Website

[Tyler Morgan]

UGR needs a domain name and website design / development to make it stand out as a more professional-grade project.

I am working on some web design concepts in tandem with the logo revisions. I will post here as I get things ready for feedback.

I'm tagging this as a Wishlist item for now. I believe the priority to be higher, but I will leave that up to JC or Chris to make that call.

[Chris Gummin (proxy-qtz-deactivatedaccount)]

Yeah. This is a higher priority. I'll bump it up to medium.

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

As with everything for this project, the website was put together quickly, gets the job done, and leaves much to be desired. It works and it costs nothing to run. I already owned the domain and google sites is free. Unfortunately, it looks like crap. However, google sites is very easy for us to use. Some design improvements could definitely be made.

The ugr site gets around 2000-6000 page views per day, and the load is handled very well. I do have a webserver on my VPS, but the VPS is very flaky and slow.

As for a domain, someone proposed ugr-linux.org in a different bug, which seems good. ugr.org is being sold for $8,800, which is way beyond our means. ugr.com is unavailable.

I'm open to any suggestions or anyone willing to develop something. The website has to look professional and not take tons of time and effort to update.

[Chris Gummin (proxy-qtz-deactivatedaccount)]

Hey, we'd really like a new website. As it gets near to the Andromeda release, we'd like a professional-looking web page. It would be awesome if you could help.

[Tyler Morgan (digismack)]

I'm down. The logo/branding really needs to be further along before we can push forward with the website. Do you have an estimate on how long we have before the Andromeda release is completed?

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

I just completed a massive theme facelift on the website - it looks leaps and bounds better now.

@Tyler 1.0 should come around May 18th

On a side note, we're invading the Ubuntu wiki. If you could help populate our pages, that would be nice.
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UGR

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

The OMG!Ubuntu layout for a page is really good. Might be to big of a project to get it like that right now though. Maybe a simplified version are doable?

Made a quick mock up..

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

Sure. It'd be pretty easy to do a simplified version. Google sites is
very easy to theme.

Did you like my new theme? It used the Cantarell font, too.

JC Hulce

On May 10, 2011, at 4:46 AM, Daniel Sandman <email address hidden> wrote:

> The OMG!Ubuntu layout for a page is really good. Might be to big of a
> project to get it like that right now though. Maybe a simplified version
> are doable?
>
> Made a quick mock up..
>
> ** Attachment added: "webpage-mockup.svg"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ugr-meta/+bug/772142/+attachment/2122436/+files/webpage-mockup.svg
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to UGR
> (Ubuntu Gnome Remix) Project.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/772142
>
> Title:
> Website
>
> Status in Ubuntu Gnome Remix Metapackages:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> UGR needs a domain name and website design / development to make it
> stand out as a more professional-grade project.
>
> I am working on some web design concepts in tandem with the logo
> revisions. I will post here as I get things ready for feedback.
>
> I'm tagging this as a Wishlist item for now. I believe the priority to
> be higher, but I will leave that up to JC or Chris to make that call.

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

Don't want to be rude or so but it feels a bit barren. On the positive side it makes it look serious. I think i might liked the previous one better. Also you should use a transparent background for the logo. The Navigation tab and Recent News is great but no need to put the title like "Home" on home.

Maybe fix the center frame at 600px wide. Let the left and right be white and add some shadow border as i did in the mock up. Btw.. think the mock up i did was really really bad ;)

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

The site is now capped at 800px wide. I can't do anything about the navigation, or putting white on the sides. I need to get a transparent logo from someone.

@Daniel, you are correct that it looks barren. I don't know what would make it look less barren, except maybe more/different colors?

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

All the logos i have posted are transparent. Just right click the link and save it to the computer.

I wanted to say 680px wide.. It makes everything more in the center. I see that you fixed it and it feel better, doesn't it? I like the navigation tab so that is alright. Maybe the top frame need some artwork. Too much artwork will just make it heavy and hard to read.

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

How have the webpage been setup? Is it with CSS, Frames or pre-configured layouts? Anyway.. got some new layouts ;)

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

And with a logo...

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

And a last one with a lot more shadowing...

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

It's google sites, which uses pre-configured layouts with a tiny bit of flexibility. The logos I have been using are transparent ones, but they're a bug in gsites that makes them non-transparent.

Heres the gsites help, so you can get an overview of everything: http://sites.google.com/support/

As far as the header, I can use either a solid color or image background. If someone makes a nice header (do not put text in the header, just color/ images) with a gradient or something, I'll use it.

