Re: [libreoffice-website] Website status

Hi, :-)

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 07:39, Bernhard Dippold
<bernhard@familie-dippold.at> wrote:
> Hi David, all,
>
> once again, please don't think I would not appreciate your great work, even
> if I try to improve the "look and feel" of the welcome page.
<snip>
> Please have a look at Christoph's proposal:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bbnG0Hny0SpccJIZsGp72A?feat=directlink

I must admit that, personally, I don't find this layout attractive at
all, although it gives some general indicators about content
positioning.

> I'm sorry, that I can't design a mockup at the moment. Time is short even
> for adding the short phases...

I *have* read your ideas, and will carefully read them and think about
them again as I finish off this first version of the site content. I
am doing my best to take account of your comments and the comments of
other people in what I'm doing. But, sometimes, the proposals and
reactions are so sharply contrasting that it is difficult or
impossible to please everybody.

The problem is that it is *extremely* difficult to work in the current
situation: it's a kind of contributive anarchy, with no-one having a
clearly-appointed lead role in particular areas of the project. Thus,
the only conclusion you can arrive at is this: the people that
actually *do* work are the ones that get to call the shots. If they
are good community members, they will do their best to take account of
other people's opinions. But, in many cases, one has to take a
decision, and the decision will inevitably dissatisfy someone.

Such is the case in what I'm presently doing. I observed how, after
long discussions on the mailing lists and various conference calls,
the website team had failed to put any IA together, and had failed to
put even as much as 10 words on any single page. So I jumped in and
started working on my own. Even when I asked for quick and concrete
contributions, I only got help with content from a couple of people
(apart from lots of patient technical support from Christian).

I do want to get feedback from people, and to take account of their
ideas, but I don't have time or patience to be spending all my time
writing to mailing lists. I actually want to *do* work *now*.

I'm aware that the content I've put on the site is not perfect, and
that it's open to revision in the future. But it does have the merit
of *actually existing* and being sufficient to roll out the site.

I'm determined to finish off what I started, but I do ask you to
remember that I, too, only have 24 hours in my day, and also have a
life to deal with outside the project. So please forgive me for any
shortcomings you perceive in what I produce. ;-) We can look at things
again in the New Year.

I will be doing my best to take account of all I've read. :-)

I'm currently negotiating with Florian, Christian and Christoph to see
whether to proceed with changes to the SilverStripe theme, or whether
to set this issue aside for someone else to decide about at sometime
in the future.

I hope you understand my position, guys. ;-)

David Nelson

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