Обсуждение: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

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Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Simon Riggs"
Дата:
There are currently 22 pending Events, of which 8 are between now and
Christmas.

Currently, the home page has space for 3 events. That clearly isn't
enough to accommodate the increasing number of events that are being
organised worldwide - especially around release time. I was going to
arrange some 8.2 release talks in the UK, but it seems like nobody will
ever see them until the day before they happen.

ISTM we should have space for 6-7 events at a time, plus a small
indicator that shows how many events are not displayed (simply use some
text to show how many others there are e.g. "37 more" rather than
"more").

Right now we have a big space underneath Support Us. The whole Support
Us section could be moved underneath Featured User and still be visible.
That space could then be used for Latest News, allowing the Upcoming
Events to be twice the height on page. Everything still on page, just
better use of space.

Those changes will translate directly into extra hits for the supporters
of PostgreSQL who make their living from training, or who wish to
promote us further.


--
  Simon Riggs
  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com



Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Joshua D. Drake"
Дата:
On Mon, 2006-11-27 at 12:06 +0000, Simon Riggs wrote:
> There are currently 22 pending Events, of which 8 are between now and
> Christmas.
>
> Currently, the home page has space for 3 events. That clearly isn't
> enough to accommodate the increasing number of events that are being
> organised worldwide - especially around release time. I was going to
> arrange some 8.2 release talks in the UK, but it seems like nobody will
> ever see them until the day before they happen.

Well they can click on *more* but it actually would make more sense to
make the Upcoming Events graphic a link to the /about/eventarchive and
the same for news respectively.


> ISTM we should have space for 6-7 events at a time, plus a small
> indicator that shows how many events are not displayed (simply use some
> text to show how many others there are e.g. "37 more" rather than
> "more").

I don't really see that as useful. It would mean people have to scroll
and if they have to scroll, they are not going to see it anyway.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake


--

      === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
             http://www.commandprompt.com/

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Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Simon Riggs"
Дата:
On Mon, 2006-11-27 at 07:54 -0800, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-27 at 12:06 +0000, Simon Riggs wrote:

> > ISTM we should have space for 6-7 events at a time, plus a small
> > indicator that shows how many events are not displayed (simply use some
> > text to show how many others there are e.g. "37 more" rather than
> > "more").
>
> I don't really see that as useful. It would mean people have to scroll
> and if they have to scroll, they are not going to see it anyway.

I'm surprised to hear you say that. This change would currently put
Command Prompt on the home page, whereas now it is obscured.

Current way of operating means that the Command Prompt event will not
appear until 5 days before the event, rather than the 3 weeks that it
would have been on-screen if 7 events ahead were displayed. That *has*
to translate into more attendees, which has to be a good thing for
*everybody* who cares about advocacy.

I'm planning to run an event before then which would mean the CP event
would not appear until 8th Dec, one days notice. I don't think that's
fair to you, Devrim nor to any of the other people trying to support the
PostgreSQL project with various events. There's nothing to stop somebody
running another event on say 6th and my event will disappear, giving
also only a day's notice before it shows.

[That is chance, I assure you. My event dates are 7th, 14th, 19th]

So what I'm after is:
 - longer lead time from date listing appears on home page until event.
My suggested change moves the lead time from 1-5 days to 2-3 weeks.
 - some indication that there are further events pending, to encourage
people to look for later events and plan their attendance

--
  Simon Riggs
  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com



Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Joshua D. Drake"
Дата:
On Mon, 2006-11-27 at 17:34 +0000, Simon Riggs wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-27 at 07:54 -0800, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> > On Mon, 2006-11-27 at 12:06 +0000, Simon Riggs wrote:
>
> > > ISTM we should have space for 6-7 events at a time, plus a small
> > > indicator that shows how many events are not displayed (simply use some
> > > text to show how many others there are e.g. "37 more" rather than
> > > "more").
> >
> > I don't really see that as useful. It would mean people have to scroll
> > and if they have to scroll, they are not going to see it anyway.
>
> I'm surprised to hear you say that. This change would currently put
> Command Prompt on the home page, whereas now it is obscured.

