> Make those LIVE links and you're on! This means proactively visiting the
> links and editing like mad when a problem is encountered....
For sure. A lot of people/companies put up online links databases, then
don't maintain them. I hate that. We're going to use a Perl script to
check all links periodically and dump any "bad" ones into a Web form
where humans can check them. We don't want to have bad links, but we
don't want to kill a link because someone's server is out of action for
two hours, either.
> And don't forget to link to ancillary sites such as (reviewed & critiqued)
> tutorials on networking and programming. In fact, let us vote on the
> tutorials...
We're using Slash code, which allows us to attach polls to stories.
We'll have a "Was this document great/useful/passable/useless?" poll on
every doc and tutorial, whether it's one we wrote or an outbound link.
We may even have two polls; one for general usefulness, another for user
level, which would rate docs on some sort of scale between "for experts
only" and "new user." Then, using the same code that generates the
Slashdot Hall of Fame & "10 Hot" features, you could call up (example)
new-user level TCP/IP tutorials and get a list with the highest-rated
ones on top. I am not sure how to implement this, but we have two hot
Slash programmers working on it.
> You mentioned "docs for all user levels". Please have a committee
> proofread them.
No committee needed. One good proofreader per article is all it takes.
The NewsForge staff and some others will handle this. Docs elsewhere to
which we link will vary in quality.
Testing each HOW-TO carefully is probably going to be beyond our ability
for a good while, hence the reader rankings. We really aren't going to
produce that many docs ourselves, anyway. There are plenty out there.
The problem is that they are in so many places, and vary so much in
quality, that sorting through all of them when you're in a hurry to
solve a problem, looking for one that will help, is frustrating. We are
going to be more of a doc library/index than a producer.
> While you are at it, look into mirroring the LUG archives into one big
> searchable techie database with a search engine, etc.
This is called "Geocrawler." It's the site that had the "no longer being
maintained" message that sparked the "Oh, no, SourceForge is dying,"
flurry on Avogato. Reality = Geocrawler is being rewritten so that it
will scale enough to store/search lots more list archives than the ~200
in it now. Once the new version is up, there will be no reason not to
include selected LUG list archives.
> One suggestion for a series might be to interview reps from corporations
> that migrated to Linux recently as to their experience with that project.
Ahhhhh, yes. What I call "deployment experience" articles. I love those.
So do our advertisers, who want us to run as much material as we can
that will draw in the prized/courted "C level" (CIO, CTO, CFO, CEO"
audience. We're going to have a lot of deployment case studies in the
future -- on NewsForge. But since NewsForge will be Linux.com's news
section, same thing.
> Another article (mini series) might focus females using Linux and have
> them explain in their own words how they feel about that experience.
I don't think so. No matter how we handled this, we'd get called sexist
by someone or other. Any information value would get drowned out by the
yammer. Perhaps a first-person account or two, but for some reason we
have found that human-focused features on our sites get very low
readership.
> Still another could be about using Linux in a family with young children,
> and teens.
"Family Linux" would make a cool article, yes. Perhaps more than one.
The picture of Mom, Dad, little Joey in his Little League uniform, and
Angela just home from her Girl Scouts meeting, along with their pet
Penguin, all clustered around the family monitor screen, is to precious
not to run. Perhaps it should be a comic strip, later a Disney Channel
cartoon series.
Seriously, this would make an interesting article or HOWTO or something,
and it's the kind we would write or have written ourselves, because I
doubt that it exists elsewhere.
> There are probably thousands of things you could do to revamp your site to
> make it more widely used.
Sure are. We're (re)starting with a minimal frame on Linux.com:
NewsForge feed, a "doc of the week," the latest software updates from
Linux.DaveCentral (which will become software.linux.com before long),
and a weekly poll. Once we get this interim version going, hopefully
within a few days, we'll build the new site based on reader input,
tempered only by budget, time constraints, and advertiser interest.
So far, I think our "Within 3 months" feature/section list is going to
include:
newsforge.linux.com
documentation.linux.com
distributions.linux.com
usergroups.linux.com
software.linux.com
hardware.linux.com
businesses.linux.com
That last one will be a list of companies and individuals that provide
GNU/Linux and Open Source-related products or services. Listings will be
free, but at some point we may charge for expanded listings, a la a
Yellow Pages phone directory. I'm not sure how we'll handle this, but I
think some sort of Linux Business Directory is needed in general, and I
can think of no better place for it than Linux.com
- Robin
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