[OSM-talk] Main page (www.openstreetmap.org)

[Nick Black]

On 5/26/07, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
>      www.openstreetmap.org drops you right onto the map display at
> the moment - the result of a conscious decision or has someone
> accidentally removed the redirect to the Wiki?
>
> I would like to use this opportunity to revive the discussion about
> the (vastly superior IMHO) three-panel entry page that was floated
> here early this year; the initial design was something like this
>
> http://higgy.bandnet.org/openstreetmap/draft-index3.html
>
> and then someone (Kristian?) improved a bit on that (the page with
> the woman in the dark alley...), but the URL from that posting,
>
> http://www.dyoh.com/osm-draft-index6.html
>
> has reverted to seedy domain parking adverts in the mean time.
>
> Maybe I should not say "revive the discussion" because, as far as I
> remember, we all were of the opinion that we want such a three-panel
> page ASAP, there wasn't, I think, a single voice against - and still
> it somehow hasn't materialised.



There was actually quite a lot of opposition to the idea of redirecting to
the wiki.  The redirect was setup after an offlist group email was sent to
the sysadmins - the 'pro redirect' lobby were better organised and more
forceful than the 'keep it how it is' lobby.  The reasons for the redirect
were that the site didn't look as good as it does now and there was a lot of
down time compared to now.  Now that we have a redesigned front page with a
map that fills the page, links to a new editor, links to new user pages and
cartography that beats that of other web maps, there is no reason to
redirect to a different page.  OpenStreetMap is about maps - you wouldn't
expect to go to google maps and see a splash page before getting to the
map.  Areas in which there is no mapping data are nothing to be ashamed of -
people need to see them so they can go out and change that.  A way to
improve the front page would be to return visitors to their last viewed
location and layer.  Functionality to achieve this exists within OpenLayers
and would increase user experience.

Keep the map.

May I ask for
>
> 1. a quick review of the layouts proposed - especially the lost
> "woman in alley" version
> 2. a quick decision on which whe like best
> 3. a quick technical feasibility check (I think some versions had
> "our next event..." on them, would that have to be updated manually
> or can it be pulled in from the Wiki?)
> 4. fast-track installation of the three-panel start page?
>
> I'm willing to do my part of this if someone tells me what my part
> could be ;-)
>
> Bye
> Frederik
>
> --
> Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00.09' E008°23.33'
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk mailing list
> talk at openstreetmap.org
> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
>



-- 
Nick Black
--------------------------------
http://www.blacksworld.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20070527/f36f5d4d/attachment.html>