Heh point made home... As I re-read your paragraph I agree with parts of
it:

> plus a small
> > > indicator that shows how many events are not displayed (simply use some
> > > text to show how many others there are e.g. "37 more" rather than
> > > "more").

The above makes sense, I just don't see the point of the more events on
the page. As much as making it more obvious where to click to see a
whole page of events.

I would actually like to see "less" as a whole on the front page.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake


--

      === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
             http://www.commandprompt.com/

Donate to the PostgreSQL Project: http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate




Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Jim Nasby
Дата:
On Nov 27, 2006, at 11:40 AM, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>> plus a small
>>>> indicator that shows how many events are not displayed (simply
>>>> use some
>>>> text to show how many others there are e.g. "37 more" rather than
>>>> "more").
>
> The above makes sense, I just don't see the point of the more
> events on
> the page. As much as making it more obvious where to click to see a
> whole page of events.
>
> I would actually like to see "less" as a whole on the front page.

I'm somewhat loath do suggest this, but I think it would be a good
way to deal with this...

What about some kind of flash/javascript magic that will rotate
through multiple events on the front page? Not rotate per page view,
but rotate like every 5 seconds.

If the event listings on the front page were small in size, we could
probably fit 5 or so in the space currently used (sorry, I'm on a
plane right now so I'm going from memory on what the home page looks
like).
--
Jim Nasby                                            jim@nasby.net
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)



Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> >> plus a small
> >>>> indicator that shows how many events are not displayed
> (simply use
> >>>> some text to show how many others there are e.g. "37
> more" rather
> >>>> than "more").
> >
> > The above makes sense, I just don't see the point of the
> more events
> > on the page. As much as making it more obvious where to
> click to see a
> > whole page of events.
> >
> > I would actually like to see "less" as a whole on the front page.
>
> I'm somewhat loath do suggest this, but I think it would be a
> good way to deal with this...
>
> What about some kind of flash/javascript magic that will
> rotate through multiple events on the front page? Not rotate
> per page view, but rotate like every 5 seconds.

If we go flash, I will retire from the webteam effective immediately.
But feel free to whip up a proposal :-P

And I really don't see the need for javascript either, but I can agree
with a need to show a few more events. Specifically, I still like that
idea about splitting apart training events and other events. AFAIK the
holdup for that one is that someone has to get us a copy of the font
needed to make headers...

There's, IMHO, absolutely no need to fit the entire frontpage above the
fold as it is now. We only need to fit the most important parts for
new/casual visitors, which is latest version and latest news.

What's the argument for showing less on the frontpage?


//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
David Fetter
Дата:
On Tue, Nov 28, 2006 at 08:02:49AM +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > >>>> plus a small indicator that shows how many events are not
> > >>>> displayed (simply use some text to show how many others there
> > >>>> are e.g. "37 more" rather than "more").
> > >
> > > The above makes sense, I just don't see the point of the more
> > > events on the page. As much as making it more obvious where to
> > > click to see a whole page of events.
> > >
> > > I would actually like to see "less" as a whole on the front
> > > page.

Me, too!</aol>

> > I'm somewhat loath do suggest this, but I think it would be a good
> > way to deal with this...
> >
> > What about some kind of flash/javascript magic that will rotate
> > through multiple events on the front page? Not rotate per page
> > view, but rotate like every 5 seconds.
>
> If we go flash, I will retire from the webteam effective
> immediately.  But feel free to whip up a proposal :-P

I think flash and javascript are bad ways to approach this, where an
'events' link, possibly with a dynamic rollover showing a few of the
upcoming ones, would be better.

> And I really don't see the need for javascript either, but I can
> agree with a need to show a few more events.  Specifically, I still
> like that idea about splitting apart training events and other
> events.  AFAIK the holdup for that one is that someone has to get us
> a copy of the font needed to make headers...

What font is it, and who is "someone?"

> There's, IMHO, absolutely no need to fit the entire frontpage above
> the fold as it is now.  We only need to fit the most important parts
> for new/casual visitors, which is latest version and latest news.

Right :)

> What's the argument for showing less on the frontpage?

