Task | Frontpage wiki | assessing

[bongowongo]

Check http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,11897.0.html for this topic rules

Let's make a little task about the wiki frontpage.
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Main_Page

In my opinion it doesn't make sense to have 9 people working on this.
I would like to make max two people responsible for this refresh task, and maintaining this page
It is is a fairly little task, but very important that is why I still would prefer two, so if one is on holidays the other can maintain it.
Of course input from the people who are in the wiki task force is always welcome.

Introduction
I think it doesn't make sense to elaborate a lot about what linuxmce can do on that frontpage, that is what linuxmce.org is for.
I think the support section and the introduction section could easily merge, and could be on top of the page.
Download
Needs update
Project news
could maybe point to the website or be discarded totally, so maybe merge wiki and project news
Photo's on the right
doesn't add to the wiki/support frontpage. Could be in the article of the ui's. We do not need to "sell" Linuxmce in the wiki, that is not what a wiki is for
Documentation Access / User Setups
It is just floating around.
Dev Section
Equally important if not more important as support / introduction, I would like to see it more on the top
Or left Support/Introduction Icons and on the Right the Dev icons.

Equally important as redoing this wiki frontpage is maitaining it!
Please give me your input.

[bongowongo]

Maybe we can find inspiration on other website
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_Online_Manual

[Techstyle]

perhaps we should set up a copy of the frontpage at a different address and then work on that. then when we are finished copy the content over and replace the existing one.

I agree with the layout you have suggested but also think that more info is needed in the introduction (either on linuxmce.org or on the wiki).  I remember when I first found LMCE, I was looking for a Media Centre with HA capabilities.  I had already been using WinMCE for a while and I found LMCE but I had never had any experience of Linux or any community based project before and found myself not quite understanding what all that meant.

[bongowongo]

It is an excellent idea to make a draft pages where we can work out the tasks, and then implement when they are done.
I am not sure yet how were we have to but all the info website or wiki frontpage. Maybe it is better to so it as an organic process, see what works best?
Because if you put more information on the frontpage of the wiki, you lose overview?

[davegravy]

Just some food for thought regarding the introduction section.

A picture is worth 1,000 words. A video is worth a thousand pictures.

I think we could sum up what LinuxMCE does in a quick 1min or less video. If we can get some volunteers with LinuxMCE setups that are integrated well into their homes (in a visually pleasing way, etc) and who also have a decent video camera, we could have them record some footage of their system performing various functions, and piece together a well produced demo video.

I have a professional recording studio, and could put together some professional sounding voice overs for said video. I know a few voice over artists and might be able to twist their arm to get them to volunteer a bit of their time.

[bongowongo]

Just some food for thought regarding the introduction section.

A picture is worth 1,000 words. A video is worth a thousand pictures.

I think we could sum up what LinuxMCE does in a quick 1min or less video. If we can get some volunteers with LinuxMCE setups that are integrated well into their homes (in a visually pleasing way, etc) and who also have a decent video camera, we could have them record some footage of their system performing various functions, and piece together a well produced demo video.

I have a professional recording studio, and could put together some professional sounding voice overs for said video. I know a few voice over artists and might be able to twist their arm to get them to volunteer a bit of their time.

Davegravy this is a very good idea. Could you also please read through
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,11897.0.html
We need people with specific expertise to all make this work. We are just lying down the framework of the task. But it is interesting enough to keep this in mind.

[davegravy]

Ok well i'm interested in helping to concisely convey what it is that Linuxmce does, so I guess the introduction section in is a good thing for me to sign up for.

[purps]

I dunno about videos, I think it's difficult to make them look professional, plus people on mobile devices/people looking at them at work on the sly may not be able to view. If people think they are a good idea, fine, but they should not contain any information that isn't already present with words and pictures. Just my opinion.

I also agree that more information on how it all works from the point of view of it being open-source should be included on the main page i.e. what you can and can't expect. I suspect the majority of users will at least be users of ubuntu, and I have to say, you read some of these posts on the ubuntu forums, and I think to myself Christ, you're getting this for free, they're complaining like they paid full price for it.

