One of the Drupal Association's primary missions is to grow the adoption of Drupal. We are about to launch a new program on April 15th called Try Drupal. The program will make it easy and fast for evaluators to try Drupal and have a simple, great experience while on Drupal.org.
We’ve created Try Drupal with our Premium Hosting Supporters to make it easier for CMS evaluators and Drupal.org newcomers to test and work with a Drupal demo site. The Program will showcase a selection of Hosting Companies where a new user can quickly (in less than 20 minutes) sign up and have a Drupal demo site up and running for them to use for free.
This is part of the Drupal Association’s initiative to develop a new revenue stream through advertising programs on Drupal.org. This revenue will help fund various site initiatives by the Association to improve Drupal.org performance, and make it easier to use and more secure. After interviewing many members of the community, we determined that new advertising products should be useful to Drupal.org visitors, support our mission to grow the adoption of Drupal, and should not interfere with visitors contributing to the project.
To ensure a positive Drupal experience, partners need to adhere to the following guidelines:
- Users are directed to a self-serve sign up platform
- Users can create a free account for the demo site that accommodates a trial installation of Drupal 7 or 8
- Users can create a website in 20 minutes or less
- The demo site should be available to the user for a minimum of one day upon sign up
- The partner cannot include a paywall or require a credit card upon sign up
The Try Drupal program will be featured on the homepage of Drupal.org. It will launch with a larger iterative change to the homepage, with an emphasis on helping users move from newcomer, to learner, to skilled Drupal community members.
It’s important that we fund Drupal.org improvements, and that we do so in a responsible way that respects the community. We anticipate rolling out more key advertising programs throughout 2015, stay tuned for more updates. Thanks for taking the time to read about our initiatives, and please tell us your thoughts!
Comments
One of the most seamless and
One of the most seamless and easy ways to try Drupal out is to use simplytest.me. I highly recommend that a link to simplytest.me be added.
Bob Kepford
TheWeeklyDrop - A Weekly Drupal Newsletter
totally agree with Bob! And
totally agree with Bob! And thank you for mentioning it because I had forgotten the URL and luckily saw your post 10 seconds later!
Let's put a special section on this page with simplytest.me
I fully agree with Bob, Simplytest me is the best and easiest way for people to try Drupal and the best of all: It's completely free, free of registration, so no spam, marketing or anything else for the people that just want to "Try Drupal".
We should not prevent people from having a great tryout experience with Drupal just because the best Tool out there is a non-profit and is not a "Premium Hosting Provider". But I also see the Premium Hosting Providers, that obviously support Drupal itself, wanting to get something out of their money.
So maybe we could make a special section on this "Try Drupal" Page that also mentions Simplytest.me as a completely free and 30min tryout?
And here more people from the community that are sad about Simplytest.me not being on that page: https://twitter.com/patrickd_de/status/586629503549571072
Try Drupal
Thanks for the feedback Bob and Michael. The Try Drupal program is new. We started off with hosting partners that are helping fund Drupal.org, but we are considering options to make it more inclusive. Including SimplyTest.me is a part of that conversation, please stay tuned for updates.
let me know
if there are any questions or if there's anything I can do to make simplytest.me more acceptable for Try Drupal feel free to contact me ;-)
Thanks Patrick
Josh Mitchell and I would like to hop on a call to chat more. I'll follow up via email to set something up.
Simplytest.me is not appropriate to test a new Drupal / CMS
I don't consider Simplytest.me to be an appropriate platform to test a new CMS, as the maximum test-time is 30 minutes. That's defintely not enough to test a CMS. If you have to start a new test-session every 30 minutes, that's quite frustrating.
Sandbox session time is variable
30 minutes is currently the default for anonymous users, if you register on simplytest.me/ you'll get usually between 3 and 6 hours of time.
Also, I have no problem changing these numbers if people think it makes simplytest.me more usable. So far 30 minutes seems to work for most usecases.
It's all about expectation
It's all about expectation management from this "Try Drupal" page.
If we make a good job in telling the people that Simplytest.me is for 30min and for 3h (if you register), people can decide what they need.
But I believe that there are a lot of use-cases where 30min is way enough to try something out.
30 minutes (or 3 hours) is
30 minutes (or 3 hours) is fine for a developer testing a module or demonstrating something quickly - when you already know you way around the system.
But for non-Drupalists to evaluate Drupal it may not be quite enough, and that seems to be the primary aim here.
Verbiage about 'not a recommendation'
I think is a good idea to help people try out Drupal quickly.
But from the screen shot this looks like an Ad page that implies that the Drupal Association is recommending these vendors. IMHO, it is harmful to the Drupal Community as a whole to push just "big names"... The core of the community is the small companies and individuals who make Drupal thrive. Drupal needs to look at how companies like "Red Hat" defined the Open Source company module by fostering community while supplying ROI value add. Not trying to "becoming the community" with an uber marketing machine.