Just the one you made: if it's too "busy," people will be confused and
not enlightened.

Cheers,
D
--
David Fetter <david@fetter.org> http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 415 235 3778        AIM: dfetter666
                              Skype: davidfetter

Remember to vote!

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Simon Riggs"
Дата:
On Tue, 2006-11-28 at 08:02 +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:

> There's, IMHO, absolutely no need to fit the entire frontpage above
> the
> fold as it is now.

Not sure what you mean

> We only need to fit the most important parts for
> new/casual visitors, which is latest version and latest news.

*most important parts* surely includes latest events as well?

General comments:

I'm not sure if my analysis of what is happening with the events section
got lost in the noise? Events are appearing on the home page with
insufficient time to book them, sometimes as little as 1 day. That
wasn't the case when the current design was thought out; it is now. News
mostly stays news whenever you read it - that isn't true for the events.

New/casual visitors are exactly the audience that we want to attract to
events, especially the ones like Devrim's or my planned event that are
information sessions for PostgreSQL newbies. New/casuals cannot see
events further than a few days ahead and they have no visual clue to
indicate that there are any others. That seems pretty much guaranteed to
lower attendance at events, which is bad for PostgreSQL.

Do we have any figures to confirm/deny that? Clickthru rates on events
on main page vs events on secondary event page? ISTM there will be a
clear quantitative effect from not putting things on the home page.

My main point was not Home Page redesign, I think its very good. I'm
happy to make the Home Page less busy, but not at the expense of
important information. IMHO "less busy" is a qualitative judgement, not
a measurement. I'm discussing measurable effects on our advocacy
efforts.

--
  Simon Riggs
  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com



Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > And I really don't see the need for javascript either, but
> I can agree
> > with a need to show a few more events.  Specifically, I still like
> > that idea about splitting apart training events and other events.
> > AFAIK the holdup for that one is that someone has to get us
> a copy of
> > the font needed to make headers...
>
> What font is it, and who is "someone?"

The font is Frutiger Roman
(http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-www/2005-08/msg00048.php).

The "someone" is the problem, since it's a commercial font.


> > What's the argument for showing less on the frontpage?
>
> Just the one you made: if it's too "busy," people will be
> confused and not enlightened.

That's an argument for not having too many type of things ,not
necessarily for having too many things of the same type. (Eh, that
wasn't clear. Point: we coul dhave 10 news and 10 events, it's no more
confusing than 3. But it takes more time. Having 10 different things
would be more confusing)

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > There's, IMHO, absolutely no need to fit the entire frontpage above
> > the fold as it is now.
>
> Not sure what you mean

I guess it's originally a magazine term, referring to the part of the
frontpage that is above the fold when the magazine is folder. For
webpages, it's often used to refer to the parts that show on the screen
without scrolling.


> > We only need to fit the most important parts for new/casual
> visitors,
> > which is latest version and latest news.
>
> *most important parts* surely includes latest events as well?

No, I don't think so, really. Specifically,it's ok if just the header
shows above the fold, since people will then know to scroll.


> General comments:
>
> I'm not sure if my analysis of what is happening with the
> events section got lost in the noise? Events are appearing on
> the home page with insufficient time to book them, sometimes
> as little as 1 day. That wasn't the case when the current
> design was thought out; it is now. News mostly stays news
> whenever you read it - that isn't true for the events.

Nope, not lost for me. I fully understand the problem.


> New/casual visitors are exactly the audience that we want to
> attract to events, especially the ones like Devrim's or my
> planned event that are information sessions for PostgreSQL
> newbies. New/casuals cannot see events further than a few
> days ahead and they have no visual clue to indicate that
> there are any others. That seems pretty much guaranteed to
> lower attendance at events, which is bad for PostgreSQL.

Right. That's the argument for splitting apart "events" and "training".
Which is done in the db, just not visually on the page.


> Do we have any figures to confirm/deny that? Clickthru rates
> on events on main page vs events on secondary event page?

No, we don't count web stats for performance reasons. It kept killing
our servers..


