Re: Turning beta into production

On 29 December 2012 04:30, Philip Olson <philip@roshambo.org> wrote: > On Dec 27, 2012, at 7:13 AM, Adam Harvey wrote: >> I've spent part of my afternoon working through the beta site and >> trying to deal with the last few issues that we have left before we >> can make a decision on when to make it live. There are undoubtedly >> still styling issues that should be dealt with, but at this point, I >> feel as though we can fix those post-launch — the site is definitely >> usable, and I think it's a definite improvement on our current layout. > > Why wait to fix styling issues post-launch? Or do you mean edge cases > that users will find? Yeah, I mean edge cases. We have so many manual pages that use different combinations of markup — somewhere along the line, I'm sure we'll have missed something. > Agreed. And I've promised to help write this to several people but > haven't, so will publicly state that I'll help with the documentation > and notes part before launch. +1. :) >> 1. Should we keep the mega dropdown? > > Yes, I'm a big fan. It's useful and means less clicking. Providing > easy access to commonly used items is a huge win. I like how you > reduced the documentation menu size. The only possible addition > that comes to mind is the database group. I had that in there originally, but the us3 stats suggested that date/time functions were more commonly hit, and I was trying to keep it to the height it is now. Happy to have a tinker with that. >> 2. If yes, should we split up the get involved content per the branch? > > Yes, most certainly. Agreed it's time we clarify how to contribute and > do so at a single location. It could also explain mysteries like why > we have a different PECL account. And how karma works. So as you > suggest, having the landing page with different sections would make > this giant page less overwhelming. And we're also missing basic > instructions like how to make a PECL release. Perhaps add a FAQ to > the get involved section? If we can brainstorm some questions, I'm happy to add a FAQ. The other points are really good ones, and I'll see what I can do to address them. >> 3. When should we launch the site? > > Maybe target the launch with the 5.5.0 release? That's moderately > crazy as I'm not sure when that'll be. Maybe March? Just a random > thought, not a proposal. :) It's not a bad thought. :) Let's see how the new tutorial and get involved content come together in terms of a January launch. > As for large tasks that should be completed before launch. Currently > there's a large [Begin Tutorial] button on the front page. However, > our tutorial is old and, honestly, sucks^H^H^H^H^His of low quality. > We've depended on the PHP community for basic tutorials. But a > rewrite is in progress here: > > https://github.com/PeeHaa/php-net-tutorial > > So I feel it's important that it be committed before launch. > Pieter is aware and plans to commit in January. Completely agreed. That was actually something I meant to flag in my earlier e-mail and forgot. I'm glad it's being worked on. Adam