[OSM-talk] How can we spread the tribal knowledge?

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 09:16, Tom Hughes <tom at compton.nu> wrote:
> On 18/05/10 10:08, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
>> It would solve our existing overflow problems, and give us space for
>> small notices at the top like "Would you like to view osm.org in
>> $language", or "head over to the wiki for Haiti mapping..". We might
>> even be able to move the search bar up there, users like the search
>> field at the top of the page. At least so Google, Wikimedia and others
>> have gathered.
>
> I don't dispute that it might be nice to move the search bar up there but I
> think we should also remove the tabs and find some other way of navigating
> between the other major elements of the site.

I think having a non-giant-map mainpage could be a very large step in
that direction.

"User blogs" I think could be moved to such a mainpage (under some
"Community" heading). Rarely do I need to suddenly go to the blogs,
I'd be fine with freeing up some space by adding a level of
indirection to it.

Similarly, perhaps "Edit / History / GPS traces" could all be
consolidated under a "View or edit the map". So we'd have:

  * About - Lists all the neat things about OSM
    - Short blurb about what it is
    - You can view/edit/download data
    - Get in touch, participate, read blawgs
  * View or edit the map
    - Get an editing interface with a big map
    - Edit the data
    - View / upload traces
    - See history / browse objects

Adding a proper main page could free up a lot of the interface in the
long run, since there'd be some non-layout place to put some of the
links now in the layout.

I think I've advocated this enough. If you want patches you know where
to find me.