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#61 2008-06-16 16:25:58

jstubbs
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From: Hong Kong
Registered: 2004-12-13
Posts: 2,395
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Re: Marketing TXP

hcgtv wrote:

Consolidating all our efforts does nothing for Textpattern proper, in actuality having all these sites helps the cause. Before Mary put up the Txp Network Links on the top of this forum and sites started putting a navbar on the top of their sites, there was no correlation of the TxP related sites.

It does plenty for TXP. How does having various sites with no apparent correlation between them help TXP as a brand? Since marketing of TXP is the topic under discussion, how would hosting TXP plugins under anything but the main TXP site be a good thing from a new user perspective?

Last edited by jstubbs (2008-06-16 16:29:43)

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#62 2008-06-16 16:35:34

zero
Member
From: Lancashire
Registered: 2004-04-19
Posts: 1,470
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Re: Marketing TXP

If branding was similar on txp resources, textgarden and txp.com then visitors following a link wouldn’t really know they were on a different site. It depends on links being easily visible.


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#63 2008-06-16 17:07:36

jstubbs
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From: Hong Kong
Registered: 2004-12-13
Posts: 2,395
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Re: Marketing TXP

If you want to better market TXP, there should be a simple mechanism for new users to download and try out the software, templates and plugins. How this is done with various sites is not clear, but what is clear is that most things under one roof makes more sense. Links in-house are much better too.

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#64 2008-06-16 18:41:43

zero
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From: Lancashire
Registered: 2004-04-19
Posts: 1,470
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Re: Marketing TXP

While I agree that there should be more clarity, no confusion about whether a plugin is up-to-date or if you have seen all the templates, and things should be as user-friendly as possible, I don’t necessarily agree that everything under one roof is the only way to create this scenario.

Who is going to move the templates and plugins? How long would it take? How about them being in sync while the move is going on? What about duplicate content? There’s a move supposedly happening with Textbook going to a new wiki but the last I heard was that the movers were having a break or were busy with other things. Good intentions can only take you so far, or take much longer than anticipated. People’s lives move on. It’s all a hobby after all.

Is the ideal solution is to have everything under one roof? Is it by far the best solution? If it is, then it is worth aiming for. But if putting txp resources right, finding a sure way of keeping plugins up-to-date and easy to find, would bring a near ideal solution – then I say go with that, unless it would take the same amount of time to move the whole shebang to plugins.textpattern.com.

Of course, we could just go with textpatternblog.com, generate a big wave of enthusiasm and try to channel the energies of a massive influx of new volunteers who want to be part of this vibrant, buoyant Textpattern thing…


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#65 2008-06-16 18:54:20

hakjoon
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From: Arlington, VA
Registered: 2004-07-29
Posts: 1,634
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Re: Marketing TXP

Consolidating all our efforts does nothing for Textpattern proper, in actuality having all these sites helps the cause.

I think it leads to end user confusion personally, I think it’s one thing to have various enthusiast sites (txpq, txpmag, we love txp), but when it comes to resources it makes it much harder to maintain.

If I’m going to write a tutorial about TXP does it go in txp.net or txpmanual? Does Textbook hold FAQs or does txp.com? Do templates go at txp.org or textgarden or textplates?

just to clarify:
When I said consolidate I did not mean bring it all under one roof, but try to use existing resources when possible (ie: don’t start another plugin site).

Last edited by hakjoon (2008-06-16 18:55:52)


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#66 2008-06-16 19:19:09

hcgtv
Plugin Author
From: Key Largo, Florida
Registered: 2005-11-29
Posts: 2,722
Website

Re: Marketing TXP

hakjoon wrote:

When I said consolidate I did not mean bring it all under one roof, but try to use existing resources when possible (ie: don’t start another plugin site).

Oh, another plugin site, now that’s a good idea ;)

Honestly, the only way to stop fragmentation is to manage the situation. Don’t ignore enthusiastic users in this day and age of sub $10 domain registrations and multi-domain hosting plans.