> My main point was not Home Page redesign, I think its very
> good. I'm happy to make the Home Page less busy, but not at
> the expense of important information. IMHO "less busy" is a
> qualitative judgement, not a measurement. I'm discussing
> measurable effects on our advocacy efforts.

Wlel, looking at the page now, it could probably be rearranged for more
efficient usage. And there is at least one thing I'd like to see
promoted to the frontpage - the planetpg RSS feed which gets a lot of
good articles and the PWN.

One does not rule out the other though :-)

/Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Simon Riggs"
Дата:
On Tue, 2006-11-28 at 19:51 +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > > There's, IMHO, absolutely no need to fit the entire frontpage above
> > > the fold as it is now.
> >
> > Not sure what you mean
>
> I guess it's originally a magazine term, referring to the part of the
> frontpage that is above the fold when the magazine is folder. For
> webpages, it's often used to refer to the parts that show on the screen
> without scrolling.

I like that idea. If people can see the text scroll off the page, they
have a clue to go look for more.

> Wlel, looking at the page now, it could probably be rearranged for more
> efficient usage. And there is at least one thing I'd like to see
> promoted to the frontpage - the planetpg RSS feed which gets a lot of
> good articles and the PWN.
>
> One does not rule out the other though :-)

How about:
- Move Shortcuts to the left of Support Us
- Move Featured User to where News/Events are
- Have News, Events and Blogs as 3 columns going down past the fold

But basically any rearrangement where the variable-length info is at the
bottom of the page, showing just enough to allow it to tempt the viewer
to scroll down further.

--
  Simon Riggs
  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com



Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
David Fetter
Дата:
On Tue, Nov 28, 2006 at 07:47:03PM +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > > AFAIK the holdup for that one is that someone has to get us a
> > > copy of the font needed to make headers...
> >
> > What font is it, and who is "someone?"
>
> The font is Frutiger Roman
> (http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-www/2005-08/msg00048.php).
>
> The "someone" is the problem, since it's a commercial font.

Is there an unencumbered font out there that we could use instead?

> > > What's the argument for showing less on the frontpage?
> >
> > Just the one you made: if it's too "busy," people will be confused
> > and not enlightened.
>
> That's an argument for not having too many type of things ,not
> necessarily for having too many things of the same type.  (Eh, that
> wasn't clear.  Point: we could have 10 news and 10 events, it's no
> more confusing than 3.  But it takes more time.  Having 10 different
> things would be more confusing)

I'm thinking we could take a close look at some competitors' web sites
and see what's on their front page.  We ought to be able to find some
kind of "busy-ness" metric and stick to it :)

Cheers,
D
--
David Fetter <david@fetter.org> http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 415 235 3778        AIM: dfetter666
                              Skype: davidfetter

Remember to vote!

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > > > AFAIK the holdup for that one is that someone has to
> get us a copy
> > > > of the font needed to make headers...
> > >
> > > What font is it, and who is "someone?"
> >
> > The font is Frutiger Roman
> > (http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-www/2005-08/msg00048.php).
> >
> > The "someone" is the problem, since it's a commercial font.
>
> Is there an unencumbered font out there that we could use instead?

None that we know of, and nobody around knows enough about fonts and
such to claim there is one.

If we find one that *looks good* we can easily re-render all the headers
we have now, so that' snot a problem. But someone has to tell us what
font to use that actually looks good ;-) There's a reason this one was
picked in the beginning.

That or somone (hello commercial guys) could buy us a copy ;-)


//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Joshua D. Drake"
Дата:
On Tue, 2006-11-28 at 20:34 +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > > > > AFAIK the holdup for that one is that someone has to
> > get us a copy
> > > > > of the font needed to make headers...
> > > >
> > > > What font is it, and who is "someone?"
> > >
> > > The font is Frutiger Roman
> > > (http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-www/2005-08/msg00048.php).
> > >
> > > The "someone" is the problem, since it's a commercial font.
> >
> > Is there an unencumbered font out there that we could use instead?
>
> None that we know of, and nobody around knows enough about fonts and
> such to claim there is one.
>
> If we find one that *looks good* we can easily re-render all the headers
> we have now, so that' snot a problem. But someone has to tell us what
> font to use that actually looks good ;-) There's a reason this one was
> picked in the beginning.
>
> That or somone (hello commercial guys) could buy us a copy ;-)

Any font in a default install of OO?

