[fpc-other] The FPC community website : opportunity to fix and improve

[Cephas Atheos]

G'day everyone!

I've raised this issue with the developers over the past few days, and I
didn't think to make it available here as well. I apologise for the
oversight. (If you *have* seen this message before, then that would be a
good example of what I'd like to improve!)

Please take a look at the message below, and if you have thoughts,
comments, or suggestions, please feel free to discuss them.

Please note, this is supposed to be a positive and helpful move and
suggestion, it's not just taking pot-shots at the site or the community
(that's you!). So please do understand I'm deliberately trying to be
fairly light-hearted as much as possible. However, the issues really are
serious, as I think you all know!

Thanks to the developers who have already given much of their time and
thoughts towards the suggestions. I hope you guys can provide some
much-needed "non-developer" suggestions and perspectives. I'm particularly
keen to hear from new users and novices about your experiences and how it
can be improved!

If you have any questions about what's already been discussed, I can
provide a very SHORT précis of what's been covered already; but I think it
will be different here.

I hope to see and hear from you in the next few days and weeks.

Warm regards from ɹǝpun uʍop,
Pete
(Peter Naus aka Cephas Atheos)

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Original message :
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G'day everyone,

As you may be aware, there are a number of significant problems with the
FPC community site.

For new users, it's a bit of a minefield, and isn't a really good
introduction to the wonderful FPC community.

I'd like to offer my support and assistance in cleaning up the pages,
fixing links and server errors, and generally helping to bring the site
(possibly kicking and screaming! :) up to scratch.

I'm positive the folks responsible for the site just have too much on
their hands, I know exactly how that can sneak up on you!

I'm a semi-retired hardware specialist and software (delphi) developer
(30+ years of Turbo Pascal and Delphi), just getting into FPC (and OS X)
after a decade of watching and hoping Embarcadero would focus on small
developers again. (yeah, that went well - US$3,550 for the latest IDE!!
Even TPB choked on that!)

I've also designed and built a number of websites (mainly primary schools,
small businesses, and my own business site), using ONLY stable, known–good
tools (no fancy flash, dreamweaver, or any of that crap) to make robust,
usable sites. A touch of PHP wouldn't go astray, either. (I'm sure that
future directions can be discussed once the main pages are back up and
running again. But that is a discussion we need to have one day… Just
sayin'…).

I definitely have the time, the passion, and I'm pretty sure I have the
skills to at least fix the current problems, and I guess I'd like to be
involved later in the future, although that will need everyone's input.

For now, I'd like to offer what I've got, gratis, as a way of saying
"thanks" to everyone who's helped me with my pascal issues. I've requested
access formally through the webpage, but I haven't heard anything yet, so
I'm hoping a general message to the list will help to focus the issue a
bit more clearly. I'd really like to start right away – the low hanging
fruit can be hit in a day or so of work, and then we can see and
prioritise the rest. But right now, I want to stop new users going away
frustrated!

Thanks for reading this far. I hope to see and hear most of you online
real soon. And I look forward to helping in some small way to bring FPC to
the people who will benefit most.

Cheers,
Pete from ɹǝpun uʍop

Peter Naus (CephasAtheos at gmail.com, PCPete at audiography.com.au)

P.S. My apologies for "shotgunning" or cross-posting this request, but I
really want to make sure I reach the right folks with this. Thanks for
your understanding.