Post
by CrackTheSky » Tue Aug 21, 2018 11:24 am
I just want to second pretty much everything SQ said. We've been hearing that an .org redesign is "in the works" for...what, like 8 years now? The fact that it's taken that long makes me think that the people working on it probably don't care about it too much, which makes me wonder if I should care either. I get that redesigning a site takes time, especially when it's done on a volunteer basis, but this long? Other sites have been completely overhauled in a fraction of the time; I don't know what the difference is but I find it hard to believe that it's all related to technical matters.
In any case, I do believe that people are working on it, but I honestly don't think that a fresh coat of paint and some enhancements to user-friendliness will do much to revitalize this place. This has to be a massive, all-in undertaking in which the (volunteer) staff are fully dedicated to manning the PR stations and communicating with one another to coordinate a full re-launch. Beyond that, it would take a strong willingness to sustain by making the .org a place that people want to come (and SQ provided many good ideas on how to do that). SQ's ideas and observations are all pretty much on-point. Anything less means that you'll see very little fruit for the years of effort put into redesigning this place.
I don't know how much communication about the .org goes on behind the scenes, between the people who are in charge of the place, but the lack of communication to the users (and I'm not just talking about right now, this has been a problem for years) makes it feel like the staff doesn't really care, and I think that's contributed to the general exodus that has taken place over the last decade.
I will say that I do like the idea of generating discussion on announcement threads and such, Kionon, and I think it's a great first step; but without a concerted effort by staff to follow up consistently, even if (when) it seems pointless, it will only do so much and even the people who are looking for these types of discussions won't stick around.