[Mailman-Developers] Website re-org?

[Adam McGreggor]

On Sat, Dec 05, 2015 at 01:28:55PM -0800, Terri Oda wrote:
> On 2015-12-05 10:21 AM, Adam McGreggor wrote:
> >On Sat, Dec 05, 2015 at 01:10:10AM -0800, Terri Oda wrote:

> How does moving bugs work in gitlab?  I haven't had to do it yet.

Or even linking to issues raised in other repos…?

> Actually, the "what component am I using?" is a problem in a few
> places.  Maybe something more extensive on the front page explaining
> the projects and then on all the other pages we can say things like
> "HyperKitty web archiver" and link to the docs for more explanation.

I've grown rather partial to foo-meta repos, purely for bug reports,
design spec, common docs for whole projects with multiple
components; admitedly, I'm more used to using GitHub and linking to
issues raised in meta in components (but meh, FSF dogma/policy…)

> >>* Get Mailman
> >>- Links to source code and install guides, high level description of
> >>what to do.
> >
> >Possibly also things like packages.debian.org/mailman etc; homebrew; I
> >would expect that most people will install with their package manager,
> >despite what 'we' might prefer.
> 
> We've never bothered to link all the various packages for various
> distros before, but I do think we might need some explanation here
> if it turns out there's a lot of different names for the suite
> packages.  

There is that, too, yes…

> I know we have some rpms, but does anyone have those
> actually in a distro yet that we could point at?  In my experience,
> pointing at packages not in distro upstream isn't any better for
> many admins than PyPI is.

~My~ preference for installing stuff is:
    - disto repos (incl. backports)
    - semi-official repos (e.g. ppas, vendor's repos)
    - cpan/pypi/gems
    - build from source

Others might throw in things like Docker at the top, but I'm
unimpressed with Docker.

> >>* Help and Documentation
> >Link to the hot topics (dmarc, install, what ever's currently getting
> >the most hits in a given period)?
> 
> Ooh, good idea.  Wonder if we can automate this from wiki hits?

Or indeed, the analytics (which I'm guessing we have, but CBA'd
checking).

> Probably fine to just choose a couple manually, though; they don't
> tend to change that rapidly.

Larry's Laziness, Impatience, Hubris springs to mind here…

> >>* How to Contribute
> >>- new contributors guide here, prefaced by the basic source/gitlab links
> >
> >Avoid duplication here, maybe, and just link to the Sphinx/RTD pages?
> >Fairly sure I've seen a CONTRIBUTE file, somewhere. Maybe also link to
> >coding standards (I think these are unified for the various
> >components).
> 
> We do somewhere have a CONTRIBUTE file, but if I recall correctly,
> it's clear to experienced open source contributors but not so useful
> to folk for whom mailman is their first project who'll need more
> extensive links to resources and answers to common questions.

Ah yes, My First Open Source Project…

> Since
> we get a lot of GSoC student aspirants and folk who meet one of us
> and think "these seem like nice people, maybe I'll make my first
> open source contribution with them,"  I think there's good reason to
> have something a bit more extensive than the existing CONTRIBUTE
> stuff.

I imagine there's content that's available already, too, for My First
Project, for some reason, I'm thinking it's the sort of thing Mozilla
will have done a fair few iterations on (and will be nicely licensed).

> That said, this new-contributors document might be just as well
> placed in the wiki so all community members can update it more
> easily.

Maybe it's just me, but the Wiki doesn't look that user-friendly as it
currently stands.

> >>Thoughts on better ways to set this up?  Other suggestions of things
> >>people often want out of our website?
> >
> >Do ordinary folk want to find "where can i get one of these set-up for
> >me" -- the vendors/hosting list, perhaps -- although maybe with some
> >sort of ratings thing (and a last updated / which versions).
> 
> Yes!  We have a page on the wiki for hosting services to add
> themselves and we should link it.  I don't think we have resources
> to maintain ratings or version info, but if you're interested in
> doing that, I think people would find it useful.  I assume this
> should be linked in the "Get Mailman" section?

It'd be useful to run a linkchecker, at least…