Re: www.postgresql.org (was Time to work on Press - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Simon@2ndquadrant.com wrote:

>>Lamar Owen wrote
>>AND I'D LIKE TO SEE THESE RESOURCES IN PLAIN VIEW ON THE MAIN WEBPAGE.
>>(Sorry for the raised voice, but I was working on a presentation
>>for a LUG and
>>could not for the life of me find this information in one place,
>>so I likely
>>missed some companies.  It may very well exist, but it is well hidden)
>>
>>
>>
>
>Thinking about Lamar's words...
>
>I notice that in the "first visible portion" of the main web page...
>1. There is no mention of what PostgreSQL actually is on the main web page, unless it is mentioned in passing on one
ofthe news/events in the middle section.  
>...The "What is..." section is fairly redundant...we know click-thru rates are very low to second pages....
>Let's replace that with a few words saying what PostgreSQL is, with a more> link underneath.
>
>2. There is no mention of what releases are available, what the current one is etc... unless it is mentioned on the
news(which it is NOW, but wouldn't normally be) 
>...The "Contact the Webmasters" section is also fairly redundant, 'cos it asks you not to contact them underneath.
>Let's replace that with a section called "Download Now!"
>Latest Stable: 7.4.3 (with links: src, Linux RPMs, Windows, others)
>Current Beta: 8.0.0 (with link: src, Linux RPMs, Windows, others)
>
>Both of these important facts/links are clearly visible on all of these web sites:
>http://www.mysql.com/
>http://www.oracle.com/index.html
>http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/
>http://www.microsoft.com/sql/
>
>3. Web page doesn't even mention the phrase "Open Source", which is no doubt something many have argued about
previously,but it seems a very accepted term now for software distributed under the BSD licence. 
>...Let's replace "Licence" on left bar with "Open Source"
>
>I would also like to see the commercial support offerings emphasised elsewhere on the page, as Lamar suggests.
>
>Overall, I like the www.postgresql.org site design and hope that we could adopt the same design elsewhere.
>
>I'll help with the web page if that's what's needed.
>
>Best Regards, Simon Riggs
>
>
>---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
>TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
>
>
Thinking about the web pages and the 8.0.0 press release...

When we think about the press release, I think one of the goals is to
get people to go and visit the web pages. Since that is usually the
stage between reading the press release, and downloading and installing
the software.

A while ago there was a lot of talk about the postgresql logo. Then
there has been some discussion about the web pages. And now there are a
lot of discussions about different projects and companies, and how they
should be/should not be seen in the press release.

The advocacy.postgresql.org is very much different from the
www.postgresql.org site. Even the logo is different.  It would be very
easy to think that the advocacy pages are from an other project...

I know, that there is a project going on to get new postgresql
www-pages. Is there any possibility, that this would be ready by the
time 8.0.0 is launched? And could the advocacy pages be part of the new
postgresql pages? I'd guess that at the time of the press release, there
is a peak in the visitor amounts.

 From the www.postgresql.org page I could find links to some local
postgresql web pages. Again, the look and feel is different, and the
logos are different. I don't know the history behind this, but even if
we just think that now there are several web sites that need
administration and development, we could save someones work there.

For new postgresql users to better understand and identify the project,
I think that the logo and look and feel we use in postgresql
communications should always be the same.

And then about the companies, and their visibility. On
http://advocacy.postgresql.org/about/#corporate there is nothing about
Fujitsu. If we tell in a press release, that they are contributing to
postgresql, then I guess they should be mentioned somehow there too.
Especially, since Fujitsu is very well known, and in that way brings in
more reliability to the message.

Rgs,

Jussi