Welcome to this month’s SourceForge.net update. Thanks for reading.
Traditionally, we use the sitewide update to talk about what we’ve recently done, and we don’t talk much about what’s in progress. This month, we’re breaking that tradition because some of what we’re planning to do is ambitious enough that we’d like to tell you about it ahead of time.
Next week, we’re launching a revised look-and-feel for the site. I think the look we adopted a while ago certainly got everyone’s attention, and now it’s time to move on to something a little less jarring. Although some of you may miss it’s orange-ness when it’s gone, we suspect that a good number of you will breathe a sigh of relief. One thing is for sure: you’ll certainly notice the new one when it goes live. We hope you find the change refreshing.
Beyond next week, our strategy gets a lot more aggressive than that.
The SourceForge community has two high-level categories of user behavior: open source development and consumption. Developers want an easy-to-use, elegant, functional interface with more data and less fluff; consumers would prefer a visually uncomplicated site with project ratings, comparisons, and a straightforward download process.
Today, we have one site that serves both developers and consumers, even though their needs are vastly different. The end result of our current approach is that it’s very hard to give them both what they want, but we’ve got something in mind that we think will make everyone’s experience a lot better.
We’re going to split what is now the SourceForge.net website into two completely new, separate experiences: one focused on software development and the other focused on consumption. It’s not going to happen immediately, but we want it to happen soon. Most of the details are still being worked out, naturally – but if you’ve got any thoughts, feel free to email me at my address below.
Oh! We also plan to kick off our 2009 Community Choice Awards program next week. In the meantime, start thinking about the projects you think should win!
Until next time,
Ross Turk (ross at sf.net)
Director of Community
Luminance HDR