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igdatc / igdatc.github.io

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Some way to add news/notes/updates #32

Open Mark-LaCroix opened 3 years ago

Mark-LaCroix commented 3 years ago

We really don't want the site to be a blog, but there should be some way to post timely information and a way to keep a record of it. For example, when we announce a GGJ site, add a new monthly event, change a policy, or (what got me thinking about this) our statement supporting Black Lives Matter, which is not on the site.

mgrider commented 3 years ago

Of course it is technically possible to do this. But I think what you are describing is a blog in all but name. If we start posting information like that, it's inevitable that eventually we'll not have posted any for a while, and that makes it look like we are not an active group. It's exactly why we removed the blog from this version of the site.

I don't even really like the idea of posting the last few events on the homepage, which we have discussed, because we have to remember to post them regularly, or if we miss a few months, someone is going to come to the site and say "what happened to them?" I don't honestly think it's realistic right now for us to update the site regularly. (Unless someone else steps up to do it, but historically, we don't have a good track record with this.)

There is also the issue of "statements from the board", which TBH is so new as a concept that it's never been considered for this version of the site. (Or the old site for that matter.) I suppose, since they will be much less regular, maybe we could add them as posts in the same way I added the Covid-19 one. It looks like a page, but is actually a post (and thus, could show its date, which I did for that one by just including it as a header in the content). The real question is where would they live. Mayyyybe the homepage, but of course only if we re-design it.

Mark-LaCroix commented 3 years ago

Yeah, you hit it, a blog in all but name. I guess if it's presented as a "announcements" page, rather than promoted on the home page, it could work without anyone feeling like it will be (or needs to be) updated regularly.

Maybe we can have a "new" post automatically appear as a link (or a blurb with "read more") on the homepage, but only for 30 days (or some other reasonable timely duration), after which it would be automatically removed. That way, if (when, rather) the "latest" announcement is objectively pretty old, it won't appear on the home page without anyone having to manually remove it. All announcements/releases would primarily live and be archived on a separate page.

(I realize every feature idea I have is something I imagine I could easily build in Drupal, because that is my go-to webdev tool. I don't know how feasible it would be to execute with the tool we're using, and I'm not interested in building, or asking anyone to build, anything too complex)

mgrider commented 3 years ago

Yeah, you hit it, a blog in all but name. I guess if it's presented as a "announcements" page, rather than promoted on the home page, it could work without anyone feeling like it will be (or needs to be) updated regularly.

I could get behind this, I guess. I see 3 main tasks:

a) Where do we link to it and what does that look like? (The nav bar is getting pretty crowded. I was really hoping to avoid a hierarchy in the nav, but we might have to abandon that hope.)

b) What does it look like? (someone needs to design a list and detail views) The code to loop through them is ridiculously easy with Jekyll.

c) Populating the content. We need a new category for these, and then right now, I think there are just 2? The covid announcement which is already present and would just need to be migrated, and the BLM announcement. If we are going to include board members on the site, I could imagine this as also a vehicle for that content. (Which would make it look less shitty when we inevitably forget to update that list.)

Maybe we can have a "new" post automatically appear as a link (or a blurb with "read more") on the homepage, but only for 30 days (or some other reasonable timely duration), after which it would be automatically removed. That way, if (when, rather) the "latest" announcement is objectively pretty old, it won't appear on the home page without anyone having to manually remove it. All announcements/releases would primarily live and be archived on a separate page.

(I realize every feature idea I have is something I imagine I could easily build in Drupal, because that is my go-to webdev tool. I don't know how feasible it would be to execute with the tool we're using, and I'm not interested in building, or asking anyone to build, anything too complex)

I will say that, while it is totally possible to make the links (or entire section) dynamic with javascript, I don't really think it'd be worth it. How many people are going to see there's new content on our homepage, and care?

As an aside, IMO, getting used to developing with a static site generator is a worthwhile skill. There are far too many sites serving pages dynamically that don't change but for when their content changes, IMO.