I've yet to hear any compelling reason why that should be a separate 'site' on it's own domain name, over and away from everything else, rather than just a refresh of the existing camping homepage. You make some good points. We could write the homepage better. It's very dry at the moment.
I'm very much against the wilful keeping of any sort of traffic statistics. Camping is a vibrant creative experimental project which often tries new hacks and ideas because we all feel free to do whatever. We're all just here having fun. Anyone who comes to camping wanting a serious framework will be disappointed. That's not to say you can't do serious things with camping, just that it's not what camping is about. The trouble with statistics is when you start paying attention to them, you can't help but change your behaviour to make the numbers do a little dance, and then it stops being a fun creative experimental place, and starts being a game where we try and 'win'. I don't want to play that game. I don't think many people here do. It's part of what makes this bunch special. Now there's nothing wrong with having a nicer homepage, and an all around more together website. We just need to remember what our goals are, collectively. We aren't a business. We have no motivation to see more users using camping, aside from a casual humanitarian effort. No marketing. Marketing is for people who need markets. We aren't in any of those. Not selling, camping. A silly little thing for making toys. Don't forget that. On 13/08/2010, at 11:42 PM, Philippe Monnet wrote: > One thing is clear: we all love Camping! Months ago after seeing other > frameworks like Sinatra and Padrino garner so much attention, I realized that > the "one thing" missing on our side was not content but a marketing-oriented > site to incite other rubyists to check out and try camping. > So I drafted http://www.ruby-camping.com (after many posts on this mailing > list) to serve as that marketing site to: > 1. Quickly communicate what Camping is about > 2. Advertise its strength and benefits > 3. Provide links for people to download it, join the community and dive > into the docs > 4. Start tracking traffic so we can get a sense of whether or not we are > starting to get some attention > > This is a very different goal from (and not mutually exclusive with) the goal > of a blog or wiki. > I also asked for help - knowing that we're all super busy. So I am glad some > of you are starting to help out . > > On 8/13/2010 4:19 AM, Dave Everitt wrote: >> >> Okay - we might be all running before we can walk, what with no real >> improvement to existing content yet. >> >> Everything I do professionally in this field starts with a solid content >> plan/list and a kind of strategy - there are some pretty good content >> suggestions in older posts. >> >> Before go any further (since we're all pretty busy) perhaps the main effort >> after all should go into refining the content on: >> http://whywentcamping.judofyr.net >> >> and avoiding duplication from: >> http://camping.rubyforge.org >> >> The only thing stopping me is that I have to get to grips with Webby, which >> I've never used. I was going down the Nanoc and Sass route before I got >> abducted by some nasty paid work. Or even make it all in... Camping (gasp!). >> >> But I do like the diversity of views of this group, although the healthy >> disagreement makes things hard to pin down. >> >> BTW Tumblr is fine (I use it), but why not use the blog on >> whywentcamping.judofyr.net instead? >> >> - DaveE >> >>> My suggestion is that it not exist. Magnus already made a brilliant camping >>> website at http://whywentcamping.judofyr.net/ >>> >>> It has content, but no drawings of tents. However I think we can have both >>> in the same website. Could make an issue about it on the github issue >>> tracker if you like. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Camping-list mailing list >> Camping-list@rubyforge.org >> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/camping-list >> > ------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: Wiki vs homepage > Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:20:04 -0600 > From: Philippe Monnet <r...@monnet-usa.com> > Reply-To: camping-list@rubyforge.org > To: camping-list@rubyforge.org > > Yeah, I agree that it makes sense to have two sites, one to promote Camping > and one to serve as the official reference. And a wiki would be very > convenient for that. > > On 7/8/2010 1:55 PM, Magnus Holm wrote: >> >> Hey guys, >> >> Philippe had some interesting points about the website: >> >> 1. Keep the home page simple with all content fitting within 1280 x 1024 >> 2. Use a catchy design (need some help here) >> 3. Accentuate that Camping is about Ruby (maybe also include the ruby >> logo somewhere) >> 4. Have a brief note about the connection to _why and a link to a page >> explaining the history of Camping with further links to _why's other >> sites >> 5. Encourage people to try it by capitalizing on some of Camping's strengths: >> - Fast to learn - requires only basic Ruby skills >> - Much simpler than Rails but more structure than Sinatra/Padrino >> - Lightning fast and memory efficient allowing fast and efficient sites >> - Can evolve from simple file to organized directory structure >> - Can layer in more features later using persistence and choice of view >> engines >> 6. How about using some kind of an animated (auto advancing) slideshow >> to highlight some of the benefits? See an example at: >> http://blog.monnet-usa.com/?p=276 >> 7. How about a page on learning with a link to the book as well as a >> list of links for other tutorials or short explanations on key topics >> (e.g. how to do migrations, how to use include/extend, how to use >> different view engines, etc.)? >> 8. How about a page about plugins with some brief description of their >> intent? >> 9. I would love for us to include _why's cartoons in some of the sub pages >> ;-) >> >> Now, the more I look at this list (and my own thoughts about the new >> camping site) I realize that we're talking about two different things: >> >> * A site to attract new users >> * A site to inform regular users >> >> It looks like my attempt (http://whywentcamping.judofyr.net/) tries to >> target the latter, while Philippe targeted the former >> (http://rubycamping.monnet-usa.com/). Both sites serves a purpose and >> I believe both are equally important. >> >> -- >> >> Here's what I propose: We split the site into two parts. We turn what >> I've created into a wiki. Everyone are welcome to edit and add their >> own content. >> >> Then we take Philippe's ideas/design/site and turn it into >> ruby-camping.com or whywentcamping.com or whatnot. It probably doesn't >> need to be more than a single page. >> >> What'd ya think? >> >> // Magnus Holm >> _______________________________________________ >> Camping-list mailing list >> Camping-list@rubyforge.org >> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/camping-list >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Camping-list mailing list > Camping-list@rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/camping-list
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