J


>
>
> //Magnus
>
--

      === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
             http://www.commandprompt.com/

Donate to the PostgreSQL Project: http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate




Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> If we find one that *looks good* we can easily re-render all the headers
> we have now, so that' snot a problem. But someone has to tell us what
> font to use that actually looks good ;-) There's a reason this one was
> picked in the beginning.

My wife's got an enormous collection of (legally purchased) fonts from
her old desktop-typesetting business.  I think Frutiger Roman is one
... if not she's surely got a close approximation.  What exactly is
involved in re-rendering --- is it something that can be done in Adobe
Photoshop?

            regards, tom lane

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > If we find one that *looks good* we can easily re-render all the
> > headers we have now, so that' snot a problem. But someone
> has to tell
> > us what font to use that actually looks good ;-) There's a
> reason this
> > one was picked in the beginning.
>
> My wife's got an enormous collection of (legally purchased)
> fonts from her old desktop-typesetting business.  I think
> Frutiger Roman is one ... if not she's surely got a close
> approximation.  What exactly is involved in re-rendering ---
> is it something that can be done in Adobe Photoshop?

What's involved is taking a couple of pre-made words/phrases ("LATEST
NEWS", "UPCOMING EVENTS", "SUPPORT US", "SHORCUTS" etc etc) and turn
those into PNGs. In specific colors.

What would be even better is if it's in a font format that can be used
with some commandline tool to generate the files, that way it'll be even
easier if/when we want to change it.

So if you can check if she has Frutiger Roman and can use it, that would
be a big help. What font format would it be in? TTF?

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> What's involved is taking a couple of pre-made words/phrases ("LATEST
> NEWS", "UPCOMING EVENTS", "SUPPORT US", "SHORCUTS" etc etc) and turn
> those into PNGs. In specific colors.

OK, I can manage that, assuming the colors are specified in a way that
Photoshop understands.  Where are the existing files --- I'd like to see
if I can duplicate a couple?

> What would be even better is if it's in a font format that can be used
> with some commandline tool to generate the files, that way it'll be even
> easier if/when we want to change it.

Hmm ... might be possible to render with Ghostscript, but getting it set
up would probably take way more time than would ever be bought back :-(

> So if you can check if she has Frutiger Roman and can use it, that would
> be a big help. What font format would it be in? TTF?

It'd likely be a Postscript font; that's what most of her stuff is.

            regards, tom lane

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > What's involved is taking a couple of pre-made
> words/phrases ("LATEST
> > NEWS", "UPCOMING EVENTS", "SUPPORT US", "SHORCUTS" etc etc)
> and turn
> > those into PNGs. In specific colors.
>
> OK, I can manage that, assuming the colors are specified in a
> way that Photoshop understands.  Where are the existing files
> --- I'd like to see if I can duplicate a couple?

Well, they're on the postgresql.org frontpage :_)
http://www.postgresql.org/layout/images/en/hdr_latestnews.png
http://www.postgresql.org/layout/images/en/hdr_upcomingevents.png
http://www.postgresql.org/layout/images/en/hdr_featureduser.png
http://www.postgresql.org/layout/images/en/hdr_supportus.png

etc


> > What would be even better is if it's in a font format that
> can be used
> > with some commandline tool to generate the files, that way it'll be
> > even easier if/when we want to change it.
>
> Hmm ... might be possible to render with Ghostscript, but
> getting it set up would probably take way more time than
> would ever be bought back :-(

Actually, I think you can do that with a simple GD program I've seen
somewhere - gd does libfreetype, which does type1 fonts.


> > So if you can check if she has Frutiger Roman and can use it, that
> > would be a big help. What font format would it be in? TTF?
>
> It'd likely be a Postscript font; that's what most of her stuff is.

Ok. Shuold work for both GD and Photoshop then.

