Hi Pavel,
you know I don't like the PHPNuke aproach, especially not for the
public part of the site. I'm glad you suggest in the end of your
message that the public section could be a separate site and indeed,
if you maintain an interactive site for developers, I really would
prefer such a separate, plain HTML site for communication with
the "rest of the world".

I would also prefer this public site to be quite independent and
contain some information about all. Even basic infos about "how to
contribute" should be presented within that site, not directly
linking to the "developer" site for that purpose.

In order to still allow quick access to that developer site
for "insiders", I suggest to put that site on a subdomain, for
example:

dev.firebirdsql.org

So all those who know the site can directly get there. Would that be
ok with you?

By the way I made a new entry page for my demo site, maybe it would
need some proof reading ;) Take a look:

http://www.soell.ch/firebird/site

Best regards
Markus

--- In IBDI@y..., "Pavel Císaø" <pcisar@a...> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> The recent discussion about Firebird web site raised some valid
> points. I'd like to focus on them and discuss them further.
>
> Some basic facts recollection.
>
> Firebird site was not in the centre of interest for long time. You
> may remember the old, static "Rabbits hole" pages. But that
> changed as our needs for more efficient infrastructure were raised.
> A good source of information for developers and users interested in
> development progress is important part of that. Because I was "in
> charge" for web pages (as others have better things to do, like
> patching "politically correct" hole :), I wanted to create a
solution
> that allow others to
>
> a) join the web team
> b) manage content without need to join web team
>
> It's clear that some kind of dynamic web site would work best for
> that. So I evaluated a lot of various content management systems
> based on PHP and MySQL (as we have both on SF) and finally
> select phpNuke as starting point for further refinement. You know
> that this new system is active only few weeks and is far from
> completion. The whole tweaked source is in our CVS as anyone is
> welcome to join our web team (now just me) to improve it.
>
> The main problem of our site is now the content. A lot of
> documents should appear there in future, mostly in relation to more
> formal project structure we're forging to operate more efficiently.
>
> And now about the improvements:
>
> 1) I agree with Markus that web presence is important, although I'm
> not share his view that the state of the web will make or ruin
> Firebird 1.0 success. The Firebird web is focused to development
> of any kind around Firebird. It should provide information for
anyone
> who is interested in it despite how deep (s)he is involved. That
> mean that many IBDI member doesn't have time to keep pace with
> Firebird in mailing lists, so they should find all necessary news
and
> information's on the web. We'd like provide fresh content
> continuously. Firebird web is also important medium for
> communication from developers to users or other developers. For
> example, the TODO list, list of open bugs, requests for help,
points
> of contact etc. are best suited for web where they can persist for
> longer period of time than in mailing lists or newsgroups.
>
> I would like to know what information you want to have on Firebird
> web site. Please, express YOUR needs, not what you think that
> others would need.
>
> 2.) We're aware that Firebird site will get a lot of traffic from
new
> users or from people outside the current IBDI community in future,
> especially when FB 1.0 would be out. We'd like to improve the
> information resources for such kind of visitors. We can build a
> separate site dedicated to that purpose or we can integrate it
> directly into FB's web infrastructure. But content is the key, not
> layout, engine, color and other such things. With tools we have, is
> easy to change layout twice per week until we would be satisfied.
> Yep, start with something and refine it to perfection is the way
how
> open source works.
>
> So I'd like to know your opinion about what content we should
> make for curious visitors. It would be great if you'll suggest the
> complete outline for that and even great if you'll help us to make
> that content (for example, you can share with us your experience
> with IB/FB and that way help us to make a list of success stories).
> It's your chance to help us promote FB.
>
> 3.) The current Firebird site is work in progress and your feedback
> about its layout and structure is welcome. But don't forget the
> purpose that our site has, so don't suggest anything that in final
> would turn it into something that would not serve our/your needs,
> please.
>
> In short, we'd like to build easy to navigate, readable,
interesting
> (and if possible toothsome) site for us and you. I'd love to hear
from
> you about anything that will help us to fulfill that goal, or even
> better, you can join our web or doc team.
>
> Best regards
> Pavel Cisar
>
> Firebird - The most addictive database
> http://firebird.sourceforge.net