Hi,
as an outcome of the Webteam sprint recently held in Madrid we also have
come to the conclusion we need to overhaul the current start page on
www.debian.org.
Right while the sprint Laura has set up a basic file and the required
controlling for the possibility to build the output automatically. If
ever possible I have worked further on this.
This is happen in the branch 'new-homepage' [1] in the webwml git tree,
the magical place there is the folder english/.
Over the past weekend I was able to work now again a bit on the
structure, CSS and wml file.
I pushed again my local state to p.d.o [2] but also the git tree [1].
Until the blog post from Laura I haven't written something public to the
list about the work on the starting page, but now after the blog post we
should discuss the further work and required doings on the new landing
page here on the list.
The basic structure of the start page we have agreed on while the sprint
was already provided by Lauras post to this list [3], so there is
hopefully no need to discuss every thing again.
I'm not a web developer nor have I really a big experience in creating
CSS themes and so, please don't expect that I can answer every question
in detail that might come to you. And I also know that not everything is
correct in place now, I'd really appreciate if there are people which
have more knowledge on this and would also be willing to contribute.
I tried to keep the stylesheet responsive, can for sure be improved.
So, what to do next?
1. First we need (in my opinion) to get to an agreement of the current
structure of the sections. As written above, the current structure was
discussed lengthy while the sprint. I see no big issues currently.
2. Tune the stylesheet were needed.
3. The current slide show was an idea of mine. Currently based on four
images. The used images are just taken to have some content, I was
thinking about one image from the past DebConf, some picture from the
upcoming DebConf, basically some random image from a MiniDebConf and one
image from a typical desktop. I also agree if finally are five images
used but not more.
If the majority is deciding we don't need this I'm also fine with this.
I'm not completely happy how the slide show is working now, maybe I try
something different in the next days.
The idea of the slide show was coming to me as the current images from
DebConf events have mostly a "bad" aspect ratio, and this is always true
for the big group photos (sadly). OTOH side is the DebConf *the* yearly
event of the Debian Developers, so we should promote ourself by this.
And finally this all must fit into a responsive design.
4. Rework and adjust the text in the columns.
Please note that this is the start page, keep in mind that users are
mostly not interested in a big page with lots of text and links, user
want find to find their stuff quickly so we need the to guide them
carefully. Less (text and links) is more here.
5. Some pages behind linked urls need to be created or improved, I wont
have time to work on this too, so help is really appreciated. E.g.
Community - People - intro/about.en.html
Community - Philosophy - intro/index.en.html
Community - Get involved - devel/join (new)
Community - More - community/index.en.html
OS - Download (also new landing page, is happen in branch new-
cd_distrib-section)
6. The RSS feed links for News and Security updates are still missing. I
wasn't able to add them to the site in a useful manner that I was happy
with.
7. Check if some urls from the new page are still broken.
I haven't tested this in deep as I wanted to primary work on the content
and the CSS.
There are for sure some more points to mention I've missed now. Please
ask if you have found something.
I guess the wiki could be a good whiteboard for noting the things that
need to be done, the BTS isn't an ideal place for the next to work on
things.
[1] https://salsa.debian.org/webmaster-team/webwml/tree/new-homepage
[2] https://people.debian.org/~tijuca/new-homepage/index4.en.html
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-www/2019/04/msg00091.html
--
Regards
Carsten Schoenert
