TxP.com home page

Bloke · 2008-09-03 14:49:42

Oh I’m still here on the sidelines, but have little constructive wordplay to add beyond what has already been said.

As long as the stuff on the home page is short, to the point and gives the essence of TXP and the community (vibrant, lively, nimble, yahde yahde) then it doesn’t matter how factual or markety it is, as long as it gets people a-clickin’!

Been wracking my brain trying to find ways of saying “friendly forum” without it sounding like a platitude (“user-friendly software” anyone?) Pretty much every community forum claims to be friendly, but I’ve visited ones that clearly aren’t where new users are given condescending — or worse — treatment by the self-confessed ‘elite’ old timers.

Destry · 2008-09-03 15:02:27

That needle was kind of big, Doctor. Though, strange…I do feel better.

maniqui · 2008-09-03 16:17:08

I’m here too, reading. I wish my english was better just to explain myself better and try some variants for the suggested content.

In this last phase of discussion, I tend to agree with zero: there are some things that have to been said in plain old english, and not on a fancy marketing style. Looking for the balance between blurb and facts.

Looking again at the wireframe, although it’s just a wireframe and not a real presentation layer, it looks a bit “commercial” (as if TXP is commercial-paid software, not open source software).
I insist it lacks some kind of “this is open source” clue/feeling somewhere.

BTW, re-reading the texts at “Features”, “Showcase” and “Support” on the wireframe. Those texts are fine for me, they don’t have too much blurb and they are plain and straightforward.

A last thing: why we are so worried about homepage content (well, content is the king, of course)? TXP.com will be a TxP powered site, we have the power to change it whenever we feel it needs to be changed.
We can try different contents, have some feedback from the community (newcomers, experts, etc), change them, see what happens, etc.
It’s a site, a site is living thing, it’s not printing.
No one will “judge” us if we change the content often until we feel we have finally created the content that best describes TXP.
We have to avoid the content-delay syndrome.
Maybe, the “boxy” design of the wireframe is pushing us to create content that fits the design. Maybe we should go the other way, create design that fits any (or almost any) content.

Destry wrote:

I also think we really need to move to other pages too and not get bogged down on just the home page. Once other content is developed it might be necessary to return and tweak things, so it’s better to spread the plaster before gold-leafing it.

OK! Lets forget about the home page for some days, and them come back with a fresh look about it. IMHO, homepage design content and design comes at the end of the process. From a SEO POV, a homepage has little weight.
So we can keep going with the inner pages, where the substantial content lays.
For inner pages, let’s put all the meat on the bbq. Let start adding, then substracting, if necessary.

Bloke wrote:

Been wracking my brain trying to find ways of saying “friendly forum” without it sounding like a platitude (“user-friendly software” anyone?) Pretty much every community forum claims to be friendly, but I’ve visited ones that clearly aren’t where new users are given condescending — or worse — treatment by the self-confessed ‘elite’ old timers.

“Community forum”?
“Community forum, most of the time friendly”?
“A great forum”?
“A helpful forum”?
“A relaxed forum”?
“A peaceful forum”?
“A forum full of hippies”?

dreamer · 2008-09-03 17:13:34

I agree with Julian. There’s been alot of back and forth about the homepage copy and this tends to create a bottleneck. I think that in this case, “enough is enough” for now. It’s still pretty darn good compared to the existing site.

Bloke · 2008-09-03 18:22:28

This post might be a bit late and/or said before by others (apologies if so), but I like the way they market things on the Red Giant site

It’s for just one of their products: is there anything we can take from it? There’s the ubiquitous logo and menu links, a prominent download button (‘Buy Now’ in their case), the main window shows pictorially what it does along with some highlights, and there a few links in the sidebar to other pages that explain about the various features / tutorials / etc (incidentally, clicking ‘tutorials’ adds another link “forum”; that could either be seen as a good or a bad thing). Nothing fancy — and imo there aren’t enough links to sub-pages — but it’s easy to find a reason to go further into the site.

