Website!!!

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gargsuchi's picture

Hi All
Please check out www.womenindrupal.org
This is a very basic site that we have just launched, critique/ comments are most welcome.

Comments

Ladies and Girls?!?

jhodgdon's picture

Being older than some... In the 70s and 80s, women in the US who were part of the "Women's Lib" movement definitely did not appreciate being called either "ladies" or "girls", so the banner across the site hit me in the gut! I know younger folks don't mind being called either "ladies" or "girls", but for me it nearly made me leave the site without looking further. But the rest of the site seemed OK. "drupal" was written lower-case a lot, which the proofreader in me noticed (all over the About page for instance).

Also... I guess we've discussed this before here, but the Women in Drupal idea was already fragmented, and this makes it even more so. As far as I know, we have this groups.drupal.org group, a Facebook page, an IRC channel, and perhaps a Twitter account (not sure?). Now a web site... why do we need yet another venue?

Cheers,
Jennifer

ps: The picture at the top of http://www.womenindrupal.org/blog has my name on it, but it definitely isn't me. I'd appreciate it if you could fix that. :)

Sorry

gargsuchi's picture

Sorry for the mistake Jen. we have corrected the picture of you.
To clarify, this is more of an India centric site - and we r trying to bring in more indian women into the drupalsphere and into contribution mode.

Objectively, it looks like a

CatherineOmega's picture

Objectively, it looks like a well-made site, but you might improve performance a bit by aggregating your CSS and JS files: /admin/config/development/performance

If I can put on my front-end developer hat for a moment, I'd also recommend centering your giant background image with background-position: so that we don't just get the thin edge of the photo on smaller devices. The site's nice and responsive though.

As for Jennifer's comments above, yeah, I'm with her. I think "women and girls" in that opening text would come across as far more broadly applicable, which I think is what you're going for, since you use "women in Drupal" everywhere else.

Catherine

My only real issue with this is...

theladebug's picture

the genderization (is that a word?) of the Drupal logo. I don't understand why it's necessary to modify the logo. In creating a different logo I think it (probably unintentionally) has the effect of segregating this group of women from the rest of the Drupal community, rather than encouraging them to integrate themselves into the community as a whole.

I think women are segregated enough in technology without us perpetuating this behavior by separating ourselves and I think that rejecting the traditional logo for a "girly" version kind of does that.

Just my two cents :)

pink?

ifrik's picture

I'm not quite sure what the aim of the site is, but my first reaction still is: Not for me.
Pink, and more pastel colours, druplicon with a little pink bow, pink hearts? To me that is really problematic because once again it gives the message that technology needs to be made pink and cute for women and girls.
I feel extremely uncomfortable to be represented in this way.

(I would rather have the girl from the 1980's lego advertisment as my representative... http://i.imgur.com/xwAsW56.jpg)

I would echo the previous comment: "Ladies and girls" doesn't seem to include me. Since the rest of the text of talxs about women, "women and girls" would be more appropriate - especially since you really seem to mean girls as in 'not-yet grown up' as your pictures show.

And another more constructive point: Try out how the site works with faces that actually look at the visitor, instead of turned away from the visitor.

Site builder and Documentation WG member

copyright & Indian Laws?

ifrik's picture

Some more questions:

Why did you choose to copy-right the content on the site?
The Drupal code is GPL v2, the content on this site is CC-Share alike, and even the logo you used on the site is CC licensed.

I didn't read you Terms & Conditions in detail, but what struck me that it's governed by the laws of India. Why should we subject ourself to that?

And please choose a different registrar. GoDaddy is probably the most sexist registrar.

Site builder and Documentation WG member

Girls and Terms and Conditions

EnjoyLife's picture

"Girls" can also apply to younger people who are truly girls. But if you want to hit a more respectful tone, "women and young ladies" or using "young women" might be an option.

My initial reaction was favorable to the site. I thought, however, that it was a united front with the Drupal group and the Facebook group. Using the same name as other groups is very confusing and I agree, fragmented.

"As far as I know, we have this groups.drupal.org group, a Facebook page, an IRC channel, and perhaps a Twitter account..."

Jennifer, yes, there's also a LinkedIn group to add to that list. The twitter account @womenindrupal is tied to this new site and has just gotten started.

I'm all for creating a new space if the ones that currently exist are not working out well or can be improved upon. But everyone using the same name is very confusing. I think sharing with these other networks about why you created the space and what you think it will add to the community would certainly clear up confusion and probably garner more support.

However, I am most concerned about the privacy policy and terms and conditions on the site. Specifically:

"Becoming a member is free. However, we do charge fees for certain services. When you use Women In Drupal Service that has a fee you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged, which we may change from time to time. ...Women In Drupal reserves the right to charge listing fees, if applicable, for certain listings, as well as transaction fees for using the Service and carrying out transactions. Women In Drupal further reserves the right to introduce, change or alter any and all fees from time to time, without notice."

+1 on GoDaddy as non-suitable

sunnydeveloper's picture

+1 on GoDaddy as non-suitable registrar.