To that end, there needs to be a clear statement that these are just a sampling of vendors that allow for quick Drupal site creation and meet the registration criteria. This is not a recommendation on the part of the Drupal Association as to vendors to select.
Maybe there should be links to some of the pages maintain in the community with lists of hosting providers (and reviews). Possibly to some neutral blogs/articles about selecting a provider.
--
A vast majority of stuff done in Drupal is easy...
it's finding the trick that makes it easy that takes Sooo much time.
That is a great point
The screen shot included is just a mock up of the Try Drupal page. While we have implemented guidelines to make sure users have a positive experience, there will be verbiage on the page that explains that it is an advertising program, and that the Drupal Community does not endorse these companies.
newbies need direction
I've been using Drupal for years, but have never been a member of the community. I'd like to change that.
The user experience for a new user on the Drupal.org site can be improved. A few suggestions:
- Highlight the section for someone new and push to test/try Drupal for the first time on the homepage
- Include a video, PDF, and Blog post (people consume content differently) options for learning how to set up their first site and what/why it's different from other CMS options.
In my opinion, drupalize.me has done a wonderful job to indoctrinate me and others, and we may want to utilize some of the same methods here on Drupal.org.
Anyhow, thank you for all of the work everyone has put into the community, so far.
User Experience
Thanks for the feedback David! This update is just an iterative change, one of many more updates in the future that will improve the user experience for a new user on Drupal.org. You can read more about these plans here. The use of video, PDF and blogs is a great idea and I'm sure will be a part of the discussion for future changes.
-Carrie
Although I really like the
Although I really like the idea of a "Try Drupal" page, I feel pretty strongly that the primary action link on the front page of drupal.org should not be a paid advertisement.
I filed an issue to discuss this further: #2471244: The "Try Drupal" page should clarify what is a partner offer and what is a community service
One of the Drupal Association
Seriously, were there no other ways of "growing the adoption of Drupal" such as creating the right ecosystem to have solid, beautiful and reliable contrib modules (like wordpress) instead of a growing dangling list of abandoned, half baked and unmaintained projects?
Oh so drupal.org was held hostage.
I am sure there are better ways of fostering the adoption of Drupal and the most important of them is to have a quality ecosystem that will benefit all the people participating, from the big fish to little maintainers and contributors.
The Try Drupal on the home page is missleading and deceiving because Drupal-as-a-service is not what Drupal really is.
Agreed with the Davids
At the very least this page should contain a prominent link to an alternative like simplytest.me. As it currently is designed and how it is promoted on the frontpage this is not a "Try"-Drupal programme but a "Funnel users to DaaS-Providers" programme (intended or not).
Outside of the problems
Outside of the problems raised earlier (which I agree with), landing on a page where there is a choice to make doesn't help.
Click on try drupal, then try to figure out on which green button to click without any prior knowledge. Seems to me the try drupal should redirect to a page where a preselected choice is made (by making one bigger or something). I know it's at odds with the purpose of advertising this, but are we making this page to help people or sell ads?
Iterative Changes
@David_Rothstein @david_garcia @dddave
I appreciate your concerns, and I’m addressing all of your posts here since they’re part of the same conversation (not just because you are all named David!)
While we need to create new revenue programs to support Drupal.org, we want to do so in a respectful, mission-driven way. One of the things that we kept hearing from community members is that we should monetize anonymous traffic - those who are not contributing to the project. Since 95% of the traffic to the homepage is anonymous, many stated that the homepage would be an appropriate place to focus our revenue efforts.
We’re launching Try Drupal because it offers a feature for newcomers that was not available on Drupal.org, and it provides a revenue stream that goes back to supporting the community. This program is brand new, and we’re working on bringing in additional partners for more of a variety of services. We’re also discussing options to include services like SimplyTest.me or others that are not premium hosting supporters.
I also should stress that the homepage redesign is an iterative change, and with future updates you will see less of a focus on new revenue programs, and more of an emphasis on community focused content as we develop better landing pages. These changes, and the Try Drupal program, were highlighted at the end of March here.
Please stay tuned for updates on these future homepage changes.
www.trydrupal8.com is an
www.trydrupal8.com is an instant way to spin up the latest version of Drupal 8. 1 click and you have instant access.
It is powered by www.stackstarter.io which is set to launch in the next month and will give the same instant access to Drupal 7 as well as many other platforms and technologies complete with console access, a web based IDE, and the running application.
We truly believe that this sort of instant access is very powerful for both developers looking to vet an idea or try a new technology as well as trainers looking to distribute optimized environments to their class.
