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By Dries on
With Drupal 4.4.0 on the horizon, this marks a good time for a new round of website suggestions. In short, is there any way in which our website, http://drupal.org/, could serve you better? Let's try to compile a comprehensive list of both shortcommings and suggestions that we can translate into concrete tasks.
Comments
Allow subscriptons or notification to forum topics
Make it easier to stay tuned to topics that are of interest. This is a basic necessity for the plumber's own plumbing shop. Don't think this needs to be over-explained.
Extend subscriptions.module
Subscriptions.module seems to be ideal for this task, but I seem to remember some people mentioning that they were concerned about how it would scale to a large site (like drupal.org). Perhaps if we address those issues, this module could be used here.
Why do people fear it wouldn't scale?
Is it the volume of e-mail it would generate?
The volume is not the reason,
The volume is not the reason, it is just that currently the module sends out the mails immediately when a new comment is created. Now imagine a lot of users that have subscribed to a topic...
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maybe this is a hypothetical problem only
the project.module currently sends mail to all aubscribers upon submission. noone complains about that.
Forum subscriptions are really important
I think that forum subscriptions are really important, especially on the drupal site. (I am still finding it difficult to believe that they are not here.)
Tim
Forum subscriptions
Forum subscriptions might be enabled one day, in the mean time, use the improved tracker page. The 'Your active posts and discussions' link should be a reasonable alternative.
One day?
Dear Dries,
I do not know of any other bulletin board that does not give the option of subscriptions. Do you think that this is strange? All those other bulletin boards giving the option of something that is not all that important? Is it not perhaps more like that the universality of this feature is related to a strong user need?
Those that are on the site a lot (such as developers) may not need the function. It is the passing user, that does.
As I understand it, Drupal can provide subscriptions but this function is not turned on.
I am probably wrong. There are probably good reasons why one would not want this function on. Perhaps there is no fine tuning and it is either all or nothing. Or perhaps it will overload the Drupal server.
I am using the very nice tracker page, for today. Thank you.
Tim
Subscriptions
As explained elsewhere in this thread, the subscriptions module is not enabled because its are fairly untested, not because we are opposed to subscriptions. It is a new module and I have yet to review its code and functionality.
limit to authenticated users
Also, subscriptions should be limited to authenticated users - and maybe someone would let us know how many authenticated users are on the Drupal list - and have logged in during the last 60-90 days. Currently 220 guests and 11 users online...
subscriptions.module permissions
Currently, subscriptions.module uses a "maintain subscriptions" Drupal permission to allow/disallow users to subscribe to nodes/taxonomy terms. The admin can assign this permission to any roles he/she wants. That said, it would make little sense to grant anonymous users this permission, as the module would have no way of knowing their e-mail address. Therefore, limiting to authenticated users is almost certainly a given.
Create additional roles & modify anonymous authenticated users
Yes, I see what you mean. It's one of those 'access logic' things that can slip right by you. Like how it took me a few days to realize (slow learner) that without a permission system one of the first things to do is create additional roles and modify anonymous and authenticated users and/or don't allow anonymous users to create accounts/ authenticated user. It's a simple step but one that provides at least a little bit of administrative access control. It just bumps the permissions up one (or as many as you like)steps on the role 'chart.' Not real permissions but covers a few basics.
Guides
Let's add some how to guides on how to configure a few types of sites:
How to set up a personal site.
How to set up a small brochure site.
How to set up a community site
A blogging site
A news aggregator site
etc.
I really believe that a lot of people NEVER get around to understand how versatile this tool is. They often think that Drupal is sort of an advanced blogging tool.
Dropping in from Langemarks Cafe.
Guides would be good.
I had exactly the same idea recently. You'd also suggest modules that could be used, and describe setting those up along with Drupal.
adrinux
adrinux@ntlworld.com
Adrian Simmons
adrinux@anaath.at
In addition to guides,
I like the guides - but I really like to learn by example. I'm always looking for example Drupal sites that have implemented different themes or projects, or even different style sheets of a particular theme.