[davegravy]

I also agree that more information on how it all works from the point of view of it being open-source should be included on the main page i.e. what you can and can't expect. I suspect the majority of users will at least be users of ubuntu, and I have to say, you read some of these posts on the ubuntu forums, and I think to myself Christ, you're getting this for free, they're complaining like they paid full price for it.

Dunno if this is getting off-topic...Absolutely we should mention the open-source nature, and I think there's a balance to be achieved w.r.t disclaimers and setting the user's expectations. The few users who come to the forums and whine are a pain, and I think we'd want to be careful about bombarding ALL new users with disclaimers up front as a response to this (and risk alienating them).

Giving this project the look and feel of a polished commercial product is a good thing and getting the user excited about what's possible with LinuxMCE is a good focus. Can we deal with the whiny users who have a sense of entitlement in the forum, or just ignore them?

I dunno about videos, I think it's difficult to make them look professional, plus people on mobile devices/people looking at them at work on the sly may not be able to view. If people think they are a good idea, fine, but they should not contain any information that isn't already present with words and pictures. Just my opinion.

All the info contained in video should be in text too, for sure! As for video quality I've seem some pretty professional-looking amateur work done, it just takes the right artistic eye. Even if it looks a bit amateur I think it would still be better than no video (it's an incredibly efficient way of conveying the essence of the project) I've had great success with video on my mobile devices.

[purps]

All good points.

Cheers,
Matt.

[bongowongo]

perhaps we should set up a copy of the frontpage at a different address and then work on that. then when we are finished copy the content over and replace the existing one.

I agree with the layout you have suggested but also think that more info is needed in the introduction (either on linuxmce.org or on the wiki).  I remember when I first found LMCE, I was looking for a Media Centre with HA capabilities.  I had already been using WinMCE for a while and I found LMCE but I had never had any experience of Linux or any community based project before and found myself not quite understanding what all that meant.

I propose to have all the pages that we want to work on, copy paste in to a Draft_<page name> type of way.
Like below

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/Draft_Main_Page

[bongowongo]

Dunno if this is getting off-topic...Absolutely we should mention the open-source nature, and I think there's a balance to be achieved w.r.t disclaimers and setting the user's expectations. The few users who come to the forums and whine are a pain, and I think we'd want to be careful about bombarding ALL new users with disclaimers up front as a response to this (and risk alienating them).

Giving this project the look and feel of a polished commercial product is a good thing and getting the user excited about what's possible with LinuxMCE is a good focus. Can we deal with the whiny users who have a sense of entitlement in the forum, or just ignore them?

All the info contained in video should be in text too, for sure! As for video quality I've seem some pretty professional-looking amateur work done, it just takes the right artistic eye. Even if it looks a bit amateur I think it would still be better than no video (it's an incredibly efficient way of conveying the essence of the project) I've had great success with video on my mobile devices.

DaveGravy, can I sign you up to be our audio/video wizzkid?

[bongowongo]

Who else has skills that come into handy doing the page?
I am favoring techstyle to manage this task, based on hierarchy and knowledge I think he has.

[davegravy]

DaveGravy, can I sign you up to be our audio/video wizzkid?

Yup!

[bongowongo]

Ok so I saw some of purps input in the draft.
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Draft_Main_Page

I think we should not focus as yet on the video / pic as of yet before we fully know what we want with it. But design with it in the back of our head.
It is very difficult to make pictures really make clear what you want to show. Maybe some more interactive pictures could be used: flash slidehows?

You are right that the information of 0810 rc and 1004 are wrongly presented. I think we should wait for 0810 to be really released and present 1004 as a beta. I have to discuss this with the devs.

I think "wiki site news" can be just totally discarded.
Also "Documentation Access" should be discarded or fit into something else.
"User setups and videos" are nice, but can also presented in another fashion

I will remove them, let's see how it looks.

Ok.

If we could integrate Overview/Download/News into one
or

Overview & Download alligned left and News alligned right
then followed with
Support alligned left and dev alligned right, you have a very nice and neat compact overview directly.
Maybe discarting the screenshots on the right totally.

So you would have 4 solid blocks of specific information.