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New Website?

Questions about the FlightGear organisation, website, wiki etc.

New Website?

Postby Noah » Fri May 09, 2014 3:30 am

Hi! As a relatively new user to FlightGear, first off, it's amazing software. Sadly, I do not feel this is reflected on FlightGear's website, flightgear.org. I am wondering if there are any plans to create a custom theme or possibly even use a open source WP theme to replace the current default one?

Currently the site feels very "old" and originally lead me to believe the project had gone stale a long time ago. I know now this is not the case, but if we wish to attract more new users to FG, I feel one of the biggest steps we can take would be to revamp the current site and make it much simpler.

I am a web developer and would possibly be willing to help create/fully create a new theme if there is any interest in doing such an upgrade. Don't get me wrong: The content on the website is great, but the way it's currently displayed does the project no justice. Also, if you're a web developer/designer, feel free to drop me a PM.

If you're also agree that it's time to do some spring cleaning on the site, feel free to reply with some of your suggestions. Of course, I wouldn't start without the approval of a administrator and the support of a few users. Thanks for your time!
- Noah Buscher
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Re: New Website?

Postby Hooray » Fri May 09, 2014 8:13 am

The answer is: 6-8 weeks, that's roughly the interval in between postings like yours - so we've been seeing those for years, including even very specific offers to help, and even concrete prototypes. But it probably isn't going to happen for reasons that cannot be explained within a few short sentences (project inertia), you better use the forum search. And keep in mind that even the current state took years to materialize, and the website making extensive use of AdSense has caused quite some discussion on the devel list too, even among the most senior of contributors who were really opposed to the idea even a decade ago. A good website is very much about "marketing", something that FlightGear as a community, and its long-term contributors, are historically not very good at - and delegating chores to others, i.e. letting go is another issue.

Subject: Help needed - market research for FG

Hooray wrote:
my argument isn't development within a non-profit/commercial sense, but rather a lack of definitive (published) goals or mile-posts. And if the analogues exist, where are they published? And telling me to search the wiki is ridiculous, a clearly defined set of goals should have a page on the main site!


I don't know, in comparison with other OSS projects, the website has never been that well maintained or really updated regularly. Things got better when a CMS (WordPress) got adopted, but still there are better resources than the official website to learn more about FG. While there's now a CMS being used, I do think that there's still only a single person maintaining it. So updating the website does take time, energy and other resources and you need to understand that.


Subject: Setting up and coordinating Documentaton efforts?

Hooray wrote:actually, before you really shut it down, it would probably make sense to get in touch with other people who have previously raised similar ideas - maybe you can team up with with 2-3 other guys and create a compelling demo that can be adopted by the project and hosted at flightgear.org?

http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear- ... 29049.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear- ... 33762.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear- ... 38397.html

2 years ago, before flightgear.org was CMS/WordPress-powered, the idea was to move the whole website to the wiki: http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear- ... 29013.html

Bottom line being: Changes are ideally not just "suggested" but literally "made" in the sense that a compelling demo is provided and a handful of contributors are convinced to adopt a new resource and contribute to it.

You have just hit one of FG's weakest spot: coordination and organization ... so don't get frustrated, it takes time and energy to make your case. But as you can see (forum, wiki, issue tracker), good ideas eventually get recognized as such - you may just need to be patient ;-)


Subject: Using the wiki to maintain the manual / PDF tutorials

Hooray wrote:
stuart wrote in Tue Nov 20, 2012 9:23 pm:I think the wiki has proven that this is not generally the case. I don't know if you were around when the current wiki was suggested or not... but we actually had a different wiki previously (via seedwiki.com).

And it also had a number of users willing to contribute there. Back then, the manual maintainer back then also suggested that nobody would be interested in contributing to "The Manual", and even considered the wiki competition.

Fast forward half a decade later, the wiki has proven to be the single most successful source of documentation for FG, which is funnily not primarily maintained by FG core developers, but by end users - and which is regularly also being used as a content source for the manual or the official website meanwhile.

It's important to keep the whole picture in mind ... not too long ago, Curt even suggested that the wiki shouldn't compete with the official website, simply because it's now also CMS-driven, and content is intended to be published there.


viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7291&hilit=
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10633&p=109013&hilit=#p108997
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=17398&p=165285&hilit=
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14861&p=146449&hilit=#p146334
Please don't send support requests by PM, instead post your questions on the forum so that all users can contribute and benefit
Thanks & all the best,
Hooray
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Re: New Website?

Postby Noah » Fri May 09, 2014 11:20 pm

Thanks for the in-depth explanation. I understand that the project lacks a good marketing team, and with it being open source, this is totally understandable. Though, in the future, I think it would benefit the project immensely to update to a better website.
- Noah Buscher
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