Who is www.python.org for? (was Re: New Python.org website ?)

[Terry Hancock]

On 22 Jan 2006 14:18:18 -0800
aahz at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote:
> The idea is that we make www.python.org even more minimal
> than the current beta.python.org; it becomes a portal
> similar in simplicity to google.com (with a bit more
> explanation).  It would lead off to subdomains such as
> business.python.org, tech.python.org, help.python.org, and
> so on.  That would make it easy for people to bookmark a
> specific section that was appropriate for their needs.

This is a good idea, particularly if the links are domains
as you give in your example, and thus not treated like "deep
links" (which too often get broken).

The truth is, the comment about being offended by scrollbars
made me want to vomit!  There are few things more annoying
to me than web sites that are designed like Powerpoint
presentations.  My preference is to condense information
onto fewer pages, with more complete information. My
expectation of web pages is that they are more like
"documents" than like "slides".

This is particularly relevant if you are on a slow or
high-latency web connection (dialup or satellite,
respectively).

For me, having the document in my browser puts *me* in
control of viewing it, instead of making me click repeatedly
through someone else's "clever" idea of what I should read.

*I* don't want a "slick brochure" for Python as the website.

For all the commercial value in Python (and there is plenty,
I am sure), it's not Java, and I don't want it to be.  I'm
cool with suits loving it too, but I don't want to have to
put on a suit to play. Python is an absolutely top-notch
free software language for free software developers, not
least of which are the amateurs, who program for love, not
money.

I hesitate to express this opinion, because I don't want to
seem intolerant (and I'm going to use whatever site there
is), but if the suits can get their own place and leave me
alone, I'm for that. ;-)

For me, the most important function of the python.org site
is as a quick-reference to deeper documentation that I
actually need in the process of writing Python code.

I don't really know if I'm the "market" for this site. I'm
already sold on Python, after all, I just want something
useful that I can use to stay up-to-date, and to find other
Python resources if they move, get created, or if I just
lose track of the URLs.

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com