Re: [Firebird-website] Structure of website proposal - 1st draft

[Dmitry Y. <fir...@ya...>]

Pavel Cisar wrote:
> 
> The current mess we have to deal with is result of our attempt to hold
> all this in single big site where you can directly go from any area to
> another, that evolved from small site over many years of adding content
> and sub-areas. This simply doesn't work. To fix that, we have to split
> the site into several (cross-linked) purpose-oriented sub sites, where
> the main page is mere portal with most prominent headlines and links to
> each sub-site (mozilla.org main page is good example of this structure).

While being basically agreed with this idea, I believe we should think 
more about the home page contents. There could be some other important 
things (aside from the sub-area links) to be placed there. For example, 
I have a strong feeling that some kind of news (basic or aggregated) 
should exist on the main page instead of being located in the dedicated 
news area only. As you could see, many similar projects (e.g. the ones 
posted by Roman) share this concept. Also, we could have a sponsored 
links area that would allow us to get money for placing commercial 
offers on the main page (it is unlikely to work well if placed elsewhere).

> www.firebirdsql.org
> Main page, downloads.

+ About us (intro, history, licenses, SQL compliance, success stories, 
etc) -- an absolute must have there, IMHO

> news.firebirdsql.org
> News-style pages for each sub-project or group, with aggregation on main
> page of this sub-site.

As mentioned above, I'd prefer to see the aggregation on the main page 
of the site. We don't seem to have so many news to split them between 
sub-projects, so I think a dedicated sub-site is an overkill for the 
time being...

> developers.firebridsql.org
> Sub-site dedicated to developers. Each sub-project has it's own space here.

Maybe just define core.fbsql.org, jaybird.fbsql.org, etc? I'm expecting 
every sub-site to have separate layouts (optimized for its purposes), 
while still sharing the design concept with other sub-sites and the home 
page. Right now we have quite a lot of differences between sub-project 
pages, so they don't seem fitting each other well, this is why I think 
that probably separate development sub-sites would suit us better.

> The main page would serve as hub to direct first time or casual visitor
> around, i.e. big blurbs to get download and introductory information
> quickly, jump gate to each sub-site and some breaking news from around
> the project. The metaphor: Get IT (jump to download), Learn IT (jump to
> doc), Share experience (jump to community), Develop IT (jump to
> developers), Support IT (jump to foundation).
 >
> All sub-sites should preferably use the same theme / skin and header
> with top menu going to other sub-sites. They should use combination of
> side bar with location bar (textual top menu bar below header in form
> <main> / <level 1> / <level 2> ...) for navigation within sub-site
> (developers.mozilla.org is good example of this structure).

Sounds okay to me.


Dmitry