When listing projects, it would really help to provide examples of all the different projects in the "projects" list. Am I missing something? I just download things, install and figure out how they work. I read the notes, and people's updates. I'm never sure I really got it working "as intended", but eventually I look at the code to tweek it if I'm not happy.
drupal and themes
this is not so much a website usability comment, perhaps even off topic, but now that 4.4.0 is coming up with the changes to xtemplate making it easy to add new xtemplate themes, why not start an xtemplate-based theme contest, winner to be the new design for drupal.org?
for instance, i'd come up with something. i know it wouldn't be the winner--knowing my own web design skills--but i think it might be something that someone might like to have and use. so honorable mentions for the contest could be new themes that would be included with drupal core.
or maybe, to get as many people involved, it might be good to include any themes--not just xtemplate-based.
could be a good incentive to promote new theme designs.
Excellent
I like this idea. The Drupal community would certainly benefit from having a larger selection of themes, so any idea that produces new, quality themes is a good idea, IMO.
Theme contest
I have been thinking about organizing a theme contest. The way I envisioned it, the prices would be cash, not the drupal.org design. Either one would work for me though. Adding the theme to the main CVS repository (and thus to every Drupal setup) could be another price?
Let's compile a list of requirements and guidelines?
re: Theme contest
Cash is always nice, but the question is whether or not the cash prize can be sustained for future theme contests.
One suggestion I would make about requirements and guidelines is to make those as minimal as possible for submission, but rather include them as evaluation guidelines so as to encourage the maximum range of subscriptions. Encouraging the maximum amount of community participation through the maxium number of contributions would seem a main goal of such a contest. For example, if XHTML compliance was made a requirement for submission, someone might not enter a theme which has plenty of value on its own outside of compliance; it could be the most aesthetically pleasing submission. The theme submission could be one that others might want to use and build upon, one that down the road might end up being compliant. Or consider that someone's first attempt at creating a Drupal theme might not meet a rigid set of submission guidelines, but allowing them to enter their contribution could get them more engaged in participating in Drupal.
So in other words, if it works for Drupal 4.4.0, uses copyleftable graphics (if any), is an original design or a modification of a copyleftable design (whether a Drupal theme or one from another CMS project), and can be demonstrated with and works with all Drupal core modules, I'd let 'em submit. Then judge them on as wide a range of evaluation criteria as the community can come up with: XHTML compliance, usability, aesthetics, creativity, originality, degree to which it displays the power of Drupal CSS, CSS degradability, appropriateness for drupal.org, etc.
depends on prize
If the prize should be inclusion in drupal core download or use in drupal.org website I believe it should be required to fulfill some standards. Among them would be fully validating css-, xhtml-code. If using js (or flash, etc) it should be purely for enhancement, site should be fully useful without these activated. Some sort of browsercompatibility (at least among modern browsers), preferably also useful in lynxlike browsers.
Another way would be to have another category where people can submit their creations, that category could be something like carshows where people can show prototypes not fit for real use but displaying wild ideas and such. Useful ideas from this category will then probably find its way into the base themes.
more on requirements
Sorry. I should probably clarify. I was not suggesting that certain standards and considertations should not be heavily waited in judging the entries, merely that the submissions guidelines should be fairly open. Thus, the winner would end up conforming to those considerations that you have posted.
Part of this suggestion comes from looking at the Drupal download page. Compare the number of contributed themes which work for 4.2 with 4.3. There seems to be a decreased interest in theme maintenance and creation. Being considered with everyone else as a possible theme for drupal.org, even knowing that your design is not going to win, is probably more of an incentive to create than being thrown into another category.
Now, if the problem was that there were going to be too many entries, then stricter guidelines would be a way to filter out those that would like not be used for drupal.org. But I doubt that's going to be an issue.
Standards are good
It's perfectly possible to produce standards compliant sites that validate as xhtml and css *and* look aesthetically pleasing, I don't think that has to be an either or thing. And as long we go on accepting sloppy xhtml coding drupal we never move towards full standards compliance.
adrinux
adrinux@ntlworld.com
Adrian Simmons
adrinux@anaath.at
XHTML Compliance Can Look Good
Take a look at the CSS Zen Garden where all the pages at XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant and some of the CSS work is simply amazing. Sec 508 and AAA would be nice too, but I'd settle for XHTML compliance and let the site owners play with the rest to be Sec 508 compliant.
Anyone who thinks XHTML pages have to look boring isn't looking around enough.