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> Well, they're on the postgresql.org frontpage :_)
> http://www.postgresql.org/layout/images/en/hdr_latestnews.png

Frutiger Roman, eh?  Adobe thinks differently ... the closest match
I can find seems to be Frutiger 75 Black at 11 point size.  How does
this look to you?

            regards, tom lane


Вложения

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > Well, they're on the postgresql.org frontpage :_)
> > http://www.postgresql.org/layout/images/en/hdr_latestnews.png
>
> Frutiger Roman, eh?  Adobe thinks differently ... the closest
> match I can find seems to be Frutiger 75 Black at 11 point
> size.  How does this look to you?

Well, that's what Emily said :-)

The text si definitly close enough (it doesn't have to be the same as
long as we change them all in one go, but it does have to look good in
the general site), but i have to say I don't like the > sign in the
beginning at all. Not only does it not look like before (really not that
important), but it doesn't look good. It's not centered, for example.

Did you make it as a single string, or did you by any chance pick a
different font or baseline for it?

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> ... i have to say I don't like the > sign in the
> beginning at all.

Yeah, I was wondering about that.  That's what Adobe has as the > mark,
but it doesn't look much like the original.  I wonder if she used >
from a different font?

            regards, tom lane

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Jim Nasby
Дата:
On Nov 27, 2006, at 11:02 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> If we go flash, I will retire from the webteam effective immediately.
> But feel free to whip up a proposal :-P
>
> And I really don't see the need for javascript either, but I can agree
> with a need to show a few more events. Specifically, I still like that
> idea about splitting apart training events and other events. AFAIK the
> holdup for that one is that someone has to get us a copy of the font
> needed to make headers...

I have no clue what technology would be used... I was just looking
for some kind of way to animate the events listing, so we can have
stuff scrolling/flipping/moving/etc.

BTW, have we ever had a professional graphics artist look at the
site? That might provide some valuable ideas...
--
Jim Nasby                                            jim@nasby.net
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)



Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
I wrote:
> I wonder if she used > from a different font?

After looking more closely, I realize that the > in the original image
is not anti-aliased, whereas the rest of the text is.  So she definitely
did *something* different there, and it could easy be that the font is
different too.

I poked around a little and found a reasonably decent looking > in
Futura Extra Bold Condensed.  How's this look?

            regards, tom lane


Вложения

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > If we go flash, I will retire from the webteam effective
> immediately.
> > But feel free to whip up a proposal :-P
> >
> > And I really don't see the need for javascript either, but
> I can agree
> > with a need to show a few more events. Specifically, I
> still like that
> > idea about splitting apart training events and other
> events. AFAIK the
> > holdup for that one is that someone has to get us a copy of
> the font
> > needed to make headers...
>
> I have no clue what technology would be used... I was just
> looking for some kind of way to animate the events listing,
> so we can have stuff scrolling/flipping/moving/etc.

I don't particularly like any scrolling/flipping/moving, really :-P But
lik I said, if you show us something that looks good :P



> BTW, have we ever had a professional graphics artist look at
> the site? That might provide some valuable ideas...

That would be Emily who did the design.

/Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > I wonder if she used > from a different font?
>
> After looking more closely, I realize that the > in the
> original image is not anti-aliased, whereas the rest of the
> text is.  So she definitely did *something* different there,
> and it could easy be that the font is different too.
>
> I poked around a little and found a reasonably decent looking
> > in Futura Extra Bold Condensed.  How's this look?

Much better, but the arrow thingie still looks a bit weird.
(Now is when you realise that having an automated way of generating them
would certainly help :-P)

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> Much better, but the arrow thingie still looks a bit weird.
> (Now is when you realise that having an automated way of generating them
> would certainly help :-P)

Automation is not the problem (yet) --- we're still stuck trying to
reverse-engineer what the "source code" was ...

            regards, tom lane

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > Much better, but the arrow thingie still looks a bit weird.
> > (Now is when you realise that having an automated way of generating
> > them would certainly help :-P)
>
> Automation is not the problem (yet) --- we're still stuck
> trying to reverse-engineer what the "source code" was ...

