Spreading the word about D

[Yigal Chripun]

Chris R. Miller wrote:
> Yigal Chripun wrote:
>> Robert Fraser wrote:
>>> Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>>> "Clay Smith" <clayasaurus at gmail.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:g3jrs4$402$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>>>> Couldn't find a specific thread devoted to this topic, so started.
>>>>>
>>>>> What do you think is the best way to promote D?
>>>>>
>>>>> Here are some ideas I already know about and have seen used
>>>>> successfully.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. Articles - Write D articles and post on digg/reddit
>>>>> 2. Tutorials - Teach D newcomers how to use D
>>>>> 3. Libraries - Write a library for D / help out an existing D library
>>>>>
>>>>> Here is a link that is also relevant to the subject:
>>>>> http://www.digitalmars.com/d/howto-promote.html
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm wondering, what are all the awesome, zany, weird, or unique ways
>>>>> you can think of to promote the D language? Did I cover everything?
>>>>> Are there more effective ways of promoting the language?
>>>>>
>>>> I agree with all of the "libraries" stuff said before. But I'd also
>>>> add a couple other things:
>>>>
>>>> It's been brought up before, but the official webpage needs to be
>>>> maintained better, particularly from the perspective of a D newbie.
>>>> Don't get me wrong, this isn't an attack on Walter's web work or
>>>> anything. It's just that D has all this good stuff, like Wiki4D,
>>>> Chris's snapshots, DFL, etc, but no ones going to be finding these
>>>> things unless they actually commit the time amd effort to really dig
>>>> around the scene and stumble upon them.
>>>>
>>>> Think about it this way: If a person hears about "this cool new D
>>>> language" and decides they want to know more about it, where are they
>>>> going to go? They're going to go find the official D site. (Maybe it's
>>>> just me, but if I want to learn about a language, finding the official
>>>> site would be my first step.) But then they get there and see these
>>>> outdated pages about the major projects and sites for D, and if they
>>>> stumble upon, for instance, Chris's D Snapshots and DSource instead of
>>>> Elephant and the crappy newsgroup web-interface, well then that's just
>>>> by pure luck rather than design.
>>>>
>>>> Which brings up another thing. Newsgroups aren't very inviting. If
>>>> Johnny Newbie goes to site "BB" and sees a well-designed web-based
>>>> message board, and goes to site "CC" and sees "here's the server and
>>>> group name for our newsgroup" (interestingly, I can't even seem to
>>>> find the page that says that right now - just direct links into the
>>>> not-very-good web-reader) or even worse: a mailing list, then he's
>>>> gonna be a lot more likely to join in on community "BB". I know I
>>>> would. So...I'm not saying we should switch from newsgoups to a
>>>> message board. I'm just saying, if we're going to stick with
>>>> newsgroups, then getting a better web-interface should be a priority. 
>>> I think Walter needs to let someone in the community take over (at least
>>> partially) the main D page... someone with web design skills ;-P. And
>>> the backend for a newsreader would make an interesting D project, as
>>> well.
>>
>> vote +100
>>
>> Also, what about using Google groups?
> 
> Googlegroups would be a very powerful tool indeed.  I have some
> experience administering various Google Groups, and as such I have to
> warn that they are subject to a large amount of spam.  Perhaps a GNU
> Mailman list instead, or perhaps a phpBB3.0 forum?
> 
definitely NOT any kind of a mailing list - those are user unfriendly.
I'd prefer mirroring the D news groups on Google groups and I'm sure the
spam can be dealt with, for instance by requiring a sign-up.

Of all the Language sites the php site is widely known for its
organization and documentation. D needs something /at least/ of that
level. My perfect D site would run on a CMS with different perspectives
for different user types. D programmers require a different set of tools
and documentation from the set of tools and documentation required for
the developers of the language and its environment itself ( that means
the compiler, runtime, standard lib, etc...).