READ: Website Help Needed

[dlewis]

Maybe a blend of old and new? With a tag line?

Just gimped a logo blending the one in the wiki. Just for fun!

The issue with this logo would be LinuxMCE is much more than a media center (we've actually tried to steer away from being called a media center).

[b4rney]

Yeah, I know. Just wanted to show an example of a possible redesign layout that could be descriptive too.

It needs a much better, concise, punchy tagline. Suggestions welcome. Like I said ... just playing.
Barney

[tschak909]

the current logo is recognisable, and yours doesn't transport well to multiple mediums.

Think simple. Think Apple.

-Thom

[dlewis]

Yeah, I know. Just wanted to show an example of a possible redesign layout that could be descriptive too.

It needs a much better, concise, punchy tagline. Suggestions welcome. Like I said ... just playing.
Barney

thanks for assisting Barney... Looking forward to the next example.

[b4rney]

Back to the drawing board

Maybe we should leave the logo issue for now. It won't impact the layout too much even if it changes. I guess I'm putting the cart before the horse anyway.

I'm installing typo3 locally. I'll take a look ASAP.

Barney

[Techstyle]

barney,

I liked your Logo (I liked the existing one as well), My wife hates the flickr screen saver so now I have your logo as my screen saver - wife friendly!!

Techstyle

[Marie.O]

Maybe a blend of old and new? With a tag line?

Just gimped a logo blending the one in the wiki. Just for fun!

*AAARGHHHH*

LinuxMCE is NOT a media center.

[richard.e.morton]

Hi,

I have built several dynamic websites; such as <a href="http://www.nafof.org.uk">NaFoF</a> for various organisations. I have looked at Mambo, Joomla, Drupal, Dot Net Nuke, PHPNuke etc... many many CMSs

My top two are Joomla and Drupal...

Joomla is great if you want to provide a very limited set of features to a set of users and if what you want is accomodated by the core product of modules; however those modules are designed to complete a simple task and not very configurable.

Drupal is a different type of CMS which is just incredibly powerful and configurable. It takes a little longer to learn, but CCK, Calendar, Views are modules which are just ridiculously flexible and configurable if your needs change it is usually straight forward to accomplish.

For the needs of the LinuxMCE community I highly recommend Drupal. It takes a little longer to learn, but it is worth learning.

I am happy to help out or even building the site (and of course completing a handover to the ongoing web-admins).

Richard

[b4rney]

*AAARGHHHH*

LinuxMCE is NOT a media center.

Yes it is, the MCE bit is kind of a give-a-way. BUT ... LinuxMCE is not JUST a media center.

That was the most obvious tag-line but I don't like it either. I think it makes sense to have some sort of tag line so people can see at a glance what to expect. If we want to 'catch' people and expand our user base we need to appeal to peoples mainstream expectations. THEN we surprise the hell out of them.

It's hard to be succinct and descriptive with a system this advanced but I think we need to start somewhere. Most people I know who found lmce were looking for a media center.
Just my 2 cents.

@ techstyle
Cool. Glad to do my bit for improving divorce statistics!!!

@ richard
Go for it. I think the point of this thread is to get people actually doing stuff. If you can do a demo it might end up being used. Although, as hari has pointed out the current webhost is a typo3 specialist. Although that doesn't mean everything else is out of the question. I'd be happy to see several ideas (I haven't had a chance to look at typo3 yet).
Barney

[richard.e.morton]

Hi There,

Thanks for the encouragement... to just get stuck in.

However, I am not inclined to spend the time on a demo, when I dont know what the requirements of the solution are. If a demo has any chance of captivating the audience it is when it is targeted at solving the problems that the decision makers have. Anyway, demos tend to live and die on how it looks and the look and feel is personal preference and changable.

Who what where when why and how springs to mind

Are each of these requirements Musts, Shoulds, Coulds or Wants.

I am happy to do, but first I need to understand the problem, design a solution (hand in hand with picking a style) and finally implement and test.

So how exactly would you like to do this? Who are the project leaders, who are the decision makers, what are the problems that the decision makers are trying to resolve?

Thanks

Richard

[tschak909]

Here, i'll scribble some basics:

Website Type: Introductory website, with newsroll.

Front Page:

* Introductory copy
* Newsroll, this consolidates news items, important development milestones.

Links:
* Features
* Screenshots
* Community Wiki (points to Wiki)
* For Developers (points to a landing page for developers, we need to write this)
* Download

Simple, to the point.

The Features section, I feel is important to put into the CMS, because this represents an accessible point of information about user oriented features of the project, this needs to be as polished as it can be, using a down to earth approach to the copy. The aim here, is less copy, more pictures, examples.

* Introduction
* How can LinuxMCE handle my:
   * Media
   * Lighting
   * Climate
   * Security
   * Telecom

Link to download page should be present and visible, with an easy way to flow to the next section.

An important aspect to point out here, is that these aspects are integrated, this must be stressed, and if you can provide hyperlinks into other sections of the introduction or to the wiki page as part of the copy, this should be done.

Emphasize this is a WHOLE house solution. You may want to look at the ORIGINAL Flash presentation at PlutoHome:

http://www.plutohome.com/

Also, a page containing a link to the demo video, for now.. This may be replaced in the future, but a nice intro page that could house the demo video in an uncluttered way embedding from Google Video would be nice.

-Thom

[b4rney]

Thanks for that Thom.

Here's more screensavers without the offensive tagline. Then again maybe smarthome is a trademark.

[jasoncelia]

I would like to submit a demo for the new website design.

When does the demo have to be submitted by?
The demo – a Jpeg or a working (although slim) site?

I mainly work with Joomla and specialise in company Intranet sites and thought it was about time I expanded my experience to something more external.  This seems the prefect project to get my teeth in to.

Jason

[dlewis]

Hello Jason,

Welcome to LinuxMCE! There isn't a specified time frame outside of soon, lol... We're looking to get ideas from all and the site should include the ideas tschak mentioned above... Again, welcome to LinuxMCE and we're looking forward to seeing what you got.

[totallymaxed]

Hi.

I Agree with Hari on this one.
It´s "really" just small differences between typo3 and joomla.
In my opinion it´s mostly about how you administer it and what modules that exist.
Both of them are pretty well developed and their strengths and weaknesses.

Look at www.cmsmatrix.org and compare the two.

Since we already have a staging site built upon typo3 why not
continue to develop it to finally replace our existing website.

I believe we also have some newer graphics. Have seen some examples.
Though I don´t know if can use them in any way.

Personally I can help with administration but not with graphics since I know almost
nothing about how to create decent looking pictures and layouts.

Only my view on this question.


/niz23

We're the 'Commercial Integrators' Hari is referring too... and yes we did have some problems with our main web site getting hacked. But the problem was mainly to do with us hosting the Web site on a 'shared' server where we did not have full admin rights/controls. This is being fixed now...

So I would not be against Joomla at all on the basis of its security;

As Thom says though the key thing is that the people who are going to re-design/manage/update the site choose a tool that they are happy with and one that allows them to bring other designers/maintainers in over time and easily 'train' them in how to work with the new site.

Lets not have a protracted discussion... about this CMS or that CMS...just get stuck in DO ;-)

All the best

Andrew