[Haskell-cafe] New slogan for haskell.org

[David Fox]

On Nov 27, 2007 8:14 AM, Henning Thielemann <lemming at henning-thielemann.de>
wrote:

>
> On Tue, 27 Nov 2007, Thomas Davie wrote:
>
> > On 27 Nov 2007, at 14:44, David Menendez wrote:
> >
> > > On Nov 26, 2007 1:44 PM, Thomas Davie <tom.davie at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > But the point is that this section of the site is the bit that's meant
> > > to be an advertisement -- we're trying to encourage people to read
> > > more,
> > >
> > > Are we? I thought Haskell.org was intended to describe what Haskell
> > > *is*. There are plenty of articles and blog posts and wiki pages out
> > > there that advocate Haskell. I don't see why the main web page needs
> > > to be polluted with marketing.
> >
> > Because someone's first contact with Haskell is likely to be someone
> > saying "I use this really cool language called Haskell", or a lecturer
> > teaching it to them.  In either case, if a tiny amount of interest is
> > sparked, their likely second contact is likely to be haskell.org
> > (through guessing or googling).
>
> I think this is true, but for me it means, that we do not need another
> advertisement at Haskell.org, but facts. I also expect that people
> visiting the site already know about static typing and have categorized
> themselves into static typing lovers or haters. They will also have heard
> about polymorphism (just like object-orientation :-). So they only need to
> find out about the words, they do not know.
>
> >  Quite frankly, there's nothing going to put me off a language more than
> > a paragraph full of unknown buzz words that I have to look up on the
> > front page.
> >
> > There's plenty of places on Haskell.org where we can describe what
> > haskell *is*, but the front page should be used for grabbing peoples
> > attention and telling them why it's useful.
>
> Haskell.org is not only for new users. I like it as front page, because of
> the news and the entry points to the Wiki.
> _______________________________________________
> Haskell-Cafe mailing list
> Haskell-Cafe at haskell.org
> http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
>


In that case we need to identify all the groups that the front page is
serving and create separate areas for each, all "above the fold" as it were:

1. A "sales pitch" for new users.  I see how much this disturbs some people,
but maybe it is better to think of it as a quick introduction with a focus
on benefits and comparisons to things which are already familiar.  This is
what one needs when one is in the stage of deciding whether to pursue
something.

2. After you have decided whether to pursue Haskell, you probably want to
decide *how* to pursue it.  In this section would be much of what is there
now - links to the definition, documentation, and important tutorials,
mailing lists, and so on.

3. Finally, you want a section for people who are already deeply involved.
This would be a news section, probably an RSS feed, links to newsletters,
and so on.

This thread should focus on part 1 above.  I think it would be a huge
mistake to deliberately omit this material because "we do not need another
advertisement at Haskell.org <http://haskell.org/>, but facts."  Its all
facts!  Haskell.org needs to serve everyone who arrives there.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/attachments/20071127/8b028c29/attachment.htm