Hello all,

I hope I chose the right forum to post this :)

My site, http://www.cyberocity.com, is in the business of supporting Open Source development (in a small way). I have set up several Open Source appliations, and decided on a venue of presenting "Today's Favorite" on a splash page, then transferring users to the days favorite after 30 seconds or so.

We also offer hosting and other PHP/MySQL services to try and support our efforts, so this is a business, but we really would like to help spread Open Source awareness. In our local community it's something fairly new, and we hope to influence people to try Open Source applications as an alternative to the usual custom business site or large corporate solution.

Anyway, I would like to have your comments, opinions, suggestions if you would like to offer anything. I am still learning the best way to do things. But like I said we support Open Source development in general, so please no XOOPS is the BEST flames or criticisms of other Open Source applications ( yeah right! ))

XOOPS should come rolling around on a regular cycle of "Today's Favorite" every week or so. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for promoting XOOPS on your site - however, I am a little unsure as to what it is you want us to comment. Can you be more specific as to what we should do to answer your question?

You're welcome for the promotion of XOOPS. Sorry if i wasn't clear on my meaning ...

I suppose to answer your question I should ask, what was your impression of the splash page, does it seem to make people want to see what is coming next, will it generate interest in the Open Source application that it leads to ...

Since I plan to spend a certain number of hours per week working with each application, I would also ask about any suggested improvements to the XOOPS application that would serve both to enhance perceptions of Open Source applications and XOOPS in particular. Say for someone who was very unsure of all this new stuff and was trying to decide between XOOPS or another Open Source application, and paying a bundle for a local ISP "custom" website ...

Thanks,

Quote:
It didn't for me... the burning "HOT" gif lead me to think about an early IBM commercial where two designers talk about what they want on their website and are excited about what they see elsewhere and "uuuhhh we should have burning letters like THAT!" and the other replying reproachfully "I don't know how to do that". Anyway, it just spells out 1995 to me

The whole appearance of the splash screen is too much like those not-workplace-safe websites (that I know nothing about, of course ) with little information about the site one is actually on. I think that it would work better with more text about the purpose of it and a description of the "Today's favourite" system with a link instead of an automatic redirection, so it is more concious for the user, what he is about to see.

For the XOOPS example site itself, I must admit that the default theme is really nothing to be proud of. Or maybe I am just tired of it after looking at it for too long. Check out our themes section for a range of exciting themes, we have for XOOPS.

Some more modules might also be good - but it would depend heavily on your target audience and draw quite a lot of resources from your (I assume) finite reserves.

In general, I would say that you should have more meta-information about the various systems instead of just a showcase. Say why you have picked the systems and what you find are the strengths and weaknesses of each (again quite a lot of work - but hey, it's you who wanted to do this )
You already have most of it there with the selection of systems each fulfilling a certain need (shopping care, real estate, advertising, website management etc.) you "just" need to write some more about why you recommend these systems and for which purpose. Also, I wouldn't mind seeing more CMS/portal scripts there. We are not all alike, for example Mambo is in my opinion a great system for content aimed at many people, but managed by few people, whereas XOOPS is (again - personal opinion) more flexible to develop for and better suited for managing sites with many users submitting content in various ways.

A bit long and no quick-fixes, but you did ask for honest opinions.

Thank you for your comments! I'm not just saying that, cause you gave some great ideas. True it may take awhile to implement them all, looks like I will need to add some more links and explain more, as you have said.

I suppose I don't have time right now to design a theme so I'll try one of the more interesting ones from the selection.

Yes ... your suggestions will make excellent content ... Thank you again and thanks for taking so much time !