Contest prizes and simplification
I'm all for the contest. I think cash prizes, inclusion with drupal and use on drupal.org are all good.
It seems like everyone has their own ideas of what prizes would be the best. That is the best indication that there are just as many indications for those entering the contest. Some might want cash, some might want recognition, some might want just better usuability and this is the chance or excuse for them to come up a theme they've been httdreaming of. Who knows? Who cares? If I was doing it I'd list all those things. Cash, inclusion, usability, drupal poster child.
There are a lot of artists and designers outside of the Drupal community who would love to get involved in this. I think that most of the members at Drupal.org are programmers, developers, engineers and IT. There are sites dedicated to creating to stuff like this. Check out http://animelayer.com/forums/. The site has design contests and challenges all the time. But one thing has to happen before you post the contest to a place like this. The process to create a theme has to be simplified for contestants. For example, I was working at a graphic designer job when I found Drupal and saw it could become an excellent asset to everything I was trying to do. But as soon as I dug in to create my own graphic design for my site it was a nightmare. I understand it but I spent about 2 weeks going over it. It has become easier and that is why I think now, with Drupal 4.4, a contest like this is more feasible.
A lot of the artist crowd wants to stay as far away from the code as they can. Otherwise all but the most diligent will be turned off, confused or frustrated. We can't completely eliminate the code but we can abstract it to it's own layer.
What I suggest is creating a static page that represents a generated drupal page and the xtemplate css file. For example, goto the Drupal home page and click view source. Strip out all the content and replace it with the description of the what the content is. For example, where it says, "Drupal 4.4.0 Release Candidate" replace it with, "Title of Node". Do that throughout the page. Save that file as "ContestPage.html". Then include the xtemplate.css file as "ContestCSS.css" file. Make sure the css file is documented. Now there is nothing that is different, obstructing, confusing or in anyway preventing someone from outside of Drupal community from entering.
Plus if you can make the contest page standards compliant, cross browser compliant, css compliant, compliant compliant, etc. before hand. That gives them unlimited flexibility. All they are allowed to change is the css file. If a graphic artist used features of a specific browser then their entry would only be allowed to enter a specific category. You could have a few contest categories. Best Drupal Theme (crossbrowser), Best theme (for IE), Best Theme (for Mozilla).
After you come up with a draft of the contest rules and regulations sheets you could post the contest to a couple of the sites like the one I listed above and implement any changes before posting the real thing.
deck chairs... and shuffle board
Themes are nice but I think the theme talk is moot without other key elements on the system's mothership site.
- This forum threading style is difficult to read and to find answers within. After a decade of forums and such I'm just saying it isn't as user friendly and as clear as other forums are. I don't think Drupal is trying to be forum software. If it was it would take a different direction. But self-appraisal is important and one reason the mailing lists my continue despite the confusion they can cause is because this forum threading presentation is not super user friendly.
- Not being able to subscribe to support forums is absurd and if the software can't take the load of the relatively small numbers of users (not guests) that log on here then that's a different story.
- Having too many places to look for answers related to common issues is difficult and turns people off from using a good system.
- Having documentation that is often incomplete or difficult to understand because it is self-referential or simply missing *complete* references is a challenge that surpasses the theme requirements.... IMNSHO
- I'd love to see the theme (light blue on light grey is a usability nightmare) improved here, but when it comes down to it Drupal's lack of robust access permissions so vocabulary, terms, and nodes can be accessed by specific groups (not roles) can be used intelligently is a hole in the ships hull while the themes are the deck chairs.
Separating Drupal.org from Drupal CMS/Application
I'm not sure one can easily separate the Drupal.org from Drupal CMS/Application hence my comments that may seem to go beyond the appearance of the site. I'm still curious as to what we can we learn from the consistently high number of guests vs users? 200+ vs 7 as I write this.
I do know from first hand experience that there's very few mail servers that can't handle notifications from the number of users that log in here, specially if you let users who don't log in for periods greater than 6 months go dormant... ;-)
Experimental forum module change
I have made an experimental change to the forum module: see http://drupal.org/node/view/6461 for details.
New themes, huh?
Well, i would like to volunteer for wriing some themes but the biggest challenge off all would be that the drupal.org will be using the theme. For me, that would be the absolute award for writing a nice and good theme..
