[openbeos] Re: the new website

  • From: "Waldemar Kornewald" <wkornew@xxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 22:33:13 +0200

Hello Jorge!

On 8/26/06, Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki) <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My fault: by "personal rants" I did not mean to imply that we encourage
the devs to post about their personal life. Yes, all content should be
related to Haiku; but within that context, they can have a personal
touch; that is the nature of blogs.

It's not a blog! :)

The newsletter is a different animal. It is a bit more formal, and also
meant to build value. As mentioned in my reply to Axel, I see the
newsletter as a potential incentive for people to write articles (beyond
their blog), a means for promoting the project (and eventually the
product), and potentially a space for our sponsors (both existing and
future) to advertise in, opening the possibility of raising funds for
the project.

Hmm, I'd have to see something more concrete before I continue commenting on it. I just think that there is too much artificial separation between all those content types.

Those were ideas of how the wiki could be used in response to the "what
do we want a wiki for?" questions. But really, the point here is that
having a wiki is a good thing, as it gives those outside of the project
an opportunity to show themselves, and potentially contribute with
documentation that could be useful.

Agreed. We should just make sure that it does not become a second website, again.

>> I am not concerned about the content; it is a blog, where people can
>> rant, and others can comment. It is more of a social thing.
>
> I think it would be too unprofessional to have this on our website.
> All important content should be part of the official website section
> and that doesn't leave much room for interesting Haiku-related
> articles in the user section. This will end in too many off-topic
> discussions and that's exactly what we should not have on the official
> site.

What user section?

"Community" section.

The Community area is meant to give the community a place to express
themselves and to nurture a sense of community. There is really no need
to have a separate site for this, as long as it is clearly
distinguishable from the rest of the site.

In my recent over-exaggerated email I hope to have made clear which cocerns I have with blogs. What is our focus? Haiku or end-user rants? Who needs those rants, anyway? Why do we want to "pollute" our official website with off-topic personal discussions which don't express our own opinion and might even be harmful for us because they go too far into the "personal rant" category? Why would people coming to our site want ot read personal blogs? What does that have to do with Haiku the product? Why don't you answer directly to these concerns? :)

I have a very big problem with putting something on our website that
is bigger than all the on-topic content we put there.

So the question is: is it possible to change the logo for the Community
area to one with the community co-branding signature?

Yes, with some theme hackery (hard-coding which page needs a different logo) it should be possible.

>> The *Community Forums* (with a special stress on *commnunity*) are
>> another place for the community to exchange ideas, tips, or to simply
>> socialize. It is for the community, and will not be confounded with
>> anything official.
>
> Exactly. Our phpBB forums already do this job.

Does that mean that we will migrate the phpBB forums to the new website?
If that is the case, that should go under the "Community" area.

I'd like to keep the content itself it separate. I'd love to have it visually integrated, but I don't know how to do it and I don't have enough time. If someone offers to do it (via plugin?) I'll gladly take his work.

> You talk about "trust", but then you don't even want to give the
> developers (the people who *make* Haiku! it's *their* product!)
> access. That's a bad solution and I doubt that any of us will accept
> it. We trust you if you trust us.

Too bad that you take it that way. :-(

Sorry, you just sounded too much like koki.org. :) I really understood that you wanted to *not* give the developers access to the whole website.

It's OK that the core devs have full access; but it would have to be in
a manageable way. The "anybody can post anywhere, anytime" approach does
not work if you want to have a cohesive, compelling message, and that is
what marketing is all about.

Well, that's an acceptable compromise. The developers let you do all the work, but still get full access. :) The fact that anyone can post anywhere doesn't mean that we *have* to actually do it. We can leave this to you.

While Haiku would admittedly not exist without the devs that create the
code, and I deeply appreciate what the devs do (I really do), Haiku is
more than just devs, and it will be more so as it grows. I would
(gently) ask if you could try to acknowledge that there are people that
can contribute in areas of competence other than yours. Otherwise, there
is no need for a marcom team (or any other non-engineering team for that
matter).

While I don't really see me as a developer, anymore, I agree with you (of course!). You should know that I do understand a few obvious things like the team not only being developers. ;)

If you think of it, the fact that you have such a narrow view of what
news can be, and clearly underestimate the persuasion power and
usefulness of a well thougthout and designed front page is in itself
proof that Haiku could indeed greatly benefit from a marketing function.

Now you're getting personal. I just do not like splitting everything up too much and I have never seen news which could not be part of the "article" section I'm having in mind. You're still calling it a blog... If you want to make a more pretty front page I'm all for it, but may I remind you of the fact that you mentioned *three* article types? - News & Events - Newsletter - Developer's blogs (actually four if you count user blogs, but I really have doubts about them being a good idea)

I'm well aware of news items as you can already see on the current
website. But I really don't understand what you have in mind for
newsletters that could not be part of "member articles" (not developer
blogs!) and why you cannot use the same for both. You seem to have
ambitious marketing plans if you need a separate newsletter which
should flood companies and is so extremely different from the "member
articles" that you cannot unify both and only pick the
markting-related content when sending it to companies and sponsors.

News needs to be a section on its own, with an entry in the top menu, a
page with the latest (10?) entries and links to the archives. In the
front page we can have a block that lists, say, the 10 most recent
headlines (just the headlines, not the news). I would like to use the
real estate in the front as wisely as possible (mockup coming).

Gavin? Do you still want to code? We need you (and other web developers) to implement Jorge's ideas. That's too much for me... :) I'm really getting too busy for this.

I'm happy that this can at least be done without giving out shell access...

Makes sense, but it does not have to be limited to developers. However,
what I would like to see are teams that actually perform specific
functions within the Haiku organization (for ex., admin, development,
marcom, QA/Testing, certification, etc.), with their respective members,
and a point of contact.

Yes, I should have said "contributor" or "member".

Is there any problem with adding the user-oriented content later from a
logistics point of view?

No, just that we have to reorganize the website and it's more work.

We indeed need a place for the "marketing stuff" that would include
logos, branding guidelines, etc. I am inclined to think that this needs
a menu entry, but perhaps it is not imperative. Usually, such content is
targeted to the media, which is why many projects put it under an area
called "Media", "Press" or something along those lines.

What about "Resources"?

Bye,
waldemar.org Kornewald

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