Certainly. But once we get there. We're making progress, after all...
(Which is more than we've done in a long time)

//Magnus


Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
Well, I finally decided that the arrows are probably not > characters
at all, but just drawn graphics --- that would explain the lack of
aliasing, for instance.  Easiest answer is copy and paste ;-)  So here
are some efforts at replicating what we have.  Comments?

            regards, tom lane


Вложения

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tino Wildenhain
Дата:
Magnus Hagander schrieb:
>>> I wonder if she used > from a different font?
>> After looking more closely, I realize that the > in the
>> original image is not anti-aliased, whereas the rest of the
>> text is.  So she definitely did *something* different there,
>> and it could easy be that the font is different too.
>>
>> I poked around a little and found a reasonably decent looking
>>> in Futura Extra Bold Condensed.  How's this look?
>
> Much better, but the arrow thingie still looks a bit weird.
> (Now is when you realise that having an automated way of generating them
> would certainly help :-P)

Or even better just resort to CSS here ;)

Tino.

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> >>> I wonder if she used > from a different font?
> >> After looking more closely, I realize that the > in the original
> >> image is not anti-aliased, whereas the rest of the text
> is.  So she
> >> definitely did *something* different there, and it could
> easy be that
> >> the font is different too.
> >>
> >> I poked around a little and found a reasonably decent looking
> >>> in Futura Extra Bold Condensed.  How's this look?
> >
> > Much better, but the arrow thingie still looks a bit weird.
> > (Now is when you realise that having an automated way of generating
> > them would certainly help :-P)
>
> Or even better just resort to CSS here ;)

How would you do that when it's a proprietary font? It's not likely to
be present on many client machines...

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Joshua D. Drake"
Дата:
> > Much better, but the arrow thingie still looks a bit weird.
> > (Now is when you realise that having an automated way of generating them
> > would certainly help :-P)
>
> Or even better just resort to CSS here ;)

Not to mention that CSS will generate differently in *every* browser. I
graphic is the only way to have a consistent look.

Joshua D. Drake

>
> Tino.
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives?
>
>                http://archives.postgresql.org
>
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      === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
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Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
IMHO, these look good enough for me.

Now, if we could automate this, that would be brilliant. I did some
testing with gd and it looks like it's not very hard once you have the
font, but I'm not sure how much it looks like whatever comes out of
photoshop.

BTW, the font you ended up using eventually is still a proprietary font,
right? And if so which one - we should buy ourselves a "project copy"
assuming your wife still needs her, so we're not stranded again. I'm
sure one of the commercial entities can help out with that ;-)


Either way, can I bug you to create the following images, so we can get
moving on some of the changes. I would like them all in blue, that's
going to work better with the frontpage layout - forget the gray ones.

Also, Dave really wants to see what it looks like with all the headers
in orange (the same one we use for the text header, which is
rgb(236,88,0) or #EC5800.

I'd like the following texts:
FEATURED USER
LATEST NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
UPCOMING TRAINING
TRAINING EVENTS
LATEST RELEASES
SHORTCUTS
SUPPORT US
BLOG POSTS
BLOGS
PLANET POSTGRESQL

(there are a couple not used now, because I don't know what they'd look
like. Thus a couple of versions of the blog stuff)

Thanks for the help! Not exactly the one I would have expected to dig
into web image stuff ;-) (no offense intended, of course)

//Magnus


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
> Sent: den 29 november 2006 20:10
> To: Magnus Hagander
> Cc: pgsql-www@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [pgsql-www] Give more space on Home page for
> Upcoming Events
>
> Well, I finally decided that the arrows are probably not >
> characters at all, but just drawn graphics --- that would
> explain the lack of aliasing, for instance.  Easiest answer
> is copy and paste ;-)  So here are some efforts at
> replicating what we have.  Comments?
>
>             regards, tom lane
>
>

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Andrew Sullivan
Дата:
On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 10:45:55AM +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:

> right? And if so which one - we should buy ourselves a "project copy"
> assuming your wife still needs her, so we're not stranded again. I'm
> sure one of the commercial entities can help out with that ;-)

That sort of thing is, I think, what the SPI fund is for.  Why not
ask for the purchase?