Furthermore, I think that drupal.org needs another theme which will show the absolute power of the new* drupal theme functions.
There are so much nice things we can do now..
Collabotation not Competition
I'd also like to see Drupal.org get a new or at least improved theme. There are a lot of little things about drupal.org typography and layout, colours and so on that I think could be improved to give better readability - pushbutton is way ahead in that regard.
Personally I think we could do better than having a competition. From what I've seen of competitions for web site design (such as those for standards compliant redesigns of famous web sites) they often produce good but not outstanding results.
Most large web sites these days are designed by teams of people, programmer, graphic designer, web designer, usability expert, etc, and I think a truly outstanding theme for drupal.org would best be designed that way.
Rather than everybody compete, wasting time and resources, I'd like to see us all collaborate, put Drupal's project tools to use, debate and outline a list of requirements, assign tasks etc and generally all work together on something that we all spend a lot of time looking at.
adrinux
adrinux@ntlworld.com
Adrian Simmons
adrinux@anaath.at
Put themes in contrib CVS
In case one of the contest requirements is to put the theme into contrib CVS, then anybody can further enhance good themes, and collaboration is guaranteed. The same could be a reason for accepting non validating themes. Most of the people here are programmer types and not designers (or they really hide their excellence) :). Programmers can fix XHTML compatibility but they tend to have a hard time designing.
Project module
Here are some suggestions related to the project pages:
I'd like to filter the tracke
I'd like to filter the tracker page by node type.
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"add issue" link by project
It would be very helpful to have a link for "add issue" link at the bottom of the list of project issue. This would also skip the first page in the "add issue" workflow.
-- NO, don't read this signature!
Project Usability
Eating your own dog food seems to be working here at drupal.org. I'm amazed at the speed of development and the tweaking and improving that is happing on a continuous basis.
Here are my observations and suggestions:
I think a new navigation pane that lives within the center well (not as a block on the side) might solve this confusion.
An alternative would be to direct users to the search page, but provide on that page a couple of 'popular' or anticipated queries as links.
While writing this post, I kept thinking ... "man this system can do a lot!"
-Joe
Joe Lombardo | joe@familytimes.com | FamilyTimes Online Journals
Support mailing list versus forums
I'd like to close the support mailing list and use the forums for all support questions. Centralizing all support related activities strikes me as a good thing: we get to eat our own dog food, there is only one place to search, and we don't end up answering the same questions twice.
You know that I dislike the i
You know that I dislike the idea.
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from someone who's opinion isn't worth too much!
i would like the idea of the forum having all user support questions.
i attempted to use drupal a while back now, and chickened out, and ended up staying with movabletype. i'm not a programmer (i work in arts+edu, and just try to get the job done)... but i've been keeping an eye on drupal, waiting til i am ready, waiting til it is ready...
and i check the forums every once in a while- but i would not subscribe to the list... so i'm a little bummed out that i'm missing what is going on.
not that my non-user opinion matters- but maybe other potential users might be using the forums in this way- to keep their finger on the pulse.
do you keep online archives?
You would like to have the fo
You would like to have the forums to keep the Q&A, that is fair enough for somebody seeking help. But I am somebody who most of the times gives Drupal help and I do hate web based forums, but like email. So I'd rather keep the mailing list because it enables me to provide better help.
The archives are here:
http://lists.drupal.org/archives/drupal-support/
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Forum subscription?
Would forum subscription help? That is, you subscribe to a forum and receive any posts as e-mail. Umm, I guess Drupal forums don't allow that yet, perhaps we could borrow functionality from the issues part of the project module?
Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?
adrinux
adrinux@ntlworld.com
Adrian Simmons
adrinux@anaath.at
No, it wouldn't help me becau
No, it wouldn't help me because I couldn't reply by mail. There is a semi-working solution available in the listhandler module which does need some dusting off and some feature enhancements.
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subscription notify turned on
This comes full circle back to the first comment... for forums to be a useful tool they need to have a subscription/notify option.
I've suggested, even 'applied for' a drupal for dummies project to start what could become a better how-to, and tutorial section.
The mailing list may be more convenient for some but it is hidden unless you go into a different system and start searching archives. From a tech user's perspective this is a disaster for a system to have forums and mailing lists for support. People can always do extra support via email but I think a centralized drupal support area is inevitable if you want people to find answers and to better support the people who take the time to answer questions and provide support.
