On Nov 27, 2007 8:14 AM, Henning Thielemann <<a href="mailto:lemming@henning-thielemann.de">lemming@henning-thielemann.de</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>On Tue, 27 Nov 2007, Thomas Davie wrote:<br><br>> On 27 Nov 2007, at 14:44, David Menendez wrote:<br>><br>> > On Nov 26, 2007 1:44 PM, Thomas Davie <<a href="mailto:tom.davie@gmail.com">
tom.davie@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>> ><br>> > But the point is that this section of the site is the bit that's meant<br>> > to be an advertisement -- we're trying to encourage people to read<br>
> > more,<br>> ><br>> > Are we? I thought <a href="http://Haskell.org" target="_blank">Haskell.org</a> was intended to describe what Haskell<br>> > *is*. There are plenty of articles and blog posts and wiki pages out
<br>> > there that advocate Haskell. I don't see why the main web page needs<br>> > to be polluted with marketing.<br>><br>> Because someone's first contact with Haskell is likely to be someone<br>
> saying "I use this really cool language called Haskell", or a lecturer<br>> teaching it to them. In either case, if a tiny amount of interest is<br>> sparked, their likely second contact is likely to be
<a href="http://haskell.org" target="_blank">haskell.org</a><br>> (through guessing or googling).<br><br></div>I think this is true, but for me it means, that we do not need another<br>advertisement at <a href="http://Haskell.org" target="_blank">
Haskell.org</a>, but facts. I also expect that people<br>visiting the site already know about static typing and have categorized<br>themselves into static typing lovers or haters. They will also have heard<br>about polymorphism (just like object-orientation :-). So they only need to
<br>find out about the words, they do not know.<br><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>> Quite frankly, there's nothing going to put me off a language more than<br>> a paragraph full of unknown buzz words that I have to look up on the
<br>> front page.<br>><br>> There's plenty of places on <a href="http://Haskell.org" target="_blank">Haskell.org</a> where we can describe what<br>> haskell *is*, but the front page should be used for grabbing peoples
<br>> attention and telling them why it's useful.<br><br></div><a href="http://Haskell.org" target="_blank">Haskell.org</a> is not only for new users. I like it as front page, because of<br>the news and the entry points to the Wiki.
<br><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">_______________________________________________<br>Haskell-Cafe mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org">Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org</a><br><a href="http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe" target="_blank">
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe</a><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br><br>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:
<br><br>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.
<br><br>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.
<br><br>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.<br><br>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
<a href="http://haskell.org/" target="_blank">Haskell.org</a>, but facts." Its all facts! <a href="http://Haskell.org">Haskell.org</a> needs to serve everyone who arrives there.<br>