here... most of the time I only
refer newcomers to ruby-lang.org.  I think ruby-lang.org should
primarily made for newcomers to have them everything needed at a
glance, but still stay useful to advanced users.  (I dunno about other
sites, but how often to hard-core pythonists or perlers go to their
language site?)

> I think with a bit of effort we can consolidate a lot of this
> information on the ruby-lang.org site.  The benefit of this is that
> even if you're just going there for the quick reference, you might see
> an announcement about Instiki 3.0 and decide to check it out.

Maybe a planet.ruby-lang.org would be a nice thing to have for
community building/binding, too.

>> - What should it not be/do/look?
>
> * Limited number of links / text on the front page, so you're not
>   overwhelmed with options
> * Not overly corporate-looking
> * No ads, if at all possible
> * No lingering old news from months ago (it makes Ruby seem stagnant)

But provide archives, of course.

> * Don't drive content away (i.e. if possible, get Ruby Weekly News
>   integrated into the site maybe through an RSS feed or something,
>   instead of sending people to the RWN page, that way once someone has
>   glanced at the news they can proceed with downloading Ruby rather
>   than having to hit "back" a few times first)

See above about feeds.

-- 
Christian Neukirchen  <chneukirchen at gmail.com>  http://chneukirchen.org