Taxonomy rules but beyond that there is something about the search process that is not nearly as helpful as it could be. As someone said theres either too much or too little. Another reason I have volunteered to work on drupal for dummies... it is highly ironic that for a system that is so rich in the taxonomy backbone it is sometimes so f'ing difficult to find clear information.
Subscription is a must for support forums. Try to phase out the separate support email list and focus the process in the forums. If the forums don't work for this function I'd say something is missing in the forum module. We all have favorite tools but email is, in some ways is a dinosaur - forums can be a little 'boggy' but email is hell these days even with filters. Give me one place to find drupal support and a better way to find fundamental building blocks that are written for administrators and users, not just for code folks. Three has been a tremendous amount of work put into these area already, but it has to keep going. And yes get a new theme in here for sure.
Drupal for dummies
I've suggested, even 'applied for' a drupal for dummies project to start what could become a better how-to, and tutorial section.
What is the status on that?
Secondly, I have just made you a 'site maintainer' so you can help update and maintain the documentation. No more complaining about the documentation please. ;-)
Dummies plus...
Dries - I filled out the project request form and submitted it some time ago, maybe 7-10 days ago? I have no idea how I would know if any action has been taken on the submission unless someone notified me. I would have missed your 'notification' :? regarding site maintainer if I hadn't wondered back into this discussion and seen your post. I appreciate the opportunity to stop complaining ;-) and will go figure out exactly what a site maintainer can do. Can you assist me in understanding what's happening with the project application - it really is something slightly different than just improving the existing documentation - although I'll do my best to contribute in that area as well. I can also create a site dedicated to all Drupal newbies and trial and error geeks and just create links or a feed.
Drupal for dummies
I looked at your project application and I don't think we should be making a 'Drupal for dummies' project -- at least not using the project module. Instead, we should just add pages to the Drupal handbook as well as improve or rewrite the existing documentation. Being a 'site maintainer' you can add, delete and reorganize the book. Please don't create an external site; let's centralize all documentation here on drupal.org. Thanks.
Drupal for Dummies
Thanks for the quick response. So you knew the 'status' all along... ;-)
I'm certainly open to trying to trying to work withint the Drupal Handbook format, although, of course, I'll need to start with a better understanding of what can be done within the book/handbook format. I understand the desire to consolidate information as much as possible. All I can do is see if what I think will be useful to newbies, dummies, and administrators coming from a different mind-set, will 'fit' into the handbook without confusing or irritating the code 'wranglers.' The only reason to have it as a 'supplement' area is so it doesn't have to conform to a strict style technical style of documentation or introduce a wide variance of style into a handbook that may need to stay 'lean and mean,' figuratively of course.
Do you have any viewpoint on the constantly high ratio of guests to users here at Drupal and if this information might inform site improvements?
Guests
The high guest ratio is perfectly normal. The vast majority of people reads, searches and browses the site, rather than posting questions or participating in discussions. You only need an account to take part in the discussions. People don't create an account until they have to, and if they have one, they don't log in until they have to.
(I don't see why you would not be able to organize information for dummies into the handbook.)
Dummies, guests, and normalacy
I appreciate reading your perspective. For me it isn't a matter of what is normal or abnormal, but what we might learn from an "in-your-face" number sitting there each time we visit the 'Drupal Mothership.'
For instance, I login virtually everytime so that I can take advantage of the "my account" and recent posts within my account to see if there are new posts to areas where I have been active. I often start there because being a 'normal' self-interested human being I'm interested in seeing if there are updates in threads that are particularly meaningful to me. (doesn't replace subscriptions because there are threads in which I'm interested but not contributing)
It also says that the number of contributors or people who feel motivated to login in any cross-section of time is pretty low. To a person evaluating a potentially centeral piece of Web system software it says something about the community at its very source. It's not a big deal but if a change was made in the site that was marked by a significant increase in 'users' I think it would be a positive sign regarding the site and the way Drupal is adopted for use. So maybe the fact that users is low is normal, but if something increased users it would be better than normal. Additionally some of my systems log me in automatically and some don't... Sometimes on the same system I'm logged in automatically and sometimes I'm not.