Does anyone think a dedicated “Reasons to try” block might be worthwhile to shoehorn into the TXP design somewhere? If so, does that give any more or less scope for what could go in other blocks? What if there were around 10 or 12 seriously good reasons to try TXP and that block randomly showed, say, 4 of them and each one linked to a page (could even be the same page for some of them) advocating that feature? e.g. it could go to a URL like http://textpattern.com/is/for_designers or http://textpattern.com/is/for_bloggers. Each sub-page has the same template, it just highlights what’s most important to that segment of the community. A bit like how zero originally advocated the different domains / subdomains idea way back when.

Crucially, if it happens to not be exactly what you’re looking for, a convenient boxout links you to one of the other pages in the section that may well be your thang. Apple do stuff like that, but I think it was slightly better last iteration. It seemed that wherever you clicked, a Mac was perfect for you, whether you were a designer, a musician, a graphics artist, a student, a business owner, a chef, a masseuse, whatever. I don’t know how they did it but they kind of led you to latch onto a word that made sense to you as a person and — when clicked — it took you to a part of the site that really amplified why a Mac would be perfect in your line of work.

That might be waaay too slick for what we want to achieve here, just thought I’d throw another spanner in and see upon whose cog it jams.

Destry · 2008-09-04 07:41:49

Bloke wrote:

Does anyone think a dedicated “Reasons to try” block might be worthwhile to shoehorn into the TXP design somewhere?

Regardless of how it’s rigged, I really like this idea, and “Reasons to try” is a perfect header. If you went with something like this it would make a features block obsolete and might lend more clarity to the writing. Should keep this one in mind while addressing other pages in the meantime.

I notice Red Giant has the “Reasons…” block and a separate Features page. There Features page is tight! Each feature described short and succinct, and not on the home page. This is the kind of thing I had in mind but I think we got to focused on the “blurb.”

Last edited by Destry (2008-09-04 08:00:51)

zero · 2008-09-04 09:19:41

I haven’t tried very hard, but I’m struggling to put sites into categories to suit the showcase. It seems artificial making them fit when they are mostly individual sites not much like others. For example, where do you put a web designer’s personal site? Is it personal or public? Which is best – blog, portfolio, business? See my problem? And those sites are the easy ones. So I vote for just linking to Featured Sites, We Love TXP and Let’s See Yours, where some descriptions and classifications are already done. As you are the one who brought the showcase block into the design, Destry, I’ll pass that back to you if I may.

Sounds like a good idea to leave the front page for a few days, btw, Maniqui. As the site map shows, Destry has a lot of inside pages to keep him busy if he is going to follow his ideas through. (as well as Textbook of course which was going to be done a week or two ago)

The Red Giant site is interesting but what I found just as interesting is what you wrote about it, Stef. I clicked the link and looked at the site and read the text immediately below those images. Then had a quick glance around the site. Then I returned and read the rest of your post. You didn’t mention the text. And the Reasons To Buy didn’t register with me. Just shows how different people will view a site in different ways. So whatever they look at, it must be relevant in some way, preferably the way they expect.

About the text below the images – I don’t see anything but facts, features and descriptions of what the product does. No blurb at all. No exclamation marks (I’m too fond of those). No hype. Just straightforward interesting product description. So even though it wasn’t bulleted I read it all.

Regarding gearing some pages to fit with developer, designer, blogger roles etc. It sounds good if a person fits neatly into one of these categories but in practice I would say most people have at least a dual role. Perhaps this isn’t too much of a problem – they can go down both pathways – but I’ve been on sites like that and I felt like they were forcing me to pretend to be something I wasn’t just so I could get to the information I wanted. It’s a power thing. They were holding the keys to the doors but I had to fit into their preconceptions before I got a key. If it can be done in a way which makes the visitor feel empowered then it may work. But if you just give a visitor a page with relevant facts, features, options and links then they have the power to choose for themselves anyway. I’m not discounting the roles idea but at this point in time it seems to me like extra pages and extra work that may be more hassle than they are worth. But that’s just my 2p. Good to see extra ideas. And thanks for taking the time to help move this forward.

