website mockups, what is fedora?

[Máirín Duffy]

On Fri, 2009-08-21 at 14:39 -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> On 08/21/2009 12:44 PM, Máirín Duffy wrote:
> > On Fri, 2009-08-21 at 12:18 -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> >> Simplifying the get-fedora page is aimed at growing the userbase in
> >> total.  But the argument is being made that the new design will hurt
> >> the ability of some areas of the project to retain and grow the
> >> contributor base.
> > 
> > The spins aren't the only other areas of the project.
> > 
> Correct.  Could you point out where I'm saying they are?

You didn't. :) But when terms like 'demoralizing' or 'disenfranchising'
are being thrown around, I like pointing out the scope here isn't the
entirety of Fedora-the-community. Growing our base of new users has the
potential to help ALL parts of Fedora, and this design it seems has the
potential to only hurt some parts of Fedora.
> 
> >>   I think that beefing up the spins page is aimed at
> >> rectifying that but it doesn't help if people who are looking to
> >> download fedora aren't being enticed to click to the spins page.
> > 
> > Who wants to click on the spins page?
> > 
> That's in the first part of my post here:
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-August/msg00049.html
> 
> Summarised: New and curious users (which I argue is really anyone that
> gets as far as wanting to run Fedora) whose strategy for learning is to
> read about things instead of downloading a livecd and trying it out
> (which is not everyone and why having a prominent default spin in
> addition to directing people to the spins page *is* a good idea).

People who are curious and who want to read before they try are going to
look at the 'Handy Resources' section of this page and click through the
manuals and guides and information there, aren't they?

http://duffy.fedorapeople.org/temp/woot/page2.png

Also, aren't new and curious folks going to check out
www.fedoraproject.org too? My point being, this doesn't all gotta go
down on get.fedoraproject.org. Like was mentioned earlier, we can have a
content block on the front page calling out spins or talking about them.
We can have content on Fedora Insight. 

If you're assuming new & curious users, they are gonna be looking at
other parts of the site.

> > Who do we want to click on the spin page?
> > 
> I think the same people as who want to click there.  After all, if they
> want to click through to the spins page, why are we trying to stop them.

Then who don't we want to click on it?

We probably don't want people, for example, who expect a smooth desktop
experience to muck around with spins too much because they aren't tested
(not as much as the default spin anyway) right?

What people are the spins trying to attract? For some spins, this is
obvious (Art Studio, Electronic Lab.) For some spins, it's confounding
(KDE, XFCE). 

~m