I took a 'stroll' over to the handbook area. The first thing I noticed was looking at the Installation page where I saw a person posted a comment many months ago regarding phpadmin's use in setting up a Drupal site. (for those of you who don't know phpadmin, it can be a very good 'friend' in working with Drupal, modules, and trouble-shooting problems). The install page remains committed to command line sql database interaction which is fine for the code-wranglers but a royal pain in the gui for the rest of us. So, I hear you say, submit something for the handbook... and I can do that, but the handbook install page is very terse - which isn't a bad thing. Dummies information is often verbose and often outside the golden rules of the documentation guidelines.
The handbook is great, but it has been structured along a certain 'vocabulary' line that may not work well for a newbie. For instance information for Newbies isn't really for developers, administrators, or users because what it attempts to do is orient people on basic concepts and how to do things that might fit in one or all three of the existing roll categories. An important distinction in my mind is that Drupal usually uses "developers" in the handbook to mean code writers, but there is another important (very to Drupal) class of "site" developers of which there are many who are not code writers.
Taxonomy is a good example of a central building block that cuts across all known and some unknown 'roles' Taxonomy is a somewhat abstract concept in Drupal (hold on...) until you match it up with a menu module that uses taxonomy. It is as clear as mud to a newbie that a taxonomy menu is an add-on, not an inherent aspect of the Drupal system. The newbie hasn't necessarily thought through keeping things out of the core system to provide maximum modularity and implementation flexibility. Can you imagine of automobiles were built like that :-). Might be great or it might be a major 'train wreck' when you got your new car and realized that seats and windows were ala carte and you had a plastic bag for a gas tank because the maker wanted to give you complete choice regarding size and placement of the tank. Ok, ok, so I took the metaphor too far...
I'm not giving up on using the handbook but we might need to look at the vocabulary and terms and see how non-linear Drupal can really get.
Subscriptions vs forum module improvements
We are not opposed to e-mail subscriptions. It is just that the subscription module is rather new. Like nearly everyone else, I have no idea (yet) about how it scales or behaves.
A personalized version of the tracker page (i.e. a page showing unread replies to _your_ posts and comments) might be a good alternative as well. We could also look into ways to integrate this infrmation in the forum to make it more visisble (closer to where you need it). For example, like we have a red star to denote new replies, we could use a blue star to denote new replies to _your_ comments or in discussions you participated in.
All I'm saying is that e-mail subscriptions are not the only solution; I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives to explore.
Also, I'm sure that the time spent posting on the forums is only a fraction of the time spent reading/searching/browsing the forums. Maybe that should be the primary focus instead?
email making it easier to help- but how would it scale?
i am coming from having used the movabletype support forums (for two years, since mar 2002)
i remember way back when i was surprised to see 6000 members, now there are over 20,000... hey, you never know! drupal could grow.
no small group of people manages this at movabletype, and moderators were culled from most active 'core' community at the end of 2002 (i think) and they handle the organisation of the threads, with 'sticky' notes on top, to keep a handle on the volume.
i think the forum-based nature made it easier to 'see' who these core members were. as one (as a new member) might look for responses before asking questions-- as one should always do, ;) -- one would start to notice particular individuals who posted most. even before certain members were dubbed 'moderator' from above- i knew who the core participants were...
what i'm driving at is that the forum is a proven good model for tech-development (not just for MT), and also has an additional and important benefit of building a recognizable community, and also reflects the activity of the group in a *visible* way.
and then, it also scales well.
i can't get into a argument about your personal preference, and i can certainly see why it's much easier to get the messages in your inbox than to log in to an external forum... (but i can also sympathize with people who feel email is on its last legs as a viable useful communication tool, when everytime we go there, we're befuddled with spam or losing filtered emails)...
but maybe i can question the design of the forum, why is it so reprehensible? i do notice that the current drupal forum may not be as featured...
i dunno, i tend to think of problems such as these as design problemss: "how can the forums be designed to help you help others better?"
Orkut
In Orkut we can see an image of each other.
Someone just suggested Avatar image upload and image appending in posts here on Drupal. (The suggestion was made in the Drupal community in Orkut - by YOU naturally - I just realize that now. But had we had an image here on Drupal.org I would have recognized You right away!).
