Thought Experiment: WordPress.org

[Otto]

Question: What do you think needs to be changed, specifically, about the design of WordPress.org?

And I don't mean things like "integrate BuddyPress" or stuff like that.

Asking about specifics here. Details. That sort of thing.

Just looking for ideas.

[Ryan]

A method to communicate directly with other members, ie: PM. I can't be bothered with sites which don't allow me to bypass public channels and contact other members directly like that.

Forum signatures. I like to learn about the people I'm chatting to and forum signatures are a terrific way to do that.

Seamless logins. When you are logged into the forum, you should automatically be logged into the codex. Many people don't even realise the codex is publicly editable which can't be helping with the maintenance of it.

The site should be totally run on Automattic related products. The main chunk of the site could be run on WordPress whereas as I understand it now, it is simply a collection of HTML files. The codex should presumably be ported over to WordPress; we all know how it works and so it would save us having to figure out MediaWiki. Since WordPress already features post revisions this shouldn't be a problem to port over I'd have thought.

[JLeuze]

Taking it from the top, tabbed navigation could get ditched, it's a pretty tired metaphor.

I like the look of the pages with images, like the homepage and the Showcase, better than Extend or the About page. It would be nice if each of the top level pages included a few images and had a bit more polish to them.

Extend is so bare, yet contains so much content. It would look really sharp if there were some screen shots being pulled dynamically from the themes directory onto the Extend page, maybe the latest idea or a recently updated plugin.

The about page has a lot more text, wouldn't want to overload that with too many images. The text needs to be tweaked though, there's a weird flow since it goes short, medium, long, left-to-right. It would be neat if they could stick just a single rotating gravatar on that page to highlight a member of that list, or better yet, anyone who had contributed to core. There are so many names listed, it would be nice to put a face on there.

The codex is such a mess, just to start with, I'd love to see the homepage be more modular. It needs to be broken up, easier to digest and dig into the section you are after.

The book page could use a little housekeeping, there are some old books in there, and a lot of new ones that should be added. Could make a few bones for the new WordPress Foundation

But I don't think this is worth putting on the homepage, better to promote themes, plugins, WordCamps, etc. I think the books would be better promoted in the documentation section. "Think this is a confusing mess? Try one of these fancy books!"

WordPress is so much bigger than just wordpress.org would suggest, I think the sites really need to be integrated together better. At the more basic level of consistent and obvious links, and on a more complex level with all these RSS feeds being pulled into the different sites where appropriate, more WordPress.tv videos embedded in the documentation where they can helpful, things like that.

Overall, I think WordPress.org just needs a bigger team from the community. The software itself has such a large and talented team, the forums have a ton of gurus moderating it. But the website just doesn't editors, writers, and designers giving that content the care that it needs. I think we could learn a lot from the Firefox and Ubuntu websites and communities to improve WordPress.org.

[Ryan]

The ability to report a post to a moderator would be nice too.

... and yeah, I know it's possible already but I can never remember what the tag is and even if I could, it doesn't mean others know that it is possible.

[JLeuze]

Yeah, a report button would be great. Even if all it did was just add the "modlook" tag for you, it took me a while to figure that out.

[andrea_r]

Specifically:

- fresher design
- clear navigation for Newbies. Right now they sort of have to guess to find out what they want.
- BETTER SEARCHING :D (yes, I'm yelling)

JLeuze has a ton of great ideas up there. :)

(also, Ron & I have been known to use our own tags like "ronlook" in the mu forums....)

[JLeuze]

- clear navigation for Newbies. Right now they sort of have to guess to find out what they want.

For sure, instead of a handful of tabs, a navbar with some dropdowns to include more of the site navigation would be helpful.

LOL, we need "Report", and "Report to Ron" buttons in the forum

[Ipstenu]

I disagree about sigs, personally, since 90% of the time I disable having to see them (some people's kids like to make MASSIVE SIGS and I can't stand it). So ... option to view or not view, please.

PMing ... eh. Given how big WP.org is, I can see wanting it, but god almightly, look at the spam we get on BuddyPress with PMs. There would have to be some limitations.

[Otto]

I dislike PMs personally, but then again I also have zero problem giving out my email address.

If it could be disabled, then I can see it. I don't want to get tons of PMs on wp.org. I'd rather people use email.

[andrea_r]

and "Report to Ron" buttons in the forum

Hee! I use them to mark threads I want him to look at / answer specifically. Like pre-screening so he doesn't have to go read all the threads.

PMs on wp.org? Oh hell to the no. :D