Outline stages of work for the new website.

Registered by Dean Bouvier

Before beginning any actually work I think it's important to discuss and outline the important stages of work that will need to be undertaken. These stages will be further detailed and designed in their own respective blueprints.

Blueprint information

Status:
Complete
Approver:
Dean Bouvier
Priority:
High
Drafter:
Dean Bouvier
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
Dean Bouvier
Definition:
Approved
Series goal:
Accepted for 2.0
Implementation:
Implemented
Milestone target:
milestone icon 2.1
Started by
Dean Bouvier
Completed by
Dean Bouvier

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

I'll start things off by outline the major stages of work as I see them, and we can go from there. - Dean

I added the "...Structure" Work Item. I think we have a little of this already (the three initial choices) but I think we should flesh those out a little more as a first step. We should determine (in general terms) what information will be available under each of those headers. We will probably want to use the current site as a reference to make sure we don't forget anything important but this will also give us the opportunity to trim off parts of the current site which don't really contribute.
For the project overall, I added a series and two simple milestones as a starting point. -Olek

Indeed, also I think its important to identify what information could be relevant from more then one direction, and how we want to handle those cases. -Dean

Added rough flowchart below. There has to be a better way of doing that though... -Olek

Landing Page
- "I want to play the game"
  -- Interface Reference
  -- World background
  -- Starting-out Walkthrough
  -- Things to do in the world
- "I want to build worlds"
  -- Simple world-building walkthrough
  -- What can I change? (List of configurable variables)
  -- Tools to help with world-building
  -- Existing world-building projects (Dural, etc) with contact info
     --- (for each world) Specific info for getting involved
         ---- Name of primary point-of-contact (and alternates)
         ---- Communication/coordination methods and details (mailing list, IRC, etc)
         ---- Current project goals
         ---- Long-range project goals
- "I want to develop the software"
  -- Getting started (Things every developer should know)
  -- Areas to get involved in (e.g. client programming, 3D modeling, etc)
     --- (for each area) Specific info for getting involved
         ---- Name of primary point-of-contact (and alternates)
         ---- Communication/coordination methods and details (mailing list, IRC, etc)
         ---- Current project goals
         ---- Long-range project goals

I've been pondering this for some time. We really need a new site as the current Zope based one is calcified at this point. The main reason being that it's nigh impossible to edit in a good way. The lack of edit history also makes everything much harder than it should be.
However, I'm not so sure about Google Sites being the correct direction. The main issue is the lack of control we get; we can't even create new accounts unless we start paying for it.
I've instead looked at other CMS solutions, where we would host the sites ourselves (much like now) but using a more up to date and supported CMS solution. The one I've found to be the best match for us, given ease of use and functionality, is Wordpress. The other options would be Joombla or Drupal, but Wordpress seems like the best balanced one.
What are your thoughts on this?
/Erik

I agree with your sentiments on the g-sites. There are much better cms's out there to use, and the lack of control is not good, if we have to pay for it then it's not worth it imo.

Wordpress is nice and very popular, but when I tried it I was not all that impressed with it. I found the interface cluttered tbh, it has tons of plugins but some of those also come with issues, WP sites are very actively targeted for hacking and cracking. Honestly I'd steer clear of it myself. Is this going to be hosted on the current websites machine, another, or a web-hosting site? That can sometimes dictate things a bit.

I would recommend taking a look at SilverStripe. Simple, clean, secure, cms and a framework, open source. I was planning to install it on my webhost and give it a good test myself.

Good place to compare - http://www.cmsmatrix.org/
-Dean

Concrete 5 looks like a good solution for us. It's simple to use, and has great documentation. I personally would choose Concrete 5 over WordPress(and the rest).
- Jesse

I've visualized the new website layout and an idea of the theme/layout design. It is incomplete but
I feel its a good first draft. Take a look and share your thoughts.

http://www.alienchrysalis.net/confluence/display/WFD/New+Website

/Dean

(?)

Work Items

Work items:
Determine Site Information Structure: INPROGRESS
Layout/Theme design: INPROGRESS
Verify the original website is archived: INPROGRESS
Determine what data updates and remains archived: TODO
Create a "Landing Page" from which to build: INPROGRESS

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