Just having a small photo alongside the posts (or other avatar) can greatly improve the feeling of "personal touch".
Being able to see just how many we are (member list?) - and perhaps with photos.
Being able to see who maintains what (I know there's the CVS, but it does not speak to the average user who considers moving to Drupal).
Actually I think that drupal.org is too anonymous. It is an insiders site. If we make it more outgoing, more inviting - I think it would be beneficial to all (assuming we want a larger community - with the workload of stupid questions - that is!).
The core Drupal developers and those who maintain modules and themes - are the STARS of Drupal. We need to be able to SEE these people in order to relate to Drupal!
Dropping in from Langemarks Cafe.
New profile module in the works
I'm working on a new profile module which does (or can do) a better job breading a community and identifying each other and each user's contributions to Drupal. More on that later after I activated these changes on drupal.org. After the profile module, I'm going to dive head first into the forum module.
re: new profile module
I'd like to see a custom html field in the profile module for the user page where a member can enter their own custom set of links. Then the content from that textfield is used for a "user nav block" that is only visible to that user. Thus, active Drupal users could have a block in the right hand menu which would provide links to their favorite Drupal resources as well as links to other sites or whatever they want. Anyone who feels like the default naviation links in the header and the navigation block don't have what they need to make site navigation easier can just set their user nav block up the way that they want. It was a very useful user customization feature in postnuke and something I miss in Drupal (about the only thing I miss from PostNuke).
No need to request :)
Your needs are already completely fulfilled with the current CVS version of bookmarks.module :) Will be released for 4.4.0 shortly.
some other things about profiles & their functions
i think many of us are interested now in social network software, or social software (whatever you prefer to call it)... as well we should be! this idea is a long time in the making, and many others have paved this road. it's time to build on that experience. while there's lots of hype surrounding it, it's an important thing to look at now; and to design communities without these considerations would be silly!
i'm excited to hear about the new profile module. i'd be looking for the following aspects (some are in the current mod, but just to make a point, i'm mentioning them), and i'll say why!!
other things i think help make things more 'social', and why
well, if anyone wants to talk about these issues, in relation to learning- i've started up a tribe at tribe.net. there's also the participant observant tribe which is a great place for reflection on these tools.
This is a good point
I do not subscribe to the mailing list on principle. Developers of a CMS should not use a mailing list to distribute critical information for developers and users.
A taxo-page for Drupal based sites
Just an idea:
Order the submitted drupal sites alphabetically AND by taxo terms.
Maybe build a small taxonomy into Drupal or let it fetch a drupal.org taxonomy - so submitters can choose their category?
That way the - now very long - list of Drupal sites will become more accessible.
Also it could be done as a showcase of the strenghts of taxonomy and feeds..
Dropping in from Langemarks Cafe.
Group By Site Type
I think the most useful thing would be to group sites listed by what kind of type they are, e.g. Personal Site, Corporate, Organisation, Single Issue Community.
People thinking about using Drupal would be able to quickly see what others have done in setting up a site with the same purpose.
I suppose this would rely on admins making a choice from a selection about what kind of site they run.
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Drupal Specialists: Consulting, Development & Training
Robert Castelo, CTO
Code Positive
London, United Kingdom
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Categorization
Right on. Grouping by type is most natural and is key. Though, it would be nice if we could have special categories like a 'new sites'-category (the default category until sites get categorized by a moderator) and a 'showcase sites'-category to draw attention to those sites that are somehow outstanding or remarkable and that we, the Drupal community, are particularly proud of. Categorizing sites by language might also be of interest for some.
Categorization of Drupal sites list
We have been discussing how we could improve the Drupal sites page. Categoring the sites is a must. The more I think about it, the more I lend towards server-side categorization instead of client-side categorization. I guess we have to cook up some code for this.
Excellent
Excellent ideas and arguments above.
+1
!
I'm all for category by site type - server side managed.
Dropping in from Langemarks Cafe.
Better ordering of modules
Drupal has quite a few contributed modules. Some sort of order in them would make it easier to look through them - together with some sort of filter to have only those modules displayed which can be used with the version of Drupal you are running.
