on the current homepage (http://drupal.markboultondesign.com/iteration8/homepage_notloggedin.html) there is a section called 'Develop with Drupal'. This section is targeted at 'outsiders' (those not v familiar with Drupal) who are developers. These people will be evaluating Drupal from more of a technical perspective so we want to point some signposts in here that will take them to content that will impress them and make them excited about the opportunity and potential of using Drupal.
Here are the links that are currently included in this section:
Modules and Themes
* Find modules
* Create modules
* Rate/review modules
* Find Drupal themes
Developers
* API info
* Download earlier versions
* Job Board
* Submit issue queries
I'm thinking these are not the right set of links (and perhaps too many as well).
I'd be really interested in hearing what links/content you would put here if you wanted to impress a developer into using Drupal.
Comments
Refine message?
As a developer, this is what I would have liked to see
Drupal is different -
You use Drupal to build powerful, flexible Content Management Systems quickly and easily -
Core framework plus modules plus themes
The links under Developers are irrelevant to a new not logged in user, I need to get the basic gist before I need the API, can get a job, or need an earlier version.
The modules and themes links make sense if there is better is a better lead in to them as I noted above.
I also think anyone who connects with the term developer may be interested in stability, architecture, the things you need to check out before you can commit.
Sell the product
In some ways, those links seem like they are just there. Like Versatility I think we need the sell the product more.
The "modules & themes" links on the home should be replaced by some marketing text that leads to a promotional page specifically targeted to developers. In a sense, a page that developers can show their project manager or boss would be ideal!
I'm fine with the other set of links (Developers), because many developers like to get their hands dirty right away and evaluate the code themselves (although the links should be changed slightly).
Hope this makes sense.
Thanks,
Rene
stats/planet
While I came to Drupal as an individual site builder rather than a developer, it seems a lot of people evaluate whether to get involved in the project based on the strength of the existing developer community. So some metrics like the number of CVS account holders, number of commits this week/month, number of patches/contributors to Drupal core (not automated, but it's usually estimated for each major release) might be useful information. i.e. - there's lots of action, lots of people involved etc. - since some open source projects are often developed mainly by in-house full time staff rather than volunteers, Drupal stands out in this area and it's good to introduce that quickly. Also this information isn't immediately availalbe from the community landing pages - for example the wordpress has a big community, but proportionally it has a much higher of people who aren't involved in development at all (I think).
Linking to api.drupal.org is fine I think - some people just want to get a feel for what the code looks like as rcache says.
Rather than linking to older versions (only really useful for developers working on existing sites, and easy enough to find if you need it), maybe a link to Drupal 7 unstable/beta/rcs. Or since that runs the risk of people trying to build sites with it, which would be a very bad thing, at least a landing page which explains the core development cycle: 5 supported, 6 recommended, 7 unstable etc. - explains that contributed modules are tied to each major release (very important information that a lot of people don't realise) - then where to find and submit bug reports, get involved with development etc.
There should probably also be a link to Drupal Planet - which is still about 90% developer/themer focused most of the time. The development list is less important than it used to be, but still a way for new developers to interact with the community.
One other thing which is at a bit of a tangent - the logged in dashboard, and selectable widgets - for a long time I've thought we could allow people to create collections of widgets which you could add en-masse- and maybe show these publically off somewhere - that would let us have a page similar to developer.drupal.org - which could be maintained using the widget mechanism and just pull news/cvs commits etc. into it. So something like a 'developer news' page which aggregates stuff from these various sources.
excellent point
Catch, I think you have excellent points, especially in regards to the stats that are relevant to developers. That would really be attractive. In a way it's pointing out the overall health and long-term viability of Drupal, which is an important to anybody looking for a new development platform.
Rene
What if there was a simple
What if there was a simple "Search the API" link? Currently, searching the API is different from documentation / forum / groups / etc...
MJ
[edit: And when I'm developing with Drupal, I type api.drupal.org at least 5 times an hour...]