“Reasons to try” is a good heading for that block. I agree on that. As you sound like you don’t rate the features page as it is now, I created a link on the site map so you can make your own version, Destry. I like the current features page, so would prefer to see it unchanged or with slight modifications rather than a completely different thing which is what you seem to be proposing. (Note also that Red Giant does not have any intro to Features, just the one link.)

Destry · 2008-09-04 11:43:09

zero wrote:

As you are the one who brought the showcase block into the design, Destry, I’ll pass that back to you if I may.

I brought an idea to the cause. If the cause doesn’t like it. Don’t use it.

zero wrote:

As the site map shows, Destry has a lot of inside pages to keep him busy if he is going to follow his ideas through. (as well as Textbook of course which was going to be done a week or two ago)

Again, reminding you, I offered to help with content when everyone else seemed to be sleeping. Any initiative I’ve made with the content has been done with the expectation that anyone else can take some initiative too. It’s a wiki. Wiki’s are meant to collaborate in. Start writing!

And you can kindly spike those comments about my time. When Textpattern pays me, I’ll worry about being timely.

zero wrote:

As you sound like you don’t rate the features page as it is now, I created a link on the site map so you can make your own version, Destry. I like the current features page, so would prefer to see it unchanged or with slight modifications rather than a completely different thing which is what you seem to be proposing.

Oh, did I say “Start writing,” people? I meant to say start copy/pasting, if that’s easier for you. By all means, don’t wait for me, and publish whatever you like.

Last edited by Destry (2008-09-05 06:51:22)

ruud · 2008-09-04 15:18:13

This is not in response to anyone in particular, but perhaps all this talking here goes smoother when using a real-time medium like IRC to chat, instead of risking yet another escalating discussion here?

zero · 2008-09-04 15:42:59

There won’t be any escalation from me, I’ve had enough of that. That’s why I’ve moved on. I didn’t expect to still be around these forums but I’m still interested enough to help if I can. But now I am doing what I feel like and I won’t be working so hard like I did recently. I’m ‘on holiday’ so my visits here are for pleasure and amusement. If it ceases to be pleasant then I’ll enjoy other things elsewhere. Take care.

Bloke · 2008-09-04 15:58:36

Would love to chat on IRC — if I get a chance tomorrow morning at work, I’ll pop in.

In the meantime, since the ‘Reasons to try’ seems like a good idea, I’ll have a sift through the ol’ memory banks later tonight and insert some bits in wet’s wiki.

Hmm, that somehow sounds more innuendo-ish than I intended…

Last edited by Bloke (2008-09-04 15:59:19)

Bloke · 2008-09-05 00:35:35

Added a (1am head-fog) first stab at some Reasons to try Textpattern. Some wording has been robbed from the existing TXP.com page and other places.

As mentioned in the comments on that page, some of them work; some don’t. Can anyone suggest a tone we should aim for? At the moment it flits between 2nd person and 3rd person objective, which might be considered jarring to purists. Also, some of them might not be considered ‘good’ reasons; perhaps because all CMSs offer that feature (is it a good thing to be one of the crowd, or to stand out?), or what we consider an asset might put some people off (e.g. forced comment preview). All improvements on my paltry efforts considered a bonus!

btw, can anyone tell me if the play on words “Textpattern: just write” (i.e. ‘just right’) translates across borders, or is it best to avoid this kind of thing in the interests of i18n?

Last edited by Bloke (2008-09-05 00:36:19)

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#109 2008-09-03 14:49:42

Re: TxP.com home page

#110 2008-09-03 15:02:27

Re: TxP.com home page

#111 2008-09-03 16:17:08

Re: TxP.com home page

#112 2008-09-03 17:13:34

Re: TxP.com home page

#113 2008-09-03 18:22:28

Re: TxP.com home page

#114 2008-09-04 07:41:49

Re: TxP.com home page

#115 2008-09-04 09:19:41

Re: TxP.com home page

#116 2008-09-04 11:43:09

Re: TxP.com home page

#117 2008-09-04 15:18:13

Re: TxP.com home page

#118 2008-09-04 15:42:59

Re: TxP.com home page

#119 2008-09-04 15:58:36

Re: TxP.com home page

#120 2008-09-05 00:35:35

Re: TxP.com home page

Board footer