[archhurd-devel] Website change ideas

[Michael Walker <mike@barrucadu.co.uk>]

Hi guys, (sorry about not being on IRC recently)

Since the Archlinux website changed I've been thinking about how to
improve the Arch Hurd website, and not just by changing the design to
match the new one, rather, using the change of archlinux.org to
inspire a change in archhurd.org and produce a nicer-looking and more
functional website. Here are a few ideas:

 * Design change (not sure what just yet, give me time to think about
it and try a few things)
     - Should include possible ad-space, maybe a square advert in the header.
     - Current design doesn't have any indication on *getting* Arch
Hurd, users have to turn to the wiki. This must be remedied.
 * Replace news with a blog:
     - Pros:
         * Allows comments - community involvement ftw
         * Allows categories - could have a non-news category, such
as mini tutorials, for example. Not sure whether this is a good idea
         * Allows pages - thus, the main website could be entirely
under the control of a CMS, making adding and changing content
trivial.
     - Cons:
         * Would introduce another control panel (ie: the blog one)
and so remove power from dev.archhurd.org
 * Slim down forum until it grows to a point where we need more
boards - this would make the forum look busier and so perhaps invite
more activity:
     - Could merge "Hurd Discussion" and "Off Topic" into one
"General Discussion" board
     - Could merge "Community Contributions" and "Artwork and
Screenshots" into "Community Showcase"
 * Make a matching layout for lists.archhurd.org and projects.archhurd.org
 * Move from using gitweb to cgit for projects.archhurd.org, perhaps?
 * Financing:
     - Perhaps add a donators list - the existence of such a list on
archlinux.org played a role (albeit small) in my decision to donate.
     - Add Flattr to try and get smaller donations which will,
hopefully, add up to big (or even reasonable) donations.
     - Advertising on archhurd.org (unless anyone is greatly opposed)
 * Community:
     - Facebook page (I've started on this, will finish it later)
     - identi.ca group (do we have one? I can't remember)
     - Push news updates to identi.ca and the facebook group, perhaps
also to the IRC channel

Does anyone have any more ideas, or objections or suggestions for my
ideas? I think the website is one of the things holding Arch Hurd back
a bit (in addition to the slow and sparse updates in the past few
months), so I want to make it much nicer and, above all, make people
want to investigate further.

-- 
Michael Walker (http://www.barrucadu.co.uk)