Please checkout wiki homepage proposal

[Jordan Mantha]

I'm going to CC edubuntu-devel as this has really turned into a
development discussion. I'd like to move conversations to
edubuntu-devel where possible so that we don't distract from user
support and/or make people feel unwelcome by lots of developer-speak
and project internals.

On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 10:35 AM, Ace Suares<ace at suares.an> wrote:
> Hi Uwe,
>
> Thanks for your reaction! It's very nice to hear from all of you. Even 5
> days into this project and I am already feeling quite alone.

Don't worry, you're not alone. Some of us are just a bit slow at
getting to email.

> Apart from that, the wiki is so terribly slow that 10% of my edits just
> disappear (timeout) and that 80% of the pages take 30 seconds or so
> after I press 'Save Changes'. I can not find some person who could
> troubleshoot the problem with me and be able to fix it. So once again,
> thanx for your reaction! It keeps me going.

The wiki is slow, especially for people on poor internet connections.
The servers get hit pretty hard,

> The page https://wiki.edubuntu.org/Edubuntu/Wiki/ProposalWikiHomepage
> is just what it says: a proposal. I totally agree there should be a
> slightly better design. I've never been good with colours, so I took the
> colors from the edubuntu logo to make those boxes. I would like these
> two boxes to be with rounded corners and a lighter version of the
> colours, preferably with a gradient.
>
> The focus for now, is the content, which links are on the page, where
> they go and so on. So let the design be of later importance, just the
> general distribution, i.e. 'an area about eduntut', 'an area with
> important latest news (i.e. release), 'an area with links to the four
> main areas (or 5, or 3)' and so on.
>
> To illustrate my point about the content, try this:
>
> 1. go to www.edubuntu.org
> 2. click on downloads
> 3. where to go ? releases? no... first cdimage link? try it. Is that
> encouraging for a user to download something?
> second cdimage link? omg... last link ? oh no!
> In fact its' complicated to just download the cd ! Ubuntu website does a
> much better job at that.

Yes, the download page is not optimal at all. I got the Ubuntu
webmaster thinking about how we could have a cool Edubuntu-themed
download page like Ubuntu's. At the time the whole Addon thing was a
problem because we had to handle getting 2 .isos instead of just 1. If
we pull off moving to a DVD for Karmic it should be quite easy to get.
Somebody will need to talk to Matthew Newzum about it though.

> Or this example:
> 1. go to wiki.edubuntu.org
> 2. oh wrong page? This is ubuntu. where is the link to edubuntu?
> 3. it wiki.edubuntu.org/Edubuntu
> 4. hmmm let's request a free cd. click shipit
> 5. whaaaat?

Right, we need lots of updating. Much of the wiki was at a time when
Edubuntu had 3 full time Canonical employees and lots of planning
going on. Now that we're down to 0 Canonical people and bare minimum
development the wiki is very bloated, outdated, and in need of some
real cleanup. Thanks Ace for working on fixing that.

> In fact he whole site is like that. Almost never you land where you
> expect to land. This is the main concern for now. When that's cleaned
> up, I'd like to improve the design. But first the structure.
>
> I made a download page already. Now the other three....

I think that we need to look at the point of that wiki and how it
relates to the help wiki and edubuntu.org. wiki.edubuntu.org is the
development wiki used by contributors and potential contributors to
coordinate and plan Edubuntu's development and to educate potential
contributors as to how they can get involved. It is not really meant
to be a landing place for users. To that end I think "Community",
"Need Help?", and "Get Edubuntu" should point to pages on edubuntu.org
that can guide users. That leaves "Grow Edubuntu" (I like that
terminology, btw) as the real content of wiki.edubuntu.org/Edubuntu/ .

-Jordan