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

[Nikodemus Siivola]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2003 at 05:50:00PM +0200, Mario Mommer wrote:

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

Hmm. I'll need to mull over this. I see your point, but am not sure if
I agree.

> * 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. 

I suppose the question is do we primarily cater to people already
using Common Lisp or people who hit our site nowing nothing about
Common Lisp.

Personally I do believe that we are "morally responsible" for
providing newbie-pointers given our domain-name, but I'd still make
actual users a priority.

> Remember he is skeptical, so we shouldn't expect him to want to
> click on anything.

Do we really want to cater to people who are too lazy to click on
"Learning Lisp" ro "About Common Lisp"?

How about:

What Is Common Lisp (3-5 lines, followed immediately by link to
"Learning Lisp")

About Common-Lisp.net (3-5 lines)

News...

> 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.

Sure. I'd love to see this, but am not too keen on working it myself.

As a sideline: I've been thinking that one of the major problems for
writing CL tutorials is the diversity of environments -- and unlike so
many pother languages Common Lisp is sort of "environment-centric".
The best way to go is probably to take the "use this environment for
tutorial" route, and finish the tutorial by telling them about other
options.

> 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"...

Boxed news is fine, but I really don't think they should disappear. We
don't have to call them "news" if thats any help. ,)= 

What about "Noteworthy"?

Cheers,

 -- Nikodemus

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