OpenSuSE.org website is a mess

[mrmaceurope]

Hi OpenSUSE Fans (and webmasters),

First of all, sorry about the title, but it's true...

I'm a returning OpenSUSE fan and has just installed OpenSuSE 12.3 on a couple of friends production laptops and 'they' are very pleased with there completely new laptops, running OpenSuSE instead of Microsoft Windows 8...

...but the OpenSuSE website use to be based on a kind of Wiki so you kind of navigated and browsed through the site... now, the 'new' site structure and design looks much! more cool and up to date, but it is impossible to know where to look up information...

E.g. where to look up information on Virtualization, should I look under Wiki, Help, Documentation, HowTos or Blog? I ended up using Google to locate information on the site, instead for browsing the site (is that the idea, to use Google on the site?)

Anyway, my point is, I might be able to locate the information I need but I was thinking of how new users reacts if the are trying to locate informations on OpenSuSE... "Marketing, Appealing, Welcoming new users....."

My suggestion would be, at least, to put a very simple front page at the top level of openSUSE.org with easy links to hot topics and information, news, videos etc --- this would keep new users interested in staying on the site, and later choosing OpenSuse as their Disto. Later on, I would recommend that the site was structured much more simple, e.g. like Ubuntu.com, as you here are guided very well or to sites like Apple.com.

Well it's just my suggestions ... ... Any by the way, I will still promote OpenSUSE and SUSE but would love to see the site much more appealing for new users or people looking for information on SUSE.

comments?

/Stig

[DenverD]

On 06/04/2013 09:46 PM, mrmaceurope wrote:
> ..but the OpenSuSE website use to be based on a kind of Wiki so you
> kind of navigated and browsed through the site... now, the 'new' site
> structure and design looks much! more cool and up to date, but it is
> impossible to know where to look up information..

yep. your opinion pretty much exactly matches mine...and, here is
what happened, i think:

several years back 'the community' (or maybe it was Novell and
suse.de) decided to modernize/improve the web site...and (as you say)
the result is today it LOOKs better and is FAR less usable.

i too found the most effective way to nav the site is using
Google...i use their "site-specificier" switch (site:[whatever]),
like for example

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:en.opensuse.org+Virtualization

as far as i recall (maybe) Novell contracted open-slx.de to provide
the leadership and direction for what was (i guess) expected to be a
groundswell of crowd-source worker-bees who either never fully
materialized or quickly faded away . . .

ymmv

--
dd

[vazhavandan]

1.)
All the information is from what i have seen arranged around "portals"
List of all portals:-
https://en.opensuse.org/Categoryortals
and the multimedia portal(codecs and stuff)
Portal:Multimedia - openSUSE Community Wiki

2.)
You can search for sdb articles:-
you can search for sdb zypper or sdb yast to get in-depth info about them

3.)
Forum Articles ,blogs and FAQ

Articles and blogs are written by various mods and they have lot of how-to articles like setting cpu freq,installing spotify etc
https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/
https://forums.opensuse.org/content/

Forum FAQ section:-
https://forums.opensuse.org/english/...ow-faq-forums/

4.) openSUSE News(outage etc)
https://news.opensuse.org/

5.) openSUSE enthusiasts post varied stuff here
https://lizards.opensuse.org/
Planet openSUSE

6.) RSS to English part of the forums
https://forums.opensuse.org/external...94,836,689,690,

[nrickert]

i too found the most effective way to nav the site is using
Google...

Another google user here.

I have tried using search at the site, and sometimes that works. But google is usually the way to go.

[paulparker]

Agree some changes to site may improve access with user friendly capabilities.


Crunch is finding someone who knows how to improve things, not just change things :-O



Lists of changes sort by users, with vote-counting number of signed in users who support may help.


Ability to filter/sort users by their country useful, users ability to locate other users within same country, to follow IMHO may be persuasive towards those considering a change.


Looking today for Philippines openSUSE users or users group, for another living there and considering change from MS-W to openSUSE.


Expect MS-W oriented technical people to be rather discouraging...



Provided this group: University of the Philippines Linux Users' Group (UnPLUG)

Provided this group: https://www.facebook.com/PHLWUG

Provided their web link: PH-LWUG Official Website


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