Hi all,
The discussion on the removal of the !important statements seems to
halt... No good. There are a few problems:
We want to launch a new website soon, but:
1. there is no staging server
2. a conservative sound is heard when only minor changes are proposed to
the global css
(and an even more conservative sound is expected
when we are to change the global headers and
footers)
3. it is incredibly hard to understand the current CSS soup, on top of
which we are expected, because of 2., to launch a new site
4. it is already hard to design simple things at the domain
openoffice.org, because of 3.
This is a situation we can't maintain forever. We need to think of how
to proceed. We, as the website group, are responsible for a good
website, and we have a bad website. We need to take responsibility.
Since we have no staging server, we can't guarantee a 100% fluent
transition, however, we can do our utmost best to make it such one by
reviewing the diff's on this website before committing. Since that won't
give us a 100% guarantee, we have to inform the users, just like we have
done in the past with a Collabnet (~up)grade during this period. It is
simply the best we can do... Apart from standing still and changing
nothing. The current situation is so frustrating that it makes more
sense creating a new domain, and start with people who are enthusiastic
a new portal from scratch for OpenOffice.org. But such split of
community is not desirable. But tend to see this as an alternative which
becomes increasingly more interesting, which I hate to say.
So I propose to focus on a process of change (I do not have any
relationship with Obama ;) ), and make sure that it is a change that
does not interfere with everyday operation too much. This requires a
plan. A first rough draft:
0. announce on the website that we are working on the website, which may
cause minor inconveniences. in case major sections break, please notify
the [EMAIL PROTECTED] list.
1. delete all !important statements (of which none are related to
display nones etc., but only colour or text decoration)
2. introduce the new html code needed for the new design to work to the
header and footer files (e.g. the tabbed search, login etc., and the new
tabs with as style attribute: display:none (this can, but only for
testing in the tryouts area, be overridden with !important statements in
a manually included css file)
- the introduction of this code is first approved in a discussion at
this list.
3. finish the website in the tryouts area
4. upload the new content files, to www
5. remove the old header items, and remove display:none attribute of the
new ones (I am afraid that this will result, albeit for minutes, in a
messy appearance, maybe we can refine this point)
6. start actually enjoying the website again.
I know, I'm looking at things from a progressive point of view, and
rather see the site break ugly temporarily than continue with the
current site in a ramshackle state. But we have agreed on a change in
look, we are working on it all together... we need to take the final
steps as well before we can actually implement it. Let's figure out how
we can do this smoothly. Input much appreciated.
g.,
Maarten
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