[PLUG] pdxlinux.org needs a new website

[Jameson Williams]

On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 2:51 PM, David Kaplan <davek52 at gmail.com> wrote:

> It's a website that will not bring any new people to it. I guess this group
> cares little about getting new people to try Linux out. I don't use it.
> I've
> got my own site to promote Linux.
>
> When this group is ready to get new people to try Linux out. Let me know.
>
> Dave
>

Dave! Ouch. I think we're all interested in having new people try Linux out.
It just sounds to me like some here are more enthusiastic than others to
tackle the page. I'm on board anyway -- this officially constitutes "letting
you know." Let's do this thing. I've been hosting a Wordpress for the last
seven years or so, so I can tackle a more enticing "skin" for the plug page
perhaps. Although, as Keith noted earlier in the thread, that will
eventually mean some Real Work (tm) and not just flapping my chops, which is
after all why I like posting to this mailing list in the first place.

I think the design of the PLUG page should mirror that of other open source
/ academic web documents -- a simple "html presentation is about good enough
for me" style look. Underneath the hood, it should be a standards compliant
XHTML document that validates (the front page currently has 1 error and 14
warnings.) I currently try to achieve this with my personal website,
although there's still too much CSS for it to be fully "cool."

Given that the mailing lists are the source of up-to-date news, the archives
should be presented to the user as a First Class feature on the website, I
would say. There should probably be a good /dev/null session throughout the
site, too. Generally, the page's content should probably remain general and
relative. "We meet on the first thursday of every month," is more
maintainable than "Our next meeting is October 12, 2002," etc.
Time-sensitive information could be left to the mail archives, or even the
popular website plug to: "Come join us on IRC."