The way I evaluate blog and CMS software is to examine the official web site. The official site indicates what my site would be like if I were to install the software. In particular, I am looking for features. I also take notice if the site loads quickly or not. It seems safe to assume others use a similar method of evaluation.
The current Habari front page provides good basic information. The front page, http://habariproject.org/en/, has many important items linked. This includes download, demo, documentation, support, FAQ, and community. There is an indication of how to pronounce "Habari" and what it means. There is a concise list of key features. The Habari blog, however, should be the main part of the Habari front page. Unfortunately, it's not. The main features of a Habari blog should be demonstrated right on the front page. On the current front page, there is no link to an Atom feed. There is no link to a tag cloud. There is no indication of what is the home page for the blog, other than perhaps http://habariproject.org/en/page/1. The video is helpful, but it should not occupy the prime spot on the home page. I would suggest the following changes. * Move the blog to the large column on the front page. Give the blog a new, prominent home page, like http://www.habariproject.org/. * Use the charcoal theme for the blog, as it is the most distinctive. * Take a screenshot of the video. Place a thumbnail of the screenshot in the sidebar in the right sidebar. Link from that image to a blog item that contains the video. * On the top link bar, add links to the wiki, the demo, and the screen shots. * If the home page has been translated to a language other than English, link to that translation. Otherwise, create a new link to "help translate Habari to new languages." A static web page managed from Habari could be the launch pad for that effort. * Try to manage as much of the web site from Habari as possible. Habari is not attempting, of course, to be an all-inclusive CMS. Having separate software for the wiki, for instance, is perfectly acceptable. * The right sidebar should have a link to a page dedicated to "Technical Specifications." That page should list the system requirements (such as PHP 5.2.0), the fact that Habari uses PDO (a very good thing), the databases Habari can use, template engines, and other specs. Technically-astute persons should find everything they need to quickly evaluate Habari. * The right sidebar should have a search box that submits a custom Google search covering the entire web site. * Keep in mind that the web site has two audiences: users and developers. Today a large proportion of visitors are developers. It can be foreseen that in the near future regular users will greatly outnumber the developers. Users should be steered toward feature lists, user mailing lists, community forums, the wiki, the FAQ list, available themes, and so on. Developers should be steered toward plugin and theme development information, developer resources, and the wiki. Maybe there should be a second, development-oriented blog. * Add a footer with a link to an about page. This should indicate that Habari is available under Apache License 2.0. There should be a notation as to when the project was founded, why, and who did so. There should be a link to the Habari cabal wiki page, or other explanation of the project's decision-making process. There should be a note about whether this is affiliated with any other project like Apache. There should be a note that options such as becoming a non- profit organization have been proposed, but no action has been taken as yet. * Don't throw out the good. There is a lot of great information on the web site. It's just not presented or organized as well as it could be thus far. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/habari-users -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