Happy Spinning :)
This looks very promising and
This looks very promising and way more focused on the "Try Drupal" goal, if you want to try more than the UI out. Hope the beta is legit :) Having a comprehensive all-in-one solution would seem to me to be the best UX for this initiative.
What user persona(s) is/are supposed to be driven to these spin up sites? I've heard talk of user personas being developed for d.o, but didn't see any mentioned above. The casual hobbyist? The tech lead? The person who signs off on shelling out money to adopt Drupal? I think defining specifically who these people are will help clarify who will be "trying Drupal" out, time limits, etc....I just went to drupal.org, and I want to try Drupal, who am I?
"You've gotta start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and [then] figure out where you're gonna sell it." - Steve Jobs
30 minutes is too little, but
30 minutes is too little, but three hours is quite acceptable to prove it.
Thanks for the tool.
True
Its more promising
Simplytest.me
Really great, simply the best i love it
Bootstrap Tour Module to the rescue
People unfamiliar with Drupal will need more than a few hours to play around to know whether Drupal can do what they want given that Drupal is not really a CMS but more of a CMF.
I'd recommend using Bootstrap Tour via the Bootstrap Tour module like Open Atrium does to guide newcomers on a site. The BT module allows you to take visitors on a real tour where they can try real things like building content types, or seeing what Views can do. Hard to beat a live tutorial.
I also appreciate being able to spin up a site on Pantheon and play with it for weeks or more to see what I can accomplish, for free.
The good thing about a strong
The good thing about a strong community like Drupal is that members do speak up. So in this instance there are many who have spoken up and provided alternatives to the Drupal Association Try Drupal initiative. That in itself will provide beginners the information to check out other sites and options for trying Drupal.
I feel the more we can make Drupal accessible to others - businesses and especially developers the better it will be for the community.
E Ismail
I just tried "trydrupal8.com"
I just tried "trydrupal8.com" and it works very nice.
'Tried Drupal'
'Tried Drupal'
I appreciate...
... the responses here and would just like to add a couple of points:
1. I am not a coder but have used Drupal since 4.7 (2006) and have made and managed many user-centric interactive sites. I have deeply appreciated all the help I've gotten along the way from the community and drupal.org organization.
2. However (sorry), I do agree that as Drupal has grown bigger, there has been a loss of community and much more of an almost corporate push to the large monetizing organizations; lost is the collaboration and mutual assistance accomplished by smaller, entrepreneurial people and organizations.
3. It has been particularly difficult to get response, find accurate documentation or to get help with D7 and sometimes I feel that many of the D7 contrib modules are in abeyance -- in rc or beta status, or seeking maintainers -- for a long time. Is this because everyone is awaiting D8?
4. This site, drupal.org, has become unwieldy. One of the things we learned when we hired Lullabot to mentor us early on (we can no longer afford them) was to make good and careful use of the issue threads and discussions. We were schooled in techniques of searching and deciphering good solutions (and modules) from bad. However, the threads have become so outdated, it has become exponentially more difficult to find information pertinent to the most recent versions. It's easy to find solutions for D5 but not so easy to find accurate information on D7.
I greatly appreciate what you are doing. But I would love to see a greater push to clean up this site so that searches yielded more current information. I would love to see less emphasis on premium providers, monetizing and becoming bigger and more emphasis on how to help this community can become a community again -- where there was more opportunity to share and get help. I would love to see less emphasis on expanding Drupal's market and more emphasis on making the experience better. And I would agree that doing a test installation in an hour is not what Drupal is all about.
I hope this doesn't sound sharp. Not intended that way. Because without Drupal and its community our little nonprofit would never have been able to have the impact it has had on thousands of young folks. And I am indebted to the many individuals who helped who turned out to be some of the early leaders of Drupal but who still took time to help because they saw the value of what we were trying to do.
But there are still a lot of us tiny folks out here who don't have the cash to hire the big boys and would love to have some help that's not so hard to find. (And maybe return the favor with a little maple syrup! Which is how we once paid someone.)
cheers,
geoff
geoff gevalt
http://www.youngwritersproject.org
http://www.ywpschools.net
http://geoffreygevalt.com
Thanks
Thank you, i'm still very bad with Drupal, but i'm learning... With Try Drupal, i'm really exited to try one of my new website on it. Thanks again.
Add simplytest.me on Try Drupal page
While I understand the need for revenue for the Drupal Association, the three current options on the Try Drupal page simply don't cut it.
You need to register, and give up your e-mail address, and other personal information, which is something most people are leery of.
At https://simplytest.me/ on the other hand, you are up and running with a Drupal 8 instance in virtually 30 seconds, with no need to register to actually try out Drupal.
So please add https://simplytest.me/ on https://www.drupal.org/try-drupal/
EDIT: As you can see, I just added a simplytest.me link in my Signature. Feel free to do the same if you like the simplytest.me service :-)