Sitting here on the bus with nothing to do, I was thinking about this and it
seems like a great idea. The website is way too large and full of content to
be useful to anyone. As I look though my tree on gila, here are my thoughts:
We should group the site into modules and give an owner to each module. This
way, the owner would be in charge of a='ing anything new that comes into the
module, commits to existing pages would only require review when one edits
pages that are owned by another person (if I edit the bugzilla-helper, for
example, I would need r= from Grev because he owns the helper...) This will
ensure that the number of new pages is kept down and new pages are put in
the right place, avoiding this problem in the first place.
Here are the modules and some ideas for owners:
1. Index--Would be HIGHLY restricted and for things that are placed in the
root of the html dir. Right now, there are 119 files in the html directory,
there should only be one directory per module, and a few files (index.html,
template.html, search.html,
hey-where-did-this-page-go-in-the-redisign.html...Ok, yes we shouldn't name
the file hey-where-did-this-page-go-in-the-redisign.html, but if I named it
redisign.html, everyone would ask "hey, what the heck is redisign.html...)
This module should probably be owned by Dawn Endico. Ok, here I go
blabbering on again, let's move on...
2. Browser--Would contain most of the stuff in projects/seamonkey, along
with the build instructions... I am not sure about an owner for this.
3. Quality--This module would be about the same as the quality directory is,
but cleaned up. Specifically, I am thinking about all test-suites being
moved into some type of system to hold and maintain them (is this what
testzilla is for or is that something different? It shouldn't be too hard to
create a test-suite system by modifying the bugzilla code...) Once the
test-suites are moved, the quality directory would be much better. This
should probably be owned by Grev, as he owns a good number of pages in the
quality directory already.
4. Projects--This module would hold the projects directory. The index.html
file in projects would be restriced so that only the owner of the module can
edit it. This way, we would keep the number of projects down to a minimum,
and ensure that only good, quality, projects are added to the index.html
file in projects. I am not sure about an owner for this, I would be happy to
do it, but if anyone else wants it...
5. Tools--This module would hold all web-based tool websites (bugzilla
pages, tinderbox...) I am not sure about an owner for this either.
6. Documentation--This module would hold all documentation. Not sure about
an owner here.
7. org--This would hold all things relating to Mozilla as an organization.
The style guide and the website cvs page can go here. Along with
aboutus.html...
These modules would then be listed in the template.html file. I attached a
template.html file that should work with this. Yes I know it still uses
tables and not a CSS floating palate, can someone good with CSS hack this?
For some reason, Hixie comes to mind.
Is there any reason why I can't create a redesign directory inside the html
directory? Actually, leme take that back, because there is a reason. The
munge.pl script will wrap the redesign directory in the old chrome, which
will really mess things up. Also, any changes committed to the normal site
directory will not be in the redesign directory. I can get around this by
manually watching bonsai for the html directory, and patching the redesign
directory. This is ok, but the munge.pl script is a problem.
As for the links in the site, what we must do, weather we like it or not, is
convert all the links to be document relative (so a link from index.html
http://www.mozilla.org/build/mac.html becomes build/mac.html) While it might
be possible to do this with a script, doing it by hand may just be easier
for everyone and it won't be too much work if we split up the site. Each one
of us can take a section and convert it. Then, when we move pages into new
modules, we can search all pages for the old url and use find and replace to
change it.
Preparing for the traditional idea bashing,
Zach
Now, as I sit on the bus back home again, I thought about this some more. I
also think that each document in the website MUST have a posted owner, so
that users can contact the owner about problems in the site.
Also, once we have these modules setup, we could have the mozilla.org
product in bugzilla with a component for each module. This would make an
individual directly responsible for their section of the site, and make sure
that things get fixed. A QA contact could make sure that things are actually
fixed (I would be willing to be the QA contact for this).
I am going to attempt to move the site into this form now. I'll post the
results and suggest more modules as needed. Also, shouldn't we get Dawn
Endico into this discussion, she is the webmaster for mozilla.org and would
ultimately be the person to make any decisions.
Grev--This idea sounds great. I had been thinking about how much of a wreck
the site is for some time, and I am glad that someone had the guts to
propose such a huge project.
--When nothing is done a day is wasted. When something is done a day is
wasted. When only speep is done, a day is well spent--
--Always do your assignments and homework before the due date--Max Kruger
--PGP key on key server--
---www.zachlipton.com/pgp.html for fingerprint--
Again, the idea bashing must come soon
--Zach
Ok. Here we go again. Because I did all of this on the bus, and I have no
internet connection on the bus, I have to make some changes. Ignore the
ideas for modules in this post, as Grev has much better ones. Everything
else can stay.
