The D programming language newsgroup should lift its game

[Jordi]

Kyle Mallory wrote:
> On 4/1/10 10:51 PM, Justin Johansson wrote:
>> Nick Sabalausky Wrote:
>>
<snip>
> 
> Kyle
> 

I second all this. I understand D is not a "corporative" project backed 
up by a huge marketing team or anything like that, but better managing 
of its image and communication channels (in usability and appearance) 
would help it a lot.

Speaking clearly:

- The D website at Digital Mars is ugly, and it contains a lot of 
obsolete information (the same for Wiki4D).

- The forums access thorough web is also awful and has some bugs that 
lead to posting in the wrong lists sometimes.

- The information is scattered (several webs, newsgroups, stack 
overflow, ...), and because of the relatively novelty of the project and 
the amount of people coming in and going out, most of the information 
you find is old and unmaintained. This applies to many projects in dsource.

- and... the D logo is awful :)

Having a more professional look, and better information structure would 
really help D a lot. Even if this means "removing" information or 
placing it in a clearly marked "ancient/obsolete/unmaintained" category. 
  Aggregating the content will make it easier for its references to 
scale up in the search engines result list.

Finally about the real subject of this thread (the newsgroups): When all 
this internet thing started one of the best things was freedom and 
anonymity. But now i think it is one of the worst things, and for really 
  focused discussion groups, having real people with real names and a 
brief but real personal and professional profile can help improve the 
quality of the discussion. Also, free "immediate" registration to 
participate in this site is not necessary a good thing. Moderated 
approval of people with "believable" profiles ("verified" would be 
ideal, but not realistic) could help.

One of the best sources of discussion on game development, for example, 
is "www.thechaosengine.com" site. You cannot participate in the private 
part of the site unless you prove you are a game developer. The quality 
of those forums are far ahead of anything else i have seen.

Also keeping an internal "prestige system" like Stack Overflow, or 
Canonical's Launchpad seems a good thing.

I re-read my mail and i am surprised to be writing in favor of a 
relatively closed approach and against free access and anonymity. I must 
have changed a lot during the last years...

j.

...i mean...

Jordi Rovira i Bonet
Lead Graphics Programmer
Blueside Inc
www.kingdomunderfire.com