beta.python.org content

[Magnus Lycka]

Steve Holden wrote:
> How does
> 
>   http://beta.python.org/about/beginners/
> 
> look?

I think it's a well written text, but it looks more like
an introductionary chapter in a book about Python than a
text for a web site. A book looks the same for all its
readers, and it's basically sequential. Books also have
readers who've made much more of a commitment to read.
They won't click somewhere else just because it was dull
for ten seconds-

It's clear that this web site is intended to present
different information to different kinds of people, but
I don't understand for whom *this* text is written...

In fact I don't quite understand the "About" section at all,
with the subsections "For Beginners", "For Developers" and
"For Business" etc.

What does "About" mean? Is is "about this web site" or
is it "about the Python programming language". About
Python it seems. Isn't the whole site about Python?

If "about" really means "introduction", why doesn't it
say "Introduction".

Since the whole section seems to be geared towards people
who don't know a lot about Python already, and the "for
beginners" page seems to fend off people who are "completely
new to programming" with a link, it seems to me that it's
either for programmers or for some kind of decision makers
or reporters who'd prefer the business page anyway.

If we need some general introduction for all, it should be
much shorter, more like http://python.org/doc/Summary.html

Concerning the next entries in the "About" section (not what
you asked about, so this is just a bonus;):

I don't like anyone to hand me different texts based on whom
I say I am. I want to know what the texts are about and decide
for myself where to go. These are texts, not dressing rooms!

So, describe the content of each page instead of saying "If
you're this kind of guy, we think you should read this page".
It's great to take different "actors" into account, but that
should not be the public labels on the web site. It's like
the desk for dissatisfied customers in a department store.
The sign on the outside says "complaints" or something like
that. The "stupid customers" sign has to be on the inside.
That's not what you present to the stupid customers...

Perhaps the "About Section" should look like this?

Introduction
-What is Python     [short summary]
-Getting started    [a.k.a. for beginners/programmers, how to d/l etc]
-Why Python?        [a.k.a. for business]
-Success Stories
-Quotes

I don't quite understand why there is a "PSF" entry here. If
I went to the Python web site actively looking for info about
PSF, I would not look under the introductory "About" menu, but
rather under "community". If I'm new to Python, I'd probably
ignore that meaningless acronym. Please move to Community and
make a link from "Why Python" in a sentence describing how
using Python avoids vendor lock in.