Re: Feedback on new site

> First, everyone should don their flameproof suits right now, since I'm
> going to be a bit mean...

Suitably donned (and FWIW I think you were tamer than your usual self here
mate - perhaps you're losing your touch?)
 
> 1) While it's nice to see a new site, I think it gives a terrible
> message that this site is now THE opensymphony.com, with 404's right
> off the main page, and a rather high number of pages looking rather out
> of place. I've fixed those that I could fix, but I'm pretty much
> working in the dark here

Fixed now? (I think you're meaning the ones in the navbar)
 
> 2) Given that the site is now 'the' main site, I'd expect that the wiki
> be updated to look consistent. This would have been fine if it was a
> day or two later, but it's been 4 days now and it makes me wince every
> time I see it. The navigation is also very different between jira and
> os.com

I'll fix up the wiki now, it's a little more involved as skinning SnipSnap
is a total PITA.

The JIRA should look pretty similar?
 
> 3) The front page story is incredibly unprofessional and gives across a
> TERRIBLE message. Some reasons:
> 
> a) It assumes we all know who the author is, 'I am back' doesn't
> inspire much confidence in the organisation
> 
> b) 'god that sounded cheesy' is somewhat inappropriate.
> 
> c) 'we're planning an overhaul of the site'...err, the site HAS been
> overhauled
> 
> d) 'things are looking AWESOME'...again, not exactly stuff that serious
> users buy into.

Apologies - this was basically sample data as I felt it was the most up to
date news item we had about the status of various modules.

I've moved the entire news system to using movable type now, so that we can
add front page news items much more easily (as well as archiving etc). I've
emailed username, password and instructions to all of the core developers
who can add news.
 
> The fact that there is a new website is a wonderful thing, it does look
> more modern than the old one (although the pastel colours are not to my
> taste, but oh well). Beyond the pretty colours though, I think it's
> unprofessional and gives across a pretty bad idea of what OS is and
> what it has to offer, which is a terrible shame. Granted, it's a beta
> site, but why couldn't it have been mapped onto a /beta url, so we can
> iron out these kinks before moving it over as the official website?

OK - let's just fix it, I hate prolonged beta cycles. I've now cleared up
almost all the open issues in JIRA's Website module.

What else needs to be fixed?
Why is it unprofessional? (IMHO it's a lot more professional than the old
site :))
Why does it give a bad impression of OS? How can we change it to give a
better impression?

Cheers,
Mike

ATLASSIAN - http://www.atlassian.com
Expert J2EE Software, Services and Support



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