Recently I took on the task of reorganizing and streamlining this group site, with the goal of making it much easier for new and existing volunteers to continue with the drupal.org redesign implementation. There is information on the group site that isn't up-to-date or 100% clear yet, but I think we are fairly close with reorganizing these g.d.o pages. Here are my main changes, and I'd love your feedback.
What information would you need in order to help with the redesign implementation? Please add your comments below.
Changes to the Overview page
1) 'Current status of the redesign' section should be kept up to date by the implementation team leaders, with the date modified, so it's clear how current the information is.
2) 'Team Leaders' I've listed the names of the people who are most likely to know the current status of the project.
New page: Help with Implementation
1) A list of prerequisites can help people decide what they need to participate. This list needs some serious attention by you folks in the know :)
2) 'What are your skills?' is a breakdown of the types of volunteers needed, along with a list common tasks will help channel volunteers to the right To Do lists/issue queue (each of these subpages need some attention from people in the know)
3) 'Essential Information' includes information about SVN access, communication on IRC, etc. Should it go on its own page?
New page: Wiki and Discussion
These types of content now have their own page. I can consolidate them to another page if this would be more useful. However, I noticed that this new 'discussion' page falls below two older wiki pages on the view. I need to figure out how to arrange it so the most recent sits higher on the view.
Page styling
FYI I've used a lot of h3 and h4 to organize the content and provide better visual hierarchy, rather than hash tags.
Input please
If you can provide additional content on the wiki pages, please do. Since I'm new to the project, the information on each page will probably need to be modified/updated. I'm happy to help out with this if people tell me what changes are needed :) If you have organization suggestions to make this group page more usable for new volunteers, as well as established volunteers, please post it here.
Thanks
Lisa
Comments
Hashtags were from Markdown syntax
You saw hashtags because the page was written using Markdown instead of HTML. So "##" makes an h2, and a "###" makes an h3, etc.
In any case, it looks like the Markdown input filter has been disabled since the g.d.o. upgrade to 6. The Filtered HTML input filter now says "Filtered HTML -- No Markdown" which makes me think there is no intent to support Markdown. Boo.
It's a good thing
H tags will be better for SEO and screenreaders anyway :)
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http://about.me/lisarex
Agreed
...Though Markdown translates "##" into
<h2>prior to being displayed, so it's all the same in the end. Markdown just allows us to format text without using full markup. It's quite handy.I've asked josh_k about the Markdown situation, and he says he'll talk to the other g.d.o folks about possibly re-enabling it.
Todd Ross Nienkerk
Digital Strategist and Partner
Four Kitchens: Big ideas for the web
IRC: toddross
Markdown is enabled
I just misread the input filters earlier, Markdown is still enabled.
Lisa: I would suggest looking into how to write Markdown. It can save you a lot of time formatting documentation on g.d.o. Plus, it's a heck of a lot easier to read than HTML when you're trying to edit a post. Think of it like shorthand for HTML. Here's how to write Markdown: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax
Thanks Todd and Aaron... I'll
Thanks Todd and Aaron... I'll have look at Markdown.
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http://about.me/lisarex
Awesome!
Thanks for tackling this, Lisa. Some quick questions:
How can we edit the front page of the group? I can't figure out where the front page is set or how it can be edited.
I don't have access to edit the panels listed on the "Pages" tab. Do you know how permissions can be changed to allow this? http://groups.drupal.org/node/14792/og_panels
Todd Ross Nienkerk
Digital Strategist and Partner
Four Kitchens: Big ideas for the web
IRC: toddross
Layout has changed slightly
That's odd about permissions, considering you actually gave me admin access!
This is how I'm editing the front page (admins only):
- Click Pages tab
- On the Overview line, click Edit Content
- In the Custom section, click the 'gear' icon, then choose 'Settings'
Does that work for you? If not, perhaps joshk can help.
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http://about.me/lisarex
Works!
It's working now, but for some reason, I was getting "access denied" earlier. Go figure!
Todd Ross Nienkerk
Digital Strategist and Partner
Four Kitchens: Big ideas for the web
IRC: toddross
My thoughts
The biggest barriers to entry (as an implementation participant) from my point of view is
- Knowledge of where the planning conversations were happening (e-mail, discussion lists, IRC)
- Lack of knowing where to start (especially since I'm an utter newbie to theming and had planned to focus on frontend QA/testing instead)
- What tools I'd need
- What needs to be done next
If each of these information chunks were addressed the group's pages, it would be so much easier to feel comfortable enough to wade in and help out. So hopefully, having more structure in the d.o redesign group page will encourage the implementation team leaders to keep information current. And if there's anything else I can do to encourage this process, I'm here for you!
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http://about.me/lisarex
I'm not in this group. But
I'm not in this group. But I'm trying to get help out in the Usability group.
For me it was hard to see "where" the action is, which you addressed above: "- Knowledge of where..." In addition to 'where' it would be good to know what are the hot topics right now that need people's attention. The examples, email, discussion lists and IRC are ephemeral. Someone needs to record/note what the current discussion are about. Basically, like minute-taking & reporting.
These can then direct people and prepare people for the conversations when they jump in.
There's alot to catch up on when you first join.
Beware the "Sticky at top of lists" posts
Re: "I need to figure out how to arrange it so the most recent sits higher on the view."
The problem is that those posts are configured to be "Sticky at top of lists". See:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/19010/edit
http://groups.drupal.org/node/18940/edit
Scroll to the bottom of each page, open the "Publishing options" fieldset, and notice the "Sticky at top of lists" checkbox. If you unselect those, they'll go back to regular chronological order.
Probably pages that want to stay at the "top" for on-going todo lists and status pages should be in another part of the group, and this open discussion/wiki area can be strictly chronological.
Thanks for making this group functional again! A few times I recently came here since it said there were new posts, but it was impossible to navigate to them. Nice to see motion on this front...
Cheers,
-Derek
Thanks Derek
Unfortunately, it might be my permissions, but I don't see the 'Publishing options' field set.
But yes, definitely this discussion/wiki area should remain chronological only. If anyone has permission to 'un-sticky' these, that would be great if you could do that. All Task lists are linked off this Help with Implementation page: http://groups.drupal.org/drupalorg-redesign-implementers/helpout
Not sure how current the Tasks Lists are. Each one probably need a maintainer, who also includes the last modified date. And the Tasks Lists don't have remain in the format format presented, if the maintainer has a format that will work better for their team of volunteers.
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http://about.me/lisarex
Unstickied ;)
Done.