Personally, I’d rather take the energies of an idea and launch something, rather than let it sit doing nothing after spending time formulating it. Does the admin facelift or write tab image handling ring a bell? Remember those long forum threads? Yet, Dale came on a few days ago and we quickly had a plugin to do image picking from the write tab.

Momentum is key, enthusiasm is contagious, let’s not squander it.

How about TxPlugins? :)

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#67 2008-06-16 19:50:56

jstubbs
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From: Hong Kong
Registered: 2004-12-13
Posts: 2,395
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Re: Marketing TXP

Everything said here has some truth in it – even with different points of view. My personal view is just because the main TXP site has been poorly managed (in marketing terms) does not mean that it should remain so.

If you want to catch people early in the TXP experience it would make more sense to have most important things under one roof. For example, plugins could be hosted at plugins.textpattern.com from the next version – 4.07. Moving older plugins over makes less sense unless they are going to be updated.

The Resources site needs upgrading anyway – loads of old plugins and information that is no longer valid for the current 4.06 version.

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#68 2008-06-16 20:05:25

zero
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From: Lancashire
Registered: 2004-04-19
Posts: 1,470
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Re: Marketing TXP

I’m kind of liking your idea, Jonathan. Use plugins.textpattern.com for plugins known to work in 4.0.7 and I suppose use themes.textpattern.com for themes known to work in 4.0.7. Leave copies and all the others where they are with disclaimer that they may be out of date. But what happens when 4.0.8 comes along – there’s the whole updating to be done again. Give the authors one month to update or the template or plugin gets deleted from textpattern.com?


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#69 2008-06-16 20:10:46

jstubbs
Moderator
From: Hong Kong
Registered: 2004-12-13
Posts: 2,395
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Re: Marketing TXP

Peter, any plugins that are current for 4.07 are most likely going to be kept up to date for later versions. Besides, its easy to say which version of TXP the plugin is built for.

I’m happy to devote my time for any project such as this.

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#70 2008-06-16 20:23:39

zero
Member
From: Lancashire
Registered: 2004-04-19
Posts: 1,470
Website

Re: Marketing TXP

If they were all up-to-date, users would know that anything they get from textpattern.com is up-to-date and reliable, just like they will know that the latest version has been thoroughly tested before release. Keeping it all up-to-date, reliable and stable will be good for marketing. (anyone got a better word for ‘marketing’?)


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#71 2008-06-16 20:41:12

jstubbs
Moderator
From: Hong Kong
Registered: 2004-12-13
Posts: 2,395
Website

Re: Marketing TXP

zero wrote:

anyone got a better word for ‘marketing’?

Sure: “up-to-date, reliable and stable”. That’s good marketing.

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#72 2008-06-16 20:41:40

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,250
Website GitHub

Re: Marketing TXP

zero wrote:

If they were all up-to-date, users would know that anything they get from textpattern.com is up-to-date and reliable

Kind of, but we must be careful to distance plugins written by hackers like myself from the core code in terms of branding something as “reliable”.

The core definitely gets the stability stamp, but a plugin probably cannot, and the release schedule of plugins is often far more frequent than a TXP version. That’s not to say all plugin authors are rogues or fly-by-night charlatans who don’t test stuff (*cough cough guilty*), but with the best will in the world a plugin is an iterative process that takes a while to settle down (if it ever does). And the PID curve may be upset when a new TXP version hits the streets as authors take advantage of new features or fix stuff that breaks because we’d made assumptions. And all manner of other reasons in between.

That’s why I love the idea of plugins because they can develop much much faster than the core and react to changes without affecting the overall stability of the core product; building on a stable base is a dream for code monkeys like me.

So, yes, it’s a noble effort to try and give plugins a seal of approval but I think if one person takes that on they’ll quickly become disillusioned :-) The distributed model works here, and the recent additions of the ‘flag it’ and ‘state’ boxes on textpattern.org are very useful tools for users to indicate the current-ness of a plugin. Perhaps these need more visibility?


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