I love that someone is taking the time to make something for women in Drupal, and so I don't want to sound negative - it's hard when you pour love into something and there's a critical response, so I hope you'll read comments and see the value in the responses. I hope these read as helpful, because that's the intention.

My perspective is similar to Jennifer's, as someone from a generation where I have experienced the upheaval of women's rights (in junior high girls took sewing & cooking, boys took woodwork and metal), there's a sensitivity that's built-in to anything that resembles a backward slide in equality. That being said, obviously there's great value in 'Women in Drupal' coming together or we wouldn't be. I know that some women like pink bows etc, but IMHO a group like this isn't about style it's about community, support mechanisms, mentoring, and activism and so these are the key elements (of the top of my head) that I like to see reflected in the design. In doing so I believe everyone all personal-styles are covered :)

Beyond the style conversation, I think the privacy policy and donations is a bit of a concern - I would worry that donations to 'Women in Drupal' might be misinterpreted to be going somewhere it's not? This feels more like a fork , than a representation of this Drupal list, or the Facebook list (and there's already some heated discussion on having two places). I would be curious as to the site's goals, where donations go, what the 'listing fee' is all about and so on. Transparency is key in an open community, looking forward to learning more.

Duplicate

sunnydeveloper's picture

Duplicate

Drupal/Women in Drupal Chapters and Forks

EnjoyLife's picture

Okay, a few things. I think people missed garsuchi's post, "Launching the Indian Chapter of 'Women in Drupal,'" on January 31, 2014 that said:

Hi All
We are in the process of launching the indian chapter of this group. More details coming soon....
will keep you updated on the progress.

I think there was a need in the Drupal community and the organizers wanted to fill it, but there is also an invitation to everyone to join that community.

To add to what I wrote earlier, it's perfectly okay to have forks of different groups. And no one has to explain why they decide to exist or create a new group. We benefit from different spaces so that as many people as possible find a home or a space where they feel welcome. For me, it's just confusing that the "Women in Drupal" groups are all named the same exact thing. By doing that, it gets people to start questioning things like "do I feel represented?" and "do I feel like I would belong here?" when perhaps it doesn't have to be a particular person's space, but can be a space that they support.

The Drupal community is a big community and there are plenty of people in it that want to see it grow and flourish. I look forward to learning more about this group.

So many !!!!!! Not enough content.

lesleyb's picture

+1 on the godaddy registrar here too - I have never used them but have heard rumours of very sharp practice. They would be a company I'd avoid.

Definitely a huge +1 on the Lego girl. Really loved that ad when it came out.

And again, I agree, on the "Ladies and girls" phrase.

I find the Facebook page offensive in its use of pink and if that was the only representation of Women in Drupal on Facebook I'd be seriously worried about the Women in Drupal effort. I feel it is and will be detrimental to the Women in Drupal effort and would prefer it not to exist.

I think you might want to familiarise yourself with
https://about.twitter.com/press/brand-assets
and
https://www.facebookbrand.com/

I also think you may need to familiarise yourself with the tax rules on raising revenue in many different countries. You might become liable for VAT over a certain threshold of earnings in the UK. Charging a UK resident a fee means you are creating a profit in the UK and it would be subject to UK revenue laws. Similar might be true in other countries. But IANAL so you'd really need to check this money-making venture out with experts in your country.

I'd like to say well done with the website but your effort, in my view, downgrades, devalues and dilutes the existing effort here, on facebook and other outlets.

Sorry to be so negative.

Kind regards

Lesley

Andrea

andreak's picture

I like pink (anything but drab browns and dark blues) and I really liked the name drupalchix. The more "serious" this group gets, the less I'm interested. For the last project I hired all women (just worked out that way). I love drupal, technology, men. I am more into liberal politics than republican ideas but have no interest in using drupal as a feminist soap box.

-Andrea

Andrea

andreak's picture

I like pink (anything but drab browns and dark blues) and I really liked the name drupalchix. The more "serious" this group gets, the less I'm interested. For the last project I hired all women (just worked out that way). I love drupal, technology, men. I am more into liberal politics than republican ideas but have no interest in using drupal as a feminist soap box.

-Andrea

Pink men etc

lesleyb's picture

I am a feminist and I like pink and men as well as women and people of a transgender nature.

I wear pink jumpers, cardigans and T-shirts.

I am an adult woman, and I feel the term 'chick' to refer to a female of our species is demeaning, derogatory and degrading.

I also find the facebook page offensively pink.

Kind regards

Lesley

Responsiveness

bradfits's picture

Nice site. It is responsive and adoptive. Just add hover in the menu and everything works perfect!

Site unaccessible

Balu Ertl's picture

I want to believe it's only because a pure technical error and not because the – by the way constructive and valid – comments above. However it seems as a regular SQL-call error:

PDOException: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2) in lock_may_be_available() (line 167 of /home/girlsdrupal/www/prod/docroot/includes/lock.inc).

Hey - where are you seeing

gargsuchi's picture

Hey - where are you seeing this error?