Suggested edits to rakudo.org

[bazzaar]

I really like the new website, however I've tried to take a subjective/objective look at it from a user perspective, and I have some comments as listed below:

Rationale : purely to make the website as user-friendly and internally consistent as possible, whilst pushing Rakudo Star to the fore, and limiting mentions of the "Compiler".

The suggested edits should be viewed as a whole, hopefully together they would prove beneficial.

I'll work through the pages in order, it'll help the reader to understand comments, if the webpages are visible at the same time.

Menu Bar

1. Insert "Rakudo Perl6" after the japanese symbol in the menu bar, that way it's in the heading of each page.
2. Change "Posts" to "News", "Files" to "Download", "Bugs" to "Feedback", "People" to "Community" - thereby instilling purpose to web page clicks, and ensuring consistency with page body text.

Home page body

Remove the word "Compiler" - The main purpose of the site is to make available Rakudo Star. (But no need to use "Rakudo Star" until the Files [Downloads] page). "Rakudo Perl 6" is fine for the Home Page body.

Posts (News) page body

1. Change "Posts" to "News" in page body - news is what it is, not everyone knows what "Posts" is.
2. In the release announcement docs, the first paragraph has a link that takes the reader to the old files/downloads page, maybe change the link in those docs so the reader stays in the new webpages.

Files (Downloads) page body

1. Title already consistent with [edited] menu bar.

2. Change "Rakudo Star Collection" title to "Rakudo (Star Edition)" - simply because "collection" seems "wooly", need something more "official/punchy", the brackets provide the link between Rakudo and Star, to me at least.

3. Change "a collection of modules from the Perl6 ecosystem" to a "specific set of ...", that way the reader is not under any illusion he/she might be able to do the selecting of modules for Star.

4. Compiler Only Installation box : use the phrase "Install the most up-to-date components" or such like.

5. Compiler Only Installation box : "View Options" button, at a different level, and inconsistent size, it ought to be aligned and consistent with the "pre-built packages" button.

6. Add Feature : on a level with the "Downloads" title, across the page, insert a counter till the next Rakudo Star release, why? because I'd be slightly disappointed to install Perl6 and then find I could have waited a day. Something along the lines of "next official Rakudo Star release [20##.##] - (2 months [or] 3 weeks [or] 5 days) from now".

Docs page body

1. To be honest, the "text file"-like layout of the Documentation section, spoils the otherwise excellent look of the pages. It's a bit wordy, and I want to emphasise Rakudo Star and Perl6 documentation, so here goes :

1a. First sentence should point to Perl6 docs
1b. Second sentence should be "Rakudo Compiler-specific docs .. link"
1c. That's it
1d. words about #IRC channel - it's on the People (Community) page already

Bugs (Feedback) page body

1. Change "Bugs" title to "Feedback" in page body - cos it's not just bugs we're reporting

People (Community) page body

1. Change "People" title to "Community" in page body - cos "People" sounds like I should be getting a list of the folks who have built Rakudo / Perl6, "Community" gives me a sense that I'm involved too.
2. The "#Perl6 IRC" button should spawn another tab in the browser, rather than taking me away from the rakudo.org site

Anyhow, that's my 6pennysworth. Like I say, this is purely meant to help the overall Perl6 effort.

bazzaar

[zoffixznet]

FWIW, once the perl6.org update is completed (2-4 months) to make it more apt at conveying the distinction between the language and implementations, rakudo.org's content is planned to be subsumed by perl6.org and it'll become just a forwarding domain.

So I wouldn't fret too much about tiny details of the current site as it'll be wiped out soon-enough.

But if anyone got time to make the described modifications, go for it.

[coke]

Going over this ticket, some of the issues have been dealt with, some were obviated by the rename to Raku. Here's outstanding issues that I think are left:

• Change "a collection of modules from the Perl6 ecosystem" to a "specific set of ...", that way the reader is not under any illusion he/she might be able to do the selecting of modules for Star.

Easy fix, this makes sense

• Add Feature : on a level with the "Downloads" title, across the page, insert a counter till the next Rakudo Star release, why? because I'd be slightly disappointed to install Perl6 and then find I could have waited a day. Something along the lines of "next official Rakudo Star release [20##.##] - (2 months [or] 3 weeks [or] 5 days) from now".

To do this well, we'd need to have a fixed release schedule, which we don't currently have.

• The "#Perl6 IRC" button should spawn another tab in the browser, rather than taking me away from the rakudo.org site

Easy fix.

• rakudo.org's content is planned to be subsumed by perl6.org and it'll become just a forwarding domain.

Is this still planned?

[coke]

Chat on IRC indicates that the plan to convert site to a redirect is no longer on the table. Closing this ticket, thank you for the suggestions, sorry about the delay. If you have items you'd still like to see resolved, please open a new ticket (and link back to this one.)

Thanks.