Norman Vine writes:

 > FWIW IMHO pictures do not belong on the main page at all  !!!

I'm not a graphics fan myself.  I hate Flash pages (with an intensity
that would scare many of you), I hate big logos, I hate complex
layout, etc. etc.  I like to make my own Web pages work well not only
under lynx but on my cell phone text display.

On the other hand, when I go looking at other open-source projects'
home pages, what I almost always want to find is

1. a screenshot

2. a feature list

3. download information

Later I might come back looking for a FAQ, mailing lists, CVS and
developer information, roadmaps, tutorials, etc., but I don't care
about those on the first visit 

My target user is an appropriately skeptical person who has installed
and used a commercial user-level sim (probably MSFS) at least once
before, has heard of FlightGear, and has decided to go to the home
page to find out if this is just another piece-of-crap half-finished
over-hyped project or not.  The user has done this dozens of times
before, and was almost always disappointed -- the spreadsheet wasn't
as good as Excel, the mail reader was missing almost all required
features, etc. -- and she does not plan to let herself get burned
again by wasting too much time.  Sticking a screenshot thumbnail at
the top of the home page gives us a chance to grab her attention
instantly, before she wanders off to do something else, and does a
good job at showing the current state of FlightGear.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.megginson.com/

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