As a direct result of recent events on this site and this discussion specifically, I'm calling for a community collaboration at XOOPSinfo.com.

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Until now, XOOPSinfo has pretty much been a one-man-show. I would like to move away from this model and make XOOPSinfo a true community resource. The spirit behind this site was and still is to make it as simple as possible for members to find information.

What I am asking of the community

Feedback and participation in adding/suggesting resources.

There will need to be some changes to XOOPSinfo.com in order to make it as useful to the XOOPS community as possible. I would like to discuss those here until the facilities are in place to support further collaboration on XOOPSinfo.com.

Also, as with any community effort, volunteers are needed to review submissions to ensure that they are a genuine resource for the XOOPS community.

Clarification

It is not my desire to compete with XOOPS.org or any of the future sub-sites or any other XOOPS resource site for that matter. In fact, the goal is to compliment these sites. The goal is to provide a central "Portal" or "Start Page" where you can keep up on the latest news and developments in the world of XOOPS. There are many ways this can be achieved and it is up to the community to decide what they want on this site!

I just moved the site over to a new VPS to allow for greater flexibility in what can be offered. There are a couple bugs I'm working out on the server to fix some issues with scripts sending mails, but once that is done, I will begin on implementing the suggestions from this discussion.

So what do YOU want from XOOPSinfo.com?

All suggested changes will be decided based on community consensus.

by JMorris on 2007/3/11 15:33:09

My first impression of the site xoopsinfo.com is "it is beautiful" And to much of an eye strain to want to go any further with researching the content within its pages.

Returning to the clean white pages of this XOOPS site overrides the desire to follow the links or conversation that might be occurring over there.

I like content information provided to me in BLACK and WHITE, easy to read format, with a minimum of showmanship.

This of course, is only one personal opinion.

I would be here, in support, seeking the direct link to the modules or themes. EXAMPLE CBB module

No eye strain, pleasant experience.

The INFORMATION idea is good, the dark printing on dark background is not.

This is a BlueStocking new-user feedback opinion only.

Thinking of your site as one of the "community powered sites", following Herko's concept <here>, having in question the "who are the ones the make XOOPS" and thinking of the needed remodeling xoops.org needs, ...there are 3 points I'd like to focus on of your site, because they are the best complement the Community xoops.org can have now:

- Articles
- Links
- Newsfeeds

Articles, because it is a great central point to gather information that not necessarily goes in FAQS, and there are occasional news articles that can be rescued and recompiled into the articles section as well as in the forums there are occasional very productive and constructive threads that can be rescued and recompiled there too; a great example of this is found at www.frxoops.org in their tutorials section. Besides the documentation team can start fetching articles from here and start translating the articles and improving the ones that can be extended and elaborated more.

Links, the webring Wizanda talks about <here> is highly visible with the work done in this module, I believe this is something that should be accessed from xoops.org.

Newsfeeds would be the tool that would help centralize all the XOOPS generated work, and also I think this should be accessed from xoops.org

Now this doesn't mean I think XOOPSinfo.org should dissolve it's domain, instead I think it should be even greater with this call to the community. But certain standards should be followed, like for example the design and menu navigation, to be able to integrate sites like this to xoops. If this were to be, it's integration, and to allow the integration of other "community powered sites" in a close to official way, they should follow one same theme design and one same menu navigation that interlinks everything, otherwise the users will get lost with the growing amount of community powered sites (but I make clear, that's what I think of the "close to official ones" the more independent ones could keep their own design).

Xoops.org is already a hard to organize place, so having these "close to official" sites integrated into xoops.org would make the XOOPS community site more manageable, leaving everything open to the community and whoever wants to create, improve XOOPS creativity, development and documentation. (besides the importance given to the more independant ones in the webring-newsfeeds).

James -

I think your approach to the organization of XoopsInfo is quite good.

The requests, regardless of the skill level of the person requesting, boil down to 'How do I ...?'. Some are looking for basic 'How do I start a site using Xoops?' Others are asking 'How do I incorporate the new XOOPS API into my module?' Still others want to know 'How do I modify a theme or template?' I do not think any single site will be able to meet all these various needs and be anything more than adequate. Specific sites, whether they be independent sites, or sub-domains of Xoops.org, are necessary.

