[Clipart] Forum and website

[Jonathan Phillips]

On Thu, 2004-04-22 at 17:32, fenix at theopencd.net wrote:
> Quoting Jonathan Phillips <jon at rejon.org>:
> 
> > Bryce, does the software you are installing support forums? I remember
> > bryce mentioning that the bug and feature tracking software supports
> > forums. I think user forums would be a good thing for the user
> > community, although not supplanting the wiki as a place for shared
> > document collection.
> > 
> 
> The forum should be made through a PHPbb feature, but unfortunately, I don't 
> know PHP at all.
> 

Well, I think that we should try out the user forums for the software
that Bryce is installing first. If they are not acceptable then we can
re-evaluate.

> I believe, that all OpenSource Linux servers support this feature.
> 
> > Fenix, besides the forums being installed, do you still need a fd.o
> > account? 
> 
> What fd.o account is? (is that a wiki account, or something else?)
> 

fd.o is shorthand for freedesktop.org which is the server that hosts the
website.

> >Also, what are your thoughts on the current state of the
> > website?
> > 
> > Jon
> 
> I think, that our new website must be more like "emotionware", I mean that it 
> must be very intuitive to navigate, and be accessible for people who don't 
> understand english (and those who doesn't like to read :), which are many 
> surfers on the internet ).
> 

I agree with this, and maybe you could suggest how to best design the
site to cater to global visitors? I added the language translation at
the bottom of the page. It is hard to be inclusive of everyone, but I
could see how generating icons for upload and download of clipart would
be a beneficial thing.

> We should take this idea:
> 
> OpenClipart preview: Added on 8.4.2004.
> http://oosurvey.gratismania.ro:8080/oocommunity/Members/Chadley78/openclipart/i
> mage_view
> 

Yes, hopefully in the future we will be able to design some form of
interface with quick access to emergent keywords. However, the design of
that graphic will not be accessible to many users. The design of it will
turn off many designers and artists.

> But rework it that way, so upload, browsing buttons and download buttons are 
> understood by every idiot out there, who even mistakenly entered our site.
> Download button must be beauty graphical image of say- insect, or car + small 
> arrow in diagonal to down. For upload the same image but with arrow looking in 
> diagonal up.
> 

I don't think it is desirable to consider the average user as an idiot,
but maybe not speaking the same language or have the same vocabulary as
our core group of users. I agree that accessibility is/will be a key
issue.

> If our site is able to deliver the "woow" effect, when looked at first glance,
> then we completed our goal. We will be able to attract new contributors 
> easily, and our project will be in motion. 
> 
> Delivering the "woow" effect, even to non-english speakers is mission-critical.
> 

agree...but I the main point of the site was to get something up and to
focus on the core of the project which is to collect and disseminate
clipart. We have much to consider before we can redesign the site to
take into account categories, keywords, etc. In many ways, the most
important thing we should be doing IMHO is to be plugging in clipart and
sorting out our branding/pr so that we can get more developers (which is
not very high currently).

Jon


-- 

Jon Phillips
Graduate Researcher
Visual Arts Department

PO BOX 948667
LA JOLLA, CA 
92037
USA

cell.858.361.2811
jon at rejon.org
http://www.rejon.org