I was editing the documentation for the cloud module. During the testing, I found several quirks that make administration of clouds confusing. Here's what I noticed:

  • The module is called "cloud".
  • The "admin/system/modules" page refers to the
    module as "cloud"
  • The cloud module is used to monitor sites.
  • There is an admin link called "site monitoring"
    which has nothing to do with the cloud module.
  • The cloud module admin group is called "content
    syndication". This implies that you can use this tool
    to syndicate your site content, instead of monitor
    other sites. I recommend changing this group to "site
    clouds" for consistency and clarity.
  • The admin page for site clouds is called
    "blogrolling". This is loosely mentioned in the
    current documentation but seems out of place. The
    term blogrolling isn't defined anywhere and it's
    relation to site clouds is unclear.
  • The hierarchy in the admin navigation is unnecessarily deep. Here's what we have currently:
    • -content syndication (a blank page)
      • blog rolling
        • add new site
        • help

Here's my recommended admin hierarchy for the cloud
module:

  • Site Clouds (the "blog rolling" page renamed)
    • add new site
    • help

What do you all think?

Comments

al’s picture

al commented

Patched blogroll -> site cloud in latest CVS.
Still leaving this open because "site cloud" is somewhat confusing. It's a bit of a non-title - all of my users go "what's that?" when they first of all see it.

Please discuss what it should become within this bug report, so we can keep everything in one place.

joe lombardo’s picture

joe lombardo commented

I also think Site Cloud is mis-leading. I figured there was some history to the name.

Here are some alternate names tha could be considered:
Site Monitor (could be misleading)
Related Sites
Monitor Sites

nothing great from me... maybe someone will pitch a better name.

Another big picture question... do people actually use this module? Would they if they understood it better?

Could this functionality be added to the weblinks module and this module be discarded? As part of the weblinks module, I could see admins having the ability to flag a site as one that needs to be monitored. It might be taxing to monitor all sites in a weblinks module.

flow’s picture

flow commented
Title: Cloud module administration usability » Re: [drupal-devel] task #1847 : Cloud module administration usability

> Project: Drupal
> Area: cloud.module
> Version: cvs
> Pstatus: Active
> Priority: 2
>
> 11/06/2003 - 09:20 : joe lombardo
> I also think Site Cloud is mis-leading. I figured there was some
> history to the name.
>
> Here are some alternate names tha could be considered:
> Site Monitor (could be misleading)
> Related Sites
> Monitor Sites
>
> nothing great from me... maybe someone will pitch a better name.
>
> Another big picture question... do people actually use this module?

I do and have been since the day one.

> Would they if they understood it better?

It's not that hard to figure out what it does. Agreed, a bit better
description might be helpful, but it's not like we're totally
obfuscating what the thing does at the moment.

> Could this functionality be added to the weblinks module and this
> module be discarded?

No.

I don't use weblinks and personally think they serve a quite different
purpose - therefor it's better to keep them separated.

-rbb

al’s picture

al commented
Title: Re: [drupal-devel] task #1847 : Cloud module administration usability » Cloud module administration usability
bkessels’s picture

bkessels commented
Title: Cloud module administration usability » Re: [drupal-devel] task #1847 : Cloud module administration usability

at 13:20 11-6-03 +0000, JL wrote:

al’s picture

al commented
Title: Re: [drupal-devel] task #1847 : Cloud module administration usability » Cloud module administration usability

Changing title (again) because of bug in project.module.

killes@www.drop.org’s picture

killes@www.drop.org commented
Component: cloud.module » other

cloud.module was moved to contrib cvs and has been removed after nobody took over maintenance.