Suggestions for PHPDN Main Website

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jason
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Suggestions for PHPDN Main Website

Post by jason »

Okay, maybe this should go into the Suggestions forum, but these are my forums, and I am allowed to break the rules. :twisted:

I am close to finishing up PHPComplete, and moving it over to the new setup. Once that is done, I want to work on the main PHPDN site, http://www.devnetwork.net, and make it more useful. This means finishing up the Unified Search (which is practically done) amongst other things.

What I want to know from you guys is what you would like to see out of the PHPDN main website.

Myself, I want to see a portal, the main portal to all things PHP. Not a complete website where you can get all your information from, but the starting point to pretty much all your searches. I have several ideas, but I want to hear your ideas.

What would you like to see?
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hob_goblin
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Post by hob_goblin »

Some css to spice up those links ;)
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phice
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Post by phice »

Possibly some tutorials from us? :)

Also, did you get my email? I sent it to all@devnetwork.net
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nielsene
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Post by nielsene »

I'ld prefer that the links to the member sites didn't open new browser windows; I think that would make it feel more portal like.

Maybe have a unified news area (but that's partially invading one of the member sites...)
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Takuma
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Post by Takuma »

Can't devnetwork be like PHPcomplete?

Forum, Tutorial etc.

Well this wil be point less won't it... :?
I like the design of the first page but I think it's too simple... Could spice it up with CSS more!
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enygma
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Post by enygma »

The DevNetwork pages are meant to be a portal to the sites in the PHPDN and to the rest of the PHP community - so adding tutorial, news, etc sections kind of defeats the puprose.

What it does need, however, is a place for links to non-PHPDN sites that are useful in the PHP community - possibly voted on as to their content and upkeep so that we can tell at a glance what the best, and most useful resources are.

Also, I agree that the pages need a little work, and there's quite a bit that could be done to make that work - maybe heist another layout from the OSWD site? (not that I've ever done that, fo course...heh)

And, obviously, we'd want to incorporate the PHPDN Unified search and the various XML feeds into the main page so that we could get all the latest at a glance (like the News page is now), as well as whatever additional features that we decide to add later on. I don't think a PHPNuke lookalike is the answer, but it would probably be close, just without the bloat and crap that comes with PHPNuke.
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nielsene
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Post by nielsene »

The more I think about this, the harder a problem it seems that you have. You want a useful portal to all the member sites, but without duplicating the role of any of the member sites.

Currently I never go to the "home" page except when I've forgotten the URL for one of the sites (was it .com or .net ...), I surf straight to the forums here or the phpComplete, etc.

So you're going to have the universal search feature, you already have these forums. What other reason do you see for people to hit the main site first? Why should we want to go there?

For me, I think I would visit the main site if it offered me the following:
customizeable "my" page where I could select which feeds/areas of the member sites/forums I wanted to track. Lets say I wanted the News, new Tutorials, and links to a few forums. Of course this doesn't address what the "home" page of the site should look like, but it does start to make a portal work. As before I would not want all those links to open new windows. I like the out-of-site windows opening in new, but all the sites
within the network should be considered within the same "site".
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Post by jason »

nielsene: Some very good thoughts there. Don't worry, I have my "vision" and just wanted to get everyone's input on what they would like to see.

Let me just say this: I want the site to be useful for me to use, and that would mean it would be useful for you as well. A solid PHP developer's homepage.
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nielsene
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Post by nielsene »

Are we going to get to read about your vision sometime, maybe we can help refine it once everyone gets off the topic of pulling all the member sites areas into the main site :) Of course you probably want to keep us unpolluted for a while longer for better brainstorming, but....

Hmm some other ideas, some of these are, I think, what enygma was saying:
links to mysql and apache reference material (maybe also PostGreSQL, JavaScript, CSS, XHTML, etc)
maybe a book review/comment section
maybe a web-host review/comment section
maybe an off-site website review comment section (phpBuilder.com, etc)
maybe a brag area (look at this cool new site I created)
maybe a jobs/volunteer/mentor posting board
as was discussed in some earlier threads, maybe a code-review area that accepts one project a week/month to pick apart and comment on
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EvilWalrus
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Post by EvilWalrus »

we should localize (have local copies) of the manuals.. PHP, MySQL, PGSQL, Apache, etc.

We should also attempt to possibly (?) mirror the latest releases of each of those programs also... just a thought.
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