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

I will try to think something out that will work with normal text...

[Daniel Sandman (almehdi-deactivatedaccount)]

Is it possible to add a forum to the site? Discussing through bug reports feels a bit awkward. Maybe start up a twitter account?

As google sites seams a bit limited i want to recommend Joomla. It is an easy module based site builder. Point and Click installs. Just install it to the www directory and add modules to your likening. There are also themes that can be downloaded. Some good modules to start with would be a forum and a gallery.

/@Almehdin on twitter

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I have actually wondered if it might be beneficial to have a sub-forum in Ubuntu Forums > 3rd Party Projects:

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=249

It appears that doing so would require contacting a forum moderator, or at least clicking on Thread Starter does nothing???

Just a thought ;^)

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

I agree with both of you. Gsites worked as something quick and easy, but now we need something more. I personally have some experience with wordpress/drupal/joomla, and I think that's the direction we should go. A forum would be nice too.

On a side note, I applied to get us listed as a sub-project in ubuntu brainstorm.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

I started a thread at the Ubuntu Forums Community Cafe requesting info and it was quickly moved to Forum Feedback & Help (somewhat hidden it appears):

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1759998&highlight=ugr

Very much basic and to the point. I hope what I said is OK with everyone.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

This last post at the forums seems reasonable:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10823699&postcount=12

Suggesting I/we contact:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncil

I know 'bapoumba' once approved a How-To for me. Before going any further I'd like some opinions from the major contributors to the project :^)

All opinions are welcome.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Sorry for a totally meaningless comment but I'm dying to know the outcome of the naming poll.

I actually prefer plain Jane UGR with as little reference as possible to the influence of Ubuntu and Gnome on the project. Just think for a moment ............... how much has Ubuntu benefited from Debian? Or vice versa?

Still neither mentions the other in their name ;^)

OTOH using UGR has implications that sort of tell a story about it's founding.

[Chris Gummin (proxy-qtz-deactivatedaccount)]

I personally like Bridge Linux, since we are bridging the gap between Ubuntu and Gnome.

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

The launchpad poll system is very strange - I can't edit or view the results of the poll until it is done on the 25th! (This also means I cannot add new options. I rather like bridge linux)

@Erick what you said in the post was good. I'll throw a post in there as well. Maybe having a forum at lq wouldn't be all bad, but I'd like to keep it in the ubuntu family.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Before presenting anything to the Ubuntu Forum Council I decided to toss a few ideas around with a couple of private emails to forum mods I've corresponded with in the past. Since they were private in nature I won't directly quote anyone, but all of the responses were very reasonable, although not particularly favorable.

I should also say that I not only mentioned UGR but the implementation of Gnome 3 into Ubuntu as a whole. Obviously with Oneiric just now going into development we don't know for sure what to expect, eg; how difficult will it be to change from the default Unity DE to a true 'gnome3-session', or how easy it will then be to change to a 'fallback-session'?

Of course we can't know yet because gnome3 is ATM not yet functional in Oneiric, but one thing I was reminded of is just how many "re-spins" there are based on Ubuntu already. The general idea was that if we were granted a "special" sub-forum there would be a flood of requests for "equal treatment". Sad but true.

While I feel that our goals are more in line with Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc. it's also true that most have their own forums. Lubuntu is AFAIK the only exception and it's history, since it's the most recent member of the *ubuntu klan, may be a good model to follow. That is, of course, purely my opinion ;^)

Somewhat OT, but also very important, I agree with Chris and JC on Bridge Linux. And Daniel's first mock-up just shouts awesome all over the place! I also realize that means more work but I like it. I'd hope Daniel wouldn't think developing the graphics for UGR and then making a major change aren't a waste of time.

Further OT but I really like the implementation of our own plymouth "splash". It looks good, I much prefer the "spinning wheel" to those annoying "dots".

Anyway I'm now reluctant to place a request with the Forum Council that I'm almost sure would fail.

As an interim measure I suppose we could communicate through the "Other OS" section of the forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=401

Hardly optimal but something to consider.

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

@Erick I agree totally. We'll wait and see the results of the naming poll in a few days. We could go in other os, or move to linuxquestions.

[Chris Gummin (proxy-qtz-deactivatedaccount)]

Well, we're sticking with UGR. Is this bug still relevant or needed?