So - my thoughts about the various XOOPS sites:
Xoops.org - 'Official' information, core downloads, basic user forums, getting started, marketing, etc. All local support sites need to mirror this main site.

dev.xoops.org - a place for ALL developers, not just module developers. No need for devteam.xoops.org. Module developers need to know about the core to properly develop their modules. In its current state, it isn't going to get the job done.

helpxoops.info - a proving ground for concepts and processes. As modules and themes are nearing release status, it is nice to get them 'in the wild' for feedback and validation. This is the niche I think Carnuke and Rabideau are trying to target.

xoopsdocs.net - a library of any and all documentation related to XOOPS - using it and developing it.

XoopsInfo - a high-level view of the XOOPS landscape, plus some things that aren't exclusive to Xoops. For example, best practices for user and group management, SEO, server management and optimization, site backups and migrations, (lots of things available in MyWebResource, but with a XOOPS twist), traffic building and usability.

A XOOPS Showcase/Directory - XoopsGroups is filling part of this, but they are focusing on the best of the best. If a person is considering using XOOPS for their site, they want to see a lot of examples of sites similar to theirs and how they made XOOPS work for them. Tie this with a theme demo site that has a searchable gallery of themes.

For the most part, people will use only one of these sites at a time, but there are a few that are involved in all these aspects of Xoops-dom and continually need to switch around to monitor them all. A place where this can be consolidated into one portal would be awesome. I am imagining a site akin to my.yahoo, msn, or any other portal, where I can create an account, add blocks that are of interest to me (say - themes and SEO) and arrange my page to my liking. This is where XoopsInfo could really come into play!

A bit of a ramble, but I hope this helps.

Excellent! This is exactly the kind of constructive collaboration I was hoping for!

@BlueStocking,

RE: eye strain...

You are absolutely right! The current design does not lend itself well to reading large chunks of information. Changing the theme to a more "Reader friendly" design is a definite must do.

Given Snow77's comments about "Close to Official" sites maintaining a similar look and feel, I think it would be wise to adapt a version of the "New Default Theme" to the XOOPSinfo.com site with some minor modifications. This would certainly be easier on the eye with regards to readability.

I'm a bit torn on using the "New Default Theme" theme because of complexity and readability issues, so this may need to wait until the final version is realeased. For now, I will switch the theme to a more reader-friendly version (perhaps the BlueHue theme) so that users will be able to use the site effectively.

RE: seeking the direct link to the modules or themes...

The addons.xoops.org (coming very soon!) site will be the primary repository for themes and modules, but it was my hope that XOOPSinfo would be the place where users could keep up with the latest news (meaning RSS feeds) regarding such things. I do not want to compete with the Addons site and providing too many places to download modules and themes is one of the current problems we have.

Originally, I was thinking that the downloads section could be a "Free Mirror Service" where developers could host their works on high availability, high bandwidth servers. That part of the site has become nothing more than the downloads section of MyWebResource.com and therefore is only self-serviing and no use to the community, so the downloads section should go, IMHO.

Thank you for your feedback, BlueStocking! I have taken note and will make the necessary improvements.

@snow77,

I agree with your view that XOOPSinfo is to be more of a "community powered site". I also agree that it should maintain a similar look and feel to the other "close to official" sites. Also, the three key areas you pointed out, Articles, Links, and News Feeds are the areas I feel XOOPSinfo can be the best compliment to other XOOPS resources.

I too think that Community Powered sites can add a level of enhancement to XOOPS.org that we have not seen before, which is exactly why I want the XOOPSinfo project to be more "Community Centered".

@skenow,

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You just hit the nail sqarely on the head! That is exactly the direction I think XOOPSinfo.com should take. With the developements in AJAX that we are seeing in our community, I believe a portal that has a customizable interface is well within reach. IMHO, XOOPSinfo.com should give as much or as little information as the end-user is looking for, just like
my.yahoo, msn, or any other portal!

Help will be needed from developers who have made the greatest strides in these areas, but after all, isn't that what community collaboration is all about? Every user contributing their strengths for the greater good of all!

Thank you skenow for putting into words what I could not!

The basic structure of XOOPSinfo.com that is in my mind at this point is as follows (subject to change based on community input).

Homepage:
Customizable homepage using AJAX and MySQL
RSS feeds from all the corners of the XOOPS universe
Latest Articles
Latest Links
Rotating Links to "Official XOOPS Sites" (SmartPartner Module)
Latest Forum Posts
Latest Blog Entries

Articles:
This can include case studies, tutorials and announcements. Even though the current XOOPS homepage has the News section where Announcements can be posted, this really isn't well suited to general case studies and tutorials. This section of XOOPSinfo would seek to extend what can be posted to the XOOPS community in a user-friendly interface.

