Website message overhaul

[Robert Clipsham]

On 14/11/2011 20:12, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 11/14/11 11:04 AM, Robert Clipsham wrote:
>> - From the first look at the page it's a big block of text with no
>> code. Very off putting from a programming language home page.
>
> I think the current page with a big block of code is quite unappealing,
> too.

Well neither is ideal! It'll probably take some fine-tuning to get the 
right balance.

>> - My advise here would be to *just* show the key bullet points,
>> click for more information.
>
> Duly noted.

I always found this really annoying (though it seems to work well for a 
lot of things) - having an automatic scroll through the bullet points 
showing them in more detail could work though.

>> - It's covered in buzz words. Are you trying to appeal to managers or
>> programmers?
>
> Programmers. Of the language sites I looked at, scala-lang.org looked
> the most corporate-y.
>
> We are trying to convey the key advantages of D in few words. If we used
> weaker words, the message would be, well, weak. The point is that we
> really have something to show under each "buzzword".

few words + little code = big impact

At least in my opinion. I know this differs a lot, but most of my 
generation don't read more than a few words on screen unless they have 
to, their eyes jump almost immediately to what they want to see. Having 
some code and some text is probably the best way to simplify this.

>> - "See example." is actually show/hide example, the text should
>> reflect this.
>
> Hm, that should change when expanded. More work for me, sigh.

It's only a couple of lines of code ;)

>> - Community
>> - Maybe mention the IRC channel #D on freenode.
>
> Yah, forgot
>
>> - There's no need for the "Walter Bright" name-drop, particularly in
>> a community section (Walter is not the community!)
>
> Walter is the most prominent member of the community. I think the
> mention is entirely appropriate. In particular, we noted that the old
> site doesn't mention Walter as the creator of D, and that many people
> don't know who invented D.

I challenge you to find a programming language website that mentions the 
creator on the front page. It's not that I don't think Walter deserves 
credit for his work, just that I don't deem it such an important detail 
that it needs to be on the homepage.

Also, should D gain popularity I foresee Walter being bombarded with 
direct questions rather than them coming to the community who are just 
as qualified to answer a lot of them - having his name on the front page 
won't help this :)

-- 
Robert
http://octarineparrot.com/