Re: Web site gripes

On Mon, 18 Jun 2001, Adam Haberlach wrote:

> (ok, they aren't really gripes, just things that I find a little hard
> to deal with)

Actually the DOCS list is where this stuff goes 'cuze I pay more attention
to that list, but since we're here...

> o. When I visit http://www.postgresql.org, the first thing I get is a
> whole bunch of flags offering me mirrors. If we are going to manage
> this many mirrors, can we do something like what php.net does and
> make it transparent? Perhaps use a cookie so I get directed to the
> one I used last time?

We tried that and had more complaints than praise. Why not bookmark the
mirror you prefer to use? One note about the current one, if a site
hasn't updated in the last 48 hours their flag is automatically dropped.

> o. When I make it to the actual pages, almost always in search of
> documentation, the first thing I do is look for "Docs" in the little
> helper bar on the left side. It's not there.

Another thing that falls under more complaints than praise. We used
to do that too, but we actually have two sets of docs; current and
release. Two entirely different sets of people use the site and the
docs so things that pertain to developers are found in the developers
corner and things that pertain to average users are found in the users
lounge. This includes mailing lists and docs. You'll also find links
to the docs on the main page under "Release Docs", "Current or Development
Docs" and "Interactive". They're in the third announcement item from
the top.

> o. When I /do/ make it to a docs page, I end up at a "oldest stuff at
> the top" list, when it is likely that the first thing people want is
> going to be the newest docs.

When you /do/ make it to the docs page you're presented with a choice
of which docs you want to use, "Current Release Docs (ver 7.1)" being
the very first one; click on that and you'll be taken to the version
7.1 set of documentation. The Interactive docs will also be the latest
docs and you can do keyword searches and see and/or add user comments
to them (just like the php site).

> o. When I finally make it to the documentation for my version, I get
> a list of no less then 38 different links, covering almost all
> permutations of
>
> [Integrated|Admin|Programmer|Developer|Reference|Tutorial|User's Guide]
> and
> [PDF|Postscript|HTML|A4 PDF|A4 Postscript]
>
> Do we really need all of this?

Yes.

>
> Hmm. Maybe they are gripes. While the Postgres documentation is
> typically first class, the site seems pretty hard for me to deal
> with, especially compared to ones like php.net and *ahem* mysql.com.

Gripes, no. But would you like some cheese with that whine?

> For bonus points, make the "search results" page in the "interactive
> documentation" return the titles of the pages, not the names of the
> documents.

On second thought, go buy your own cheese.

Vince.
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