[kdenlive] Fwd: Re: Volunteering website help - if needed?

[Vincent Pinon]

Hello,

Much energy seems available to make kdenlive website young again.
Here are our last exchanges on the topic (to add to discussions during Café #1 & #2),
how do interested people prefer to work together ?
exchanging via list / forum / wiki / IRC ?
talking, but also doing : which practical aspects (web space & access rights, roles, etc)?

I don't really want to lead this, I let you choose the bazaar or another dictator :)

Hugs,

Vincent

On Wednesday, January 20, 2016 01:18:01 Jesse DuBord wrote:
> On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 23:54:39 vpinon wrote:
> > On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 23:38:47 j-b-m wrote:
> > > On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 11:16:40 AM Jesse DuBord wrote:
> > > > Hey JB and Vincent,
> > > 
> > > Hello Jesse,
> > > 
> > > > Kdenlive is coming along brilliantly, as usual. You all continue to do
> > > > super fantastic work and making Kdenlive better and better!
> > > 
> > > Thanks, I am also very happy about the recent evolution.
> > > 
> > > > Paul Konecny told me in the last Kdenlive Cafe meeting, there was some
> > > > talk of updating the website. Now, I'm no coder, but I'm quite
> > > > familiar
> > > > with design, and if you would like some extra man-power to devote
> > > > their
> > > > time and efforts to the Kdenlive website, I'd be happy to volunteer.
> > > > :)
> > > 
> > > Sure that would be more than welcome.
> > > 
> > > > If you're interested, can you give me a little background on the
> > > > current status of the website: the back-end, host, etc.? I'm quite
> > > > partial to using Wordpress, personally, and elegantthemes.com has a
> > > > theme for it called Divi, which is an incredibly flexible theme
> > > > (http:/
> > > > /www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/). I've used it on both my
> > > > professional and personal website. It's $69 for the theme, but I'd be
> > > > happy to cover the cost as a donation to the project. :) Of course,
> > > > it's one of many web options.
> > > 
> > > Currently, kdenlive.org is hosted on the KDE servers, and uses the
> > > Drupal
> > > CMS. It is easier to use Drupal because there is an automatically
> > > updated
> > > core version on the KDE servers, so we mostly don't need to care about
> > > updating which can be a pain with large CMS like Drupal / Wordpress.
> > > KDE also has a Wordpress install but at the Café, Mario told us that the
> > > KDE
> > > sysadmin team is trying to get rid of it. So if possible, it would be
> > > easier
> > > to stay with Drupal.
> > > 
> > > Also, the redesign is not only a matter of appearance, but also of which
> > > content we have and how we organize it. Some people suggested that we
> > > take
> > > inspiration on krita.org or blender.org.
> > > 
> > > I had a quick look and in comparison, kdenlive.org looks really messy.
> > > So
> > > maybe as a start we could rethink the hierarchy of the website - with a
> > > simpler template like "features", "support",  "download", and then
> > > rewrite
> > > the content of these categories to make it more appealing / up to date ?
> > > 
> > > Also, I would really like to re-introduce something like a gallery or a
> > > tutorial section where users could post content, but I had to block all
> > > interactivity 2 years ago because the website was overloading the server
> > > (we
> > > were also hit with massive spamming) and we were evicted from our
> > > previous
> > > hosting company... So I guess these kind of feature would require a fair
> > > amount of maintenance...
> > > 
> > > These are just some of the ideas that come to my mind, maybe Vincent can
> > > add
> > > something there..
> > > 
> > > Regards
> > > jb
> > > 
> > > > Anyways, let me know if you'd be intersted. Thanks!
> > > > 
> > > > Cheers,
> 
> Hello !
> 
> Many thanks for offering help, much appreciated!
> 
> Well, not much to add, you summarized well the status : I am also focused on
> the content organization problem... but maybe it's a false problem, just
> having few links to documentation (wiki) / development (bugs) / contact
> (list+forum) would be OK, with no further integration (messy)?
> 
> I'm not particularly fond of all those flashy WordPress themes making the
> modern sites look quite similar (as our old themes led to 10 years back),
> but I'm an old grumpy tech guy ;)
> 
> I think we should start soon a draft new frontpage on a side
> server/subdirectory, for tests & preliminary redaction, and switch when we
> find it better?
> 
> Vincent

My pleasure! You guys are doing all the hard work, after all.

Drupal sounds more than fine. I'm sure we've all been in IT computer stuff enough to adapt to a myriad of frameworks.

The content is certainly 90% of a website, I believe -- the other 10% is ease of navigation. I think the homepage should be your one-stop opportunity to let Kdenlive shine brightest. Statistically, people will only engage web pages for a few seconds, and if found unappealing, will move onto watching YouTube videos of wallabees wearing funny bouler hats. A homepage should:

(1) Introduce the vision, more-so than the product itself
(2) Say briefly what the product is, what it's mission is, and why it's great!
(3) Direct the viewer easily to a web page or location where they can get it... or at least show how they can get it. (Being that it's free software, there's no need to go to a shopping page)
(4) (optional) I'd also encourage an easy way for the viewer to be directed to a stylish page where they can donate to Kdenlive (in this case, the KDE project, and be re-directed to their donation page). Reasons are: the more convinced they are of Kdenlive's value, the more likely they'll - at least - buy you guys a cup of coffee to keep you going. :) They might not donate in large, but it's better than nothing, yeah?
(5) Primary colors should - in the marketing world - designate the center of the website's color design. The new Kdenlive logo shows a charcoal grey (film strip), red (position cursor) and blue (film cell itself). Maybe make those the primary colors?

Vincent, I'm sure there's a way to make something stylish, contemporary, organized, informative -- but can also stand out from the norm... even for grumpy old tech guys. :)

More to come. Maybe I can look around at Drupal themes and post some links with suggestions; see if a general layout comes along that you'd like for the cornerstone.