For example, categories like filters, new blocks, new content types, etc.
you read my mind
I'm working on this and will submit a taxonomy to review shortly :-)
in addition to what was alrea
in addition to what was already mentioned, a view of only the modules that support a particular version of Drupal would be useful.
already exists
see the right hand nav menu when you browse to http://drupal.org/project/releases
concrete proposals on how to improve project navigation are welcome.
Searchable API documentation
That's what I keep having a need for.
doxygen
now your needs are met :-)
Permissions by taxonomy or node level
I need a better user management and permissions based on taxonomy and node level. Groups.module is fine accept, I need to patch all other contrib modules that I may want to install in the future.
future of access permissions
Likewise, and I completely agree. The requirement for access control lists, permissions, rights needs to be articulated clearly and persistently. It is a roadblock to full implementation of Drupal in real organizational Intranet sites. While it may not seem to be relevant to the Drupal site it could become relevant to any site if they want a space to develop ideas that is accessible through specific qualifying terms or conditions. I've stayed away from the module you mention because I'd far prefer an integrated core or internal module permission system.
Multiple file listing and directory uploads per node.
I need to have multiple files listed per node or event and would like to see them in a folder / directory structure with user access permission to files based on user group.
Thumbnail of *.pdf files uploaded would be a perfection.
Another level of forum categories (taxonomy terms)
The user forum system is a very effective way of getting quick support and feedback. With the high volume, though, topics can quickly get buried. Creating a third (or even selectively a fourth) level of categories might help address this issue. This would be a particular priority for categories with many posts. Some suggestions, with an eye to what users are posting on:
On a related note, it would be handy to have a way of suggesting a recategorizing of a post (a) to an existing forum topic or (b) to another forum category or (c) to a project issue.
Patch queue
This isn't so much a comment on the web site as on the development process. Is there one? I'd like to contribute to Drupal, but the few small things I've done have been completely ignored. Bug fixes? Forget it. They stay forever in the patch queue and then get dropped with no explanation why they were never addressed. Clear development process and issues tracking would go a long way to making me want to contribute the modules I've developed on my own for Drupal.
Patches
I've searched the patch queue using the 'submitted by' and the 'assigned to' fields but could not find any patches submitted by you ...
make links in comments / forum clickable
a URL typed into a comment is not automatically linked so that the reader can click it. look at the drupal showcase forum where only two of the five sites mentioned managed to make their link clickable.
fixing this will help diversify drupal's fan base beyond the techie crowd
eric shannon
ceo, latpro, inc
http://www.latpro.com
tel. 954.474.6880 x113
the essential job board for Hispanic professionals
There is a urlfilter module...
There is a urlfilter module that does what you want. Are you making the case for it to be part of core?
http://drupal.org/project/urlfilter
Joe Lombardo | Drupal Services: Community-Publishing.net | FamilyTimes Online Journals
There is a urlfilter module...
There is a urlfilter module that does what you want. Are you making the case for it to be part of core?
http://drupal.org/project/urlfilter
Alternatively, this could be a function of the weblink module.
Joe Lombardo | Drupal Services: Community-Publishing.net | FamilyTimes Online Journals
url's and forum
absolutely!! but really, it's the tip of the iceberg. the lack of user friendliness in the forum / comment area is going to hold back drupal's adoption. it should be a top priority. i'd pay for much of the improvements if the work was bid out, but i suppose the politics of it isn't so simple...
eric shannon
ceo, latpro, inc
http://www.latpro.com
eshannon @ latpro.com
tel. 954.474.6880 x113
the essential job board for Hispanic professionals
I don't know what you mean...
You can pay someone to enhance the module... if you they do it well it could very well be added to the core distribution. I've done this a couple of times. It is a great way to contribute to the project if you are not able to do the programming yourself due to time or skill limitations.
Take a look at the services page.
Joe Lombardo | Drupal Services: Community-Publishing.net | FamilyTimes Online Journals
forum enhancements
I am willing to invest some time and money into forum enhancements but only with certainty that the results would be integrated into the core...
Are any of the decision makers behind drupal willing to spend some time with me to define the criteria and features that will make the enhancements acceptable?
best,
eric shannon
ceo, latpro, inc
http://www.latpro.com
eshannon @ latpro.com
tel. 954.474.6880 x113
the essential job board for Hispanic professionals
small task
my drupal vs your drupal
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groets
bertb
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groets
bert boerland