On Dec 27, 2012, at 7:13 AM, Adam Harvey wrote:
Ooooh nice, most PHP tasks require someone to really make them happen. :) > Ladies, gentlemen, droids, > > I've spent part of my afternoon working through the beta site and > trying to deal with the last few issues that we have left before we > can make a decision on when to make it live. There are undoubtedly > still styling issues that should be dealt with, but at this point, I > feel as though we can fix those post-launch — the site is definitely > usable, and I think it's a definite improvement on our current layout. Why wait to fix styling issues post-launch? Or do you mean edge cases that users will find? > What we do have left is either splitting out the "get involved" > content to roughly match the links in the mega dropdown or > consolidating those links. I've started breaking the content out on a > branch called get-involved — for the most part so far, it's been just > splitting and editing what was already on the (overlong) get-involved > page, but we'd probably still need to write content for the process of > creating a pull request and contributing to the documentation, even > assuming what I've done so far is OK. Agreed. And I've promised to help write this to several people but haven't, so will publicly state that I'll help with the documentation and notes part before launch. > > So, here are the remaining issues I'd like people to weigh in on: > > 1. Should we keep the mega dropdown? > > I know there are some varying opinions on this — I personally like it, > but it definitely needs to be constrained to be relatively short for > each of the categories. I've had a stab at (significantly) reducing > the size of the documentation menu based on the stats on us3 and my > own gut feelings on what's actually commonly used. Hopefully that's > helped! Yes, I'm a big fan. It's useful and means less clicking. Providing easy access to commonly used items is a huge win. I like how you reduced the documentation menu size. The only possible addition that comes to mind is the database group. As for usage stats, we do log most 404 searches (e.g., php.net/foo) so let's clean that interface up a bit. So while we won't link to specific functions (like date(), which is the most popular), we can figure something out. > 2. If yes, should we split up the get involved content per the branch? > > Basically, what I've done is to separate out bjori's contribution > article from php|architect and the test suite section onto separate > pages, which turns /get-involved.php proper into more of a landing > page. Is this worth pursuing (and having someone — most likely me — > write more content for pull requests and the like)? Yes, most certainly. Agreed it's time we clarify how to contribute and do so at a single location. It could also explain mysteries like why we have a different PECL account. And how karma works. So as you suggest, having the landing page with different sections would make this giant page less overwhelming. And we're also missing basic instructions like how to make a PECL release. Perhaps add a FAQ to the get involved section? > 3. When should we launch the site? > > As far as I'm aware, there aren't any functionality gaps relative to > the stable site now. The design seems locked down, and this has been > dragging on for way too long. I'd like to suggest an aggressive > timeframe: I've got a bit of spare time in the next few days if we can > come to a consensus on the previous questions, and I don't see why we > couldn't flip the switch to be the new site by default and the /my.php > option to be to return to the old site on January 1. Maybe target the launch with the 5.5.0 release? That's moderately crazy as I'm not sure when that'll be. Maybe March? Just a random thought, not a proposal. :) As for large tasks that should be completed before launch. Currently there's a large [Begin Tutorial] button on the front page. However, our tutorial is old and, honestly, sucks^H^H^H^H^His of low quality. We've depended on the PHP community for basic tutorials. But a rewrite is in progress here: https://github.com/PeeHaa/php-net-tutorial So I feel it's important that it be committed before launch. Pieter is aware and plans to commit in January. Regards, Philip -- PHP Webmaster List Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