A

--
Andrew Sullivan  | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
This work was visionary and imaginative, and goes to show that visionary
and imaginative work need not end up well.
        --Dennis Ritchie

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > right? And if so which one - we should buy ourselves a
> "project copy"
> > assuming your wife still needs her, so we're not stranded
> again. I'm
> > sure one of the commercial entities can help out with that ;-)
>
> That sort of thing is, I think, what the SPI fund is for.
> Why not ask for the purchase?

Taht could work as well. Last time I was thinking about it the SPI stuff
really wasn't ready to be used yet..

Let's wait and see exactly what font Tom comes up with us using and take
it from there.

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Dave Page
Дата:
Andrew Sullivan wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 10:45:55AM +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>
>> right? And if so which one - we should buy ourselves a "project copy"
>> assuming your wife still needs her, so we're not stranded again. I'm
>> sure one of the commercial entities can help out with that ;-)
>
> That sort of thing is, I think, what the SPI fund is for.  Why not
> ask for the purchase?

Mainly because I've been remiss and forgotten to do so. Once we're sure
of what it actually is (as it apparently is not what we thought it was),
I'll ask JD.

Regards, Dave.

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Tom Lane
Дата:
"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> BTW, the font you ended up using eventually is still a proprietary font,
> right?

Yeah, it's still a Frutiger variant.  I'm not at that machine right now
but I'd bet that it's an Adobe font.

> And if so which one - we should buy ourselves a "project copy"
> assuming your wife still needs her, so we're not stranded again.

Maybe, but I don't see any immediate need for it; I'm happy to do the
work for now.  I'll try to document the process a bit too.

> I'd like the following texts:

Will work on this later today...

            regards, tom lane

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Joshua D. Drake"
Дата:
On Thu, 2006-11-30 at 09:51 -0500, Andrew Sullivan wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 10:45:55AM +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>
> > right? And if so which one - we should buy ourselves a "project copy"
> > assuming your wife still needs her, so we're not stranded again. I'm
> > sure one of the commercial entities can help out with that ;-)
>
> That sort of thing is, I think, what the SPI fund is for.  Why not
> ask for the purchase?

True :) but I can tell you the first thing I am going to ask is:

Is there not a free font that can be used instead? There are a huge
amount of free, quality fonts out there.

Joshua D. Drake

>
> A
>
--

      === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
             http://www.commandprompt.com/

Donate to the PostgreSQL Project: http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate




Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Magnus Hagander"
Дата:
> > > right? And if so which one - we should buy ourselves a
> "project copy"
> > > assuming your wife still needs her, so we're not stranded
> again. I'm
> > > sure one of the commercial entities can help out with that ;-)
> >
> > That sort of thing is, I think, what the SPI fund is for.
> Why not ask
> > for the purchase?
>
> True :) but I can tell you the first thing I am going to ask is:
>
> Is there not a free font that can be used instead? There are
> a huge amount of free, quality fonts out there.

And I will tell you waht I told you before - do you know someone who can
point us to one that fits with our site? Our web team don't have any
graphical designers capable of doing that.

//Magnus

Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
"Joshua D. Drake"
Дата:
> And I will tell you waht I told you before - do you know someone who can
> point us to one that fits with our site? Our web team don't have any
> graphical designers capable of doing that.

And I responded, any font that ships with OpenOffice?

Joshua D. Drake


>
> //Magnus
>
--

      === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
             http://www.commandprompt.com/

Donate to the PostgreSQL Project: http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate




Re: Give more space on Home page for Upcoming Events

От
Andrew Sullivan
Дата:
On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 09:16:58AM -0800, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> Is there not a free font that can be used instead? There are a huge
> amount of free, quality fonts out there.

Uh, I thought we'd just had a long discussion on -advocacy which
concluded that infrastructure and supplies were the purview of the
fund, and that the PGFG wasn't supposed to second-guess the community
on this?

A

--
Andrew Sullivan  | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
In the future this spectacle of the middle classes shocking the avant-
garde will probably become the textbook definition of Postmodernism.
                --Brad Holland