Guidelines for front page posts

The most important thing that's not covered here is some consistency to how long is considered "long enough" for something to remain on the front page before something else is posted.

On June 27, the University of Baltimore results were posted to the front page. Lullabot originally wrote the Understanding Drupal DVD announcement on June 30, which was considered too soon, so were told to delay until July 1, so that the usability post would get 4 days of screen-time. The CCK/Views/OG announcement followed about 24 hours later, and the 338 people signed up for Szeged post followed about 12 hours later. So what's considered "long enough"? 1 day? 4 days? 12 hours? Whatever it is, let's figure it out and then apply it consistently, *please*.

We also need some structure on how to handle things that have to be scheduled for certain times. For example, the CCK/Views RC post. The SoC announcement. I think it might behoove us to make a list of these somewhere of these and for the front-page maintainers to take this into account when choosing whether to promote something.

Personally I would think 4 hours would be more than enough. To have *days* between posts is downright slow as molasses in this day and age. With such a high-membership site and such a wide, diverse community, there's bound to be a lot of activity that is worthy of fp.

I agree on the buddy rule.

As the former maintainer of the front page, I suppose I should weigh in here.

1) The Drupal showcase forum is a good one to watch. Most of them are just "here's my new site" kind of posts but there are some gems there. Some are "diamonds in the rough" posts where they give a lot of good info but it's not super polished. Sometimes promoting those inspires them to do an even better writup. It's also nice to show off sites by smaller companies to show that Drupal doesn't take a huge dev shop.

2) If it's a post that benefits you in some way or something you were involved in, this is a very good idea. If it's one you stumbled on and think would really do good on the front page, I think this is less important. Though #3 makes this necessary anyway.

3) This was my reason for handing over care of the front page to Amazon. While I guess it might be nice to at least wait an few hours or so rather than immediately pushing down the top post, I think all this coordinating and scheduling is rather silly. I should hope anyone capable of using Drupal is capable of working the scroll wheel on their mouse. It's not even a fold issue, really, since only the top of the sticky post is above the fold anyway. And there's really not a worry about pushing posts off the front page completely considering the last post on the FP is from 10 days ago. So, my $.02 is this rule is nuts and people around here have more important things to do than worry about how much time the last thing promoted has had.

Michelle

These rules all seem very reasonable to me. I edited them slightly and posted them into the site maintainers guide (which already had a rule about the use of the log field).

Given the frequency that we have front page worthy content and given the desire to get a "fair" amount of time on the front page I think 24 hours is reasonable so that's what I said as the policy.

I also created a front page schedule page to help coordinate.

I'm marking this "fixed" since it's moved into the handbook but, of course, that's a book page so we can keep the edits/revisions going there.

Awesome. Thanks, Greg!

Personally I feel that this makes the front page less relevant. For example, I did not see the fp post on Angie's Google honor until pointed to it. I came across the info via a Google news alert taking me to another blog post elsewhere. Why did I not see it on the front page? Because I hardly ever look there, because every time I go I see the same old stale news.

If you want to talk Google juice, Google loves frequently updated sites. I hardly ever get a Google email alert from Drupal.org.

This is a big, robust, dynamic community. Keeping front page updates so slow I believe hinders the visibility of Drupal and what's happening, and reduces the relevance of the front-page info because it is so static. It's like tending a beautiful lawn and then not letting anybody walk on it. It's a river-of-news, not a trickle.

So I'm a big -1 on the one-a-day policy.

In addition to what Laura says, I think we're worrying too much about the lawn as well. There was a time where an interesting but maybe not well written case study done by just the average joe developer could be promoted, spelling errors and all. These days I hear about getting things polished for the front page and finding a slot for it in the timeline. It's all so managed and manicured. I think it gives the impression that Drupal is just for the big shops with big budgets.

I'd much prefer a river, maybe rough in spots, not every post perfect, but alive and flowing showing all Drupal has to offer.

Michelle

I'm adamantly opposed to publishing things to the front page with typos and spelling errors. That would not only look badly on our community, it would cause me to completely ignore the front page, as opposed to forgetting to check it, but always finding relevant information when I do.

