URGENT: create landing/splash page

There’s been a huge influx of people since the PRISM revelations (I see the numbers mounting up from the Diaspora HQ account, to which everyone is added when they sign up).

About 95% of these people have signed up to joindiapsora.com. This is because, I think, historically it was the pod which was publicised by the founders, and is the one which is being used in a lot of articles recommending Diaspora, such as http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/17/identi_ca_diaspora_and_friendica_are_more_secure_alternatives_to_facebook.html

At the moment there is no page we can direct people to. The diasporaproject.org site is hopelessly out of date, and the wiki front page is rather forbidding, and doesn’t give a ‘getting started’ guide.

To this end I’ve bug up a design by Laci Videmsky (https://www.joindiaspora.com/u/lacividemsky) which he created about 18 months ago to replace the outdated project site. I’ve written text which is I hope simple and straightfoward, and tells people what the need to do to sign up, and also how they can get involved with developing etc.

It’s a real rough-and-ready attempt, and needs improving. However, it is something! And we could slap it up on the root of diasporafoundation.org just for now, until we can create something better.

You can see a draft at [link removed]

I must admit I found some of Laci’s html and css to be a bit opaque and not as simple as it could be - but this might be partly because of my own lack of expertise, and also because he was creating the page as part of something more complex. However, again I’m sure it can be vastly improved in the future.

However, can we slap this up now and ask people who are blogging about Diaspora, and those articles already written, to link to this page at diasporafoundation.org and not to joindiaspora.com? What do you think?

ps: I don’t want my personal domain publicised - I’ve put it there only so that you can see it.


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Goob, this looks great! :smiley:

@goob that is awesome.

Can we put this on diasporafoundation.org? ASAP IMHO :slight_smile:

Hm, I fear I do have some remarks:

  • The contrast on the subheading is way too low, just remove the gradient IMO.
  • Link the wiki in the header
  • The Sign up button in the text needs a display: block or whatever it takes to take it into it’s own line.
  • Do not link getsatisfaction
  • I don’t think a link to the Rails guides is important either
  • Let the sign up button in the header scroll to the explanation text

HI, thanks @jonnehass - fantastically useful comments. I thought I’d stripped out all the out-of-date stuff, but missed the footers.

I’ve amended re all the points you make. The one thing I don’t understand is your comment about contrast and gradient on the subheading. Which subhead is this? I don’t see any gradient, and I wonder whether you’re seeing the page differently from me. Would appreciate clarification.

@seantilleycommunit @jasonrobinson - I’ve grabbed the ‘get involved’ page from the old project site, and have ditched the ‘supporters’ page as it’s so out-of-date. A newer one can always be added back in later. What do you reckon, put up these two pages for all their faults, and then edit once they’re up there? We desperately need something to point people to, and this is at least something, with correct information on it. If you agree, I can send Sean the files tomorrow.

An amended draft of the welcome page, with a ‘get involved’ page, are now up on my site.

I realise now the CSS and JS files are adapted from the old project site. It might be that a lot of the information in them can be stripped out, as it’s no longer needed. That tidying up can be done later.

I’ve just changed the location of the files, so please click the revised link in the main post, rather than using a cache from your browser. Thanks.

@goob I love it. I have updated my copy-editing with some suggestions that could make things flow a lot better.

I also think we should reduce our contributor list to those specifically actively working on Diaspora, whether it’s in documentation, codebase, social media, or somewhere else. We could probably organize the contributors based on what they do, too.

Links also need to be updated for the Get Involved page. I can write that up on a separate page of the copy-editing doc.

We also need to promote an area for our donors and supporters. I think it’s a nice courtesy to keep the names up, to thank those that have financially supported the project. If it weren’t for them, our project may not have gotten this far.

@goob nice work! I’d love to see the “Features our community loves” part from http://diasporaproject.org/ in this page. Maybe by replacing “community” by “users”.

Don’t worry about the code, let’s put it online for the moment, I’ll refactor it soon :wink:

We should maybe put this code on github to add the possibility of pull requests?

