[Clo-devel] predicting the need for more tables on the webpage

[Mario Mommer]

Nikodemus Siivola <nikodemus at random-state.net> writes:
> On Sat, Aug 16, 2003 at 11:38:45AM -0400, Erik Enge wrote:
>
> > That's a pretty decent idea.  Or perhaps we could make news/articles a
> > part of the main part (middle part) of the index.html page.
>
> An alternative tactic would be to put work on the assumption that most
> of our traffic will be people who already know both what Common Lisp
> and Common-lisp.net are:
>
>  * Move "About this site" to a separate, but clearly linked page, or to
>    the very bottom of the index-page.
>
>  * Move "About Common Lisp" to a separate, but clearly linked page --
>    somewhere where newbies can find it.
>
>  * Dedicate dedicate index-page to news -- both site specific and to those
>    of general interest to Common Lisp users.
>
> Dunno about the layout, though.

There are a few points I'd like to address:

* If you put on the blog mask, there should be always new info. I
  don't think we can sport an article a week, so we shouldn't put this
  in a way that makes people think "gosh, but this site is /dead/!
  Last article is /three/ /months/ old!".

  Keeping a fixed, timeless mini-article in front gets the timestamp
  off the radar.

  In the event that this changes, I'm all for the front-is-news
  approach.

* Besides, I like to think that our vantage point should be put to use
  by giving someone who doesn't know Common Lisp all the important
  facts right away. Remember he is skeptical, so we shouldn't expect
  him to want to click on anything.

  If I would start with anything, it would be KMP's interview on
  slashdot :-)

BTW, that is why I'd like a small page on "getting started", so that
after two clicks and two pages of text the newcomer is downloading
nice tutorials & demos and whatnot.

That said, I would put news in a box on the right, just above new
projects. But it should be either fed with something, *anything*, on a
daily basis (be it a new release of whatever) or disappear if no new
news appear after a week or so, and then move that to a page called
"press releases" or something that isn't supposed to be "new"...

Regards,
               Mario.