Blog:
Site-specific announcements. This means that any non-site-specific Blog posts wil be removed.

Community Forum:
This would be the place to discuss additions before they are permanently placed on the site as well as site-specific support. XOOPSinfo.com will not be a module, theme, hack or service support site! The forum will only be for support topics pertaining to XOOPSinfo.com and discussing additions to the site.

Downloads:
To be removed because it is redundant, self-serving, and will only complicate things.

Contact Us:
To be removed because there will [hopefully] be a team of members managing the site instead of just one person. A contact page is not necesary in a Community Powered environment.

Links:
Links to every Active module, theme, hack and service provider's site. This will be the hardest part to maintian, but with community effort, this can be accomplished!

Link to Us:
I'm 50/50 on this. I don't care if it stays or goes. The only benefit I see is that those who would want to link to XOOPSinfo.com would have multiple choices of how they can link.

RSS Feeds:
RSS feeds from every site related to XOOPS, whether free or commercial. GIJOE's excellent XHLD module can handle this. If it gets to a point where the module becomes too slow, we can divide feeds by subject.

In addition to the above...

I think cross-site searching would be an excellent idea!
I think the SmartPartner module should be used for the "Official" sites, including local support sites.
I think every change to the site should be placed before the community before it is made and put to a vote [xoopspoll module?].

As I staed before, this is just my thoughts, but the final decision will be up to the community.

Thank you for your input and contributions!

by JMorris on 2007/3/11 21:55:24

Thank you,

I went back to your xoopsinfo.com site and found you had added the bluehue theme, which I set for my preference and that did the trick.

It lent a sense of security (familiar and readable) It felt like Xoops, the developer. I liked it!

BlueHue is now dressed for the occasion, while your original theme is dressed for the celebration after the ball. Not many programs can do that transformation with a flip of a user switch.

You guys and gals are terrific. I like what you are doing with the information page.

A BlueStocking opinion.
Hard-Hunting.com

Good call James! Someone is cranking the engine again. You have our sincere support. More thoughts later.

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[rant on]

But you ARE competing!!!!!!! James, I love what you're doing for the XOOPS community, but your Website IS competing with www.xoops.org, whether you like it or not, and whether you acknowledge it or not.

I am not sure what is going on, but with the recent opening ofhttp://helpxoops.info/ by Carnuke, this is a very disturbing trend. It looks like there is some political battle going on with somebody not letting you make changes to the www.xoops.org website, and therefore you're feel being forced to open your own Websites.

Otherwise, why do it? From my experience people open their own Websites because:

a) they want to make money
b) their ego drives them to get more exposure with their "own" Website
c) they don't see like they have the opportunity to implement their ideas on the main Website because the "powers to be" don't let them
d) there is a disagreement and they feel they have to leave and start something new
e) ????

I am sure you won't like to hear it, but yours and Carnuke's new Websites are fragmenting the XOOPS community and ARE counterproductive to the www.xoops.org Website.

Our focus should be on fixing the www.xoops.org Website and NOT on creating 10 other Websites dealing with XOOPS issues.

Carnuke states on his Website:
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So my challenge to him is: Why not change the www.xoops.org Website so it provides the "more reliable and accessible information"????? Why do we have to create a new Website for it?

What you guys are doing is giving the impression to others that the XOOPS ship is sinking and everybody is trying to leave it and establish their own XOOPS Website before it's too late . Just think about it....

As a "XOOPS user" I do NOT need another two Websites. What I need is fixed and updated www.xoops.org Website that provides me with all the XOOPS information that I need, a "one-stop shopping" concept.

[rant off]

Mamba, show us your version of the roadmap for a better XOOPS if you think this is wrong.

I look at the contribution to this thread by the likes of JMorris, Carnuke and Rabideau, and then Mambo...

I applaud those who contribute here and on other sites in positive ways. It is not easy to break out of the "it's your fault - you do something about it" thinking and contributing in any way possible.

There are many facets to a product such as Xoops, and as was read somewhere in all this was "domain names don't matter." In terms of 'dividing' the community, I don't agree. The more sites that mention XOOPS only multiplies the results in search engines and raises the core site higher in the rankings.

Care to comment? Let everybody see your XOOPS site first - add it to your profile or your signature.