You don't need to be a big shop to be featured on the front page. The Carribean Monster.com as an example. You do need to put time and energy into a case study to make it relevant to the community, rather than making it a pure PR piece or a "blahblah.com is a Drupal site. Please ask any questions." I don't think this is a bad thing.

I'm ambivalent about rules regarding the time thing. I just want consistency in their application.

Also, looks like this isn't "fixed" yet. :)

I left it fixed because I figured it was pointless to fight the Drupal PR machine. Was just putting in my opinion and backing up Laura. I don't really expect things will ever go back to what they used to be. Drupal has gotten too big. It's all about image now.

Michelle

I don't see the it as a choice between fast and sloppy vs. polished and slow. You can look at hundreds of very busy sites that have very active front page activity, without sacrificing quality. I do not believe we can manage only 2 or 3 front-page posts a week. It could be -- and I'd argue should be -- 2 or 3 or more posts a day. It just shows a more robust and active community.

Site showcases, interesting forum threads, major new module releases could be possible front-page items. We could even feature a kind of "squash this bug" feature that takes an existing pernicious or important issue needing addressing, and once it's solved another one is featured. It would admittedly make a very small dent in the issues queues, but it can be a way of highlighting active patchers and maybe getting others more engaged in the issues.

This site is extremely active, but you'd never know it looking at the front page. So that's my point. I am not arguing for sloppiness. I'll shut up for now.

To be clear, I'm not arguing for sloppy. If you are writing a post with the intention of putting it on the front page, by all means take the time to make it the best you can. All I'm saying is that there are things of interest on this site that are sloppy. Forum posts that have interesting discussions, showcase posts that give great details and show the process but lack the fancy graphics or maybe even are done by someone with English as a second language, even issues that are of interest to the general Drupal using public. These things show that Drupal is more than a polished and scheduled front page will give you. They aren't all showpiece posts but they are part of this community and interesting. And I think it's sad to see them turned away from the front page because they aren't "good enough".

Michelle

Michelle: How about a compromise? Post a polished, typo-free forum topic in News + Announcements with comments disabled that's a summary and a pointer over to the interesting thread?

@webchick - That sounds reasonable.

Michelle

+1 for Michelle and Laura S. This is not a front lawn. I have been posting about more news on the front page since, oh, about 4.5 or so. Maybe, like, you know, a way to submit pages for consideration for the front page, and a way to moderate them up?

I just promote a great case study to the front page. I used the buddy system.

The "schedule" isn't up to date, and won't be. Too much news? We don't seem to have that issue, just mainly a "stale" front page. For re-design, I'd love to see a high volume, quality news front page. Secondarily, a "featured items" list, so stuff like angie's award, the survey, szeged, and the latest release can be highlighted (actually, latest release / security / etc. could be its own area even).

Let's agree to use the buddy system. Much like the forums here are atrophying with good discussion mainly happening on groups, very few of the posts get enough review and get promoted.

Now, reading back over this thread, I agree with all 3 points in Kieran's initial post ... it just got muddied somewhere along the way into some sort of 24 hour schedule craziness. I updated the schedule to just be Kieran's guidelines: http://drupal.org/node/280488

@Boris Mann - By putting the 3 guidelines into http://drupal.org/node/280488 you ignored the fact that they had already been merged into the already existing front page guidelines in the site maintainers guide. Either the schedule page should be deleted (and the 24 hour guideline dropped) or it should be maintained as it is.

IMO, the solution as documented in the site maintainers guideline (with a suggested, but not required schedule) is a great compromise. If someone works really hard on a front page post and wants to get it into the schedule then they can be assured of 24 hours of top billing. If, as rarely happens, there is a post which the "front page should be active" crowd feels should go to the front page then it can surely be done...no sooner than 24 hours since the last scheduled post. Neither perspective is really being inconvenienced from their desired process all that much.

The difference between the positions expressed here is very small. Let's celebrate that situation.

I fully agree with the direction taken here. One interesting thing about what webchick said struck me. I understand that Drupal.org is a multicultural community, but since we're all using English here, I believe any person conducting the write up should run their work through a spell check (or install the relevant plugins for their browser) in order to be considered for the home page.

I am all up for one of us editors tweaking the write up and correcting some basic and obvious grammatical mistakes. However, anybody seriously wanting their work to be front page material need to ensure they have a solid write up. It's basic publishing standards, just as you would do before sending an article to your local newspaper.

I largely agree with Laura/Michelle/Boris. A flowing river is a great metaphor for the front page.
The front page should be very active, giving people a reason to pay extra attention to it.

However, there is a need to promote selected/important posts somewhat longer, which all in all suggests a re-consideration of how front page content is presented.

Below is a couple of suggestions that would give more space and less dilemmas in these ongoing considerations. I think they can make it easier to "channel" specific content into title-only lists, leaving both more space and more time for content that "should" be on the main area of the front page. Given good titles, not all promoted content need more space than its title, I think.

I guess I am touching on performance concerns here, and also on a _small_ "redesign", but anyway, some thoughts:
- Two columns for posts only on the first page (more posts on the actual front page), using short(er) teasers.
- Some sort of "block carousel" or multi-page block that can show several lists without page reloads. (example functionality: QuickTabs module). The block could step through showing different lists on each actual page reload, but let users check out the other lists without page reloads.

Examples for lists in such a block or "carousel":
- "selected" front page posts (most important posts that are promoted but pushed out of the actual front page by new content)
- selected forum posts
- selected handbook pages
- most popular contributed modules
- selected issues that needs urgent attention

Could perhaps even use the top area in the suggested second column for such a "carousel" too.

I also keep looking at the gap right above the sticky drupal release announcement and wonder if that announcement could not in fact fit in there with some smart/space saving "visibility effects". I am not sure if it needs all that space it consumes now. That would free up even more for other posts.

Some of this could also be provided by offering users to enable an extra block which could be turned off by default. That could in itself help with performance concerns, as users have different preferences and not all would use it simultaneously.

Has anybody thought about "Quality" as a measure of how FP worthy the post is? The recent Bryght article for example was not interesting at all and not more than a commercial plug.

Also we should ask people to use meaning full pictures (if there has to be a picture at all) instead of a company logo.

Gerhard: quality to whom? Obviously I am biased, but the Bryght post told a story about someone in the Drupal community, highlighted a bunch of code written and contributed to the community, and pointed to further ways to join forces and contribute.

The original version before I screamed was MUCH more commercial-y :P

So ... in summary, I think well written, polished posts, that meet an admittedly fuzzy bar of not too commercial-y (i.e. have to be pointing to / highlighting contributions), work for the front page...

I agree that a different image "above the fold" would have been more interesting.

I personally feel that Bryght's posting was perfectly inline. Why? It could be of interest to people interested in Drupal.

Is there a way to track popular Drupal planet, g.d.o content that could be automatically bubbled up?

I'd like to see g.d.o posts pulled in. I'd even like to see the occasional, especially pithy Planet post pulled in, which woudl require FeedAPI.

Maybe in the redesign Planet needs to be split into two parts:

1) A hot box, with the hot news, timely posts, interesting buzz, etc.

2) A community page, like Planet, which has what community members are posting about Drupal on their own sites.

subscribing (he says somewhat sheepishly).

From a slightly different perspective:
The d.o. redesign will certainly help here. If you look at how homepages work, you'll generally see a mechanism that allows for 1 big + 3 to 5 items to be shown above the fold. With the current 1 column-for-content approach we're just nog using the available space effectively. And with the sticky for the newest release always on top, even the first post below that only has the it's title visible on my 1280x854 screen, so I'm skeptical about how effective being on top of the frontpage is at all.

One could also consider writing even tighter copy and simply put in the teaser-break a bit earlier in the posts.

Thanks for everyone's posts on this topic. Since there is so much good news and activity in the community the main front page news stream should definitely reflect that and flow a little quicker.

The redesign should include a specific space for slightly longer term featured or promoted content.

It might be nice to have a nodequeue (http://drupal.org/project/nodequeue) setup for promoting content so that first it goes in a queue, people can review and then it gets approved and posted to the frontpage.

Actions/triggers could also potentially be setup to promote a post from the queue within the scheduling guidelines. So if the guidelines were that a post needs to have at least 4-6 hours then an action could monitor that and promote it at the right time.