@goob http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18842622/The%20Diaspora-%20Foundation%20-%20Chromium_046.png

About the get involved page:

  • Please update the links to point to the new wiki
  • I’d try to avoid using linkshorters
  • The hashtag links are broken
  • Remove the “Email us” notice.

Oh and having the headline container the same size as on the main page would be nice.

Hi Jonne, all those things you point out are elements of the original design (by the founders). It’s not how I would have set about writing a page, but it’s what I got handed. I agree it’s a bit of a mess. I’ve done what I can to sort it out. Yes, of course they can and should be ironed out, but for now my main concern is to get some up-to-date, accurate and easy to digest content out there so that newcomers can know a bit more about Diaspora - and particularly how to sign up without all going to joindiaspora.com. Thanks for your useful comments.

I’ve been updating links and the contributor lists this morning. The contributor lists are of course incomplete, but I’ve removed people who haven’t been involved for a year or more.

Fla, agree that ‘features our community loves’ should be included, but on a separate page, ‘more about Diaspora’ - not on the front page. The front page should contain as little text as possible. I think there’s a bit too much text as it is, but it will do for now. I had originally added ‘more about this’ links at the end of the various elements, but I have removed these just so we can get this page out. Once it’s up we can write supplementary pages and add links to them.

Sean, I see you’ve added text from the old project site on to your copy-ed doc. Some of that is good, but please don’t let’s reintroduce horrid phrases such as ‘Diaspora won’t force your awesomeness’!

I think links and information are at least up to date now, even though incomplete (in case of contributors and supporters), and there are design issues, but I think it’s right now to get these three pages (index, contribs, supporters) up there on diasporafoundation.org asap and then people can edit them afterwards.

Sean, I’ll email these files to you. Let me know if you don’t receive them.

Is https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora-project-site the current website on diasporaproject.org? We need to put the website on github to work on it.

For the moment, I’m for removing everything on the get involved page from "Diaspora*'s Contributors The people who work on Diaspora* every day " because it’s not really useful and not up-to-date, we’ll work on that later.

About the home page, I agree it should contain the minimum, but just adding the description of some features is important. Most people coming in this page don’t know what’s Diaspora*, it’s even not indicate that Diaspora is a social network! If we want users to register, we have to explain how they can use Diaspora.

I’m for replacing the “Want to help?” part (which is a summary of the “get involved” page) by “features our users love” :slight_smile:

@seantilleycommunit and I are working on a relaunch which will be live in the next days. stay tuned.

Good thinking, @flaburgan . I’ve added the features section.

Have sent the files to Sean. If you can work out a place on Github where I can upload them, I will, although if that involves cloning the repository I’ll leave it to Sean to do it.

Right, must rest now. Silly of me to do so much work when I’m not well, but it needed doing. At least there’s a base on which others can build.

Thanks everyone for your comments, very useful.

@seantilleycommunit , let me know if you don’t receive my email or can’t download the files.

Thank you for your amazing work :wink:

Awesome stuff, looking forward to seeing the site live and the code on github :slight_smile:

Thanks everyone for all your feedback. I’ve been making revisions, using some new copy from Sean, and writing fuller explanations of various elements.

There are updated files back at http://diaspora.goob.me.uk/

I think at this stage I need to pass it on, once @seantilleycommunit has OKed it @dennisschubert will work his magic on it, and I’ll try to find a way to get it on GitHub so others can build on what I’ve done, as it’s only really a stop-gap measure.

I had to create some graphics for things like Freedom and Aspects, tried to respect the existing designs, hope mine fit in OK. I’ve also created a new logo, with a slight gradient on it, as the ‘THE DIASPORA* PROJECT’ logo was a real alpha logo from way back. Hope it’s OK, but anyone else is welcome to create a better logo.

Thanks again for all your help.

@goob nice work. On the supporters page one link to the wiki misses the http:// prefix. Also I think we have to revisit the text about Ilya :confused: