Build MyPaint.org Website

[odysseywestra]

Now that we have a basic tmp site up and running thanks to @achadwick, I just want to get a basic idea of what this site needs by compiling a list. After the is list locked down, I'll create separate issues for each check on the list and then work on each one at a time. This will help me keep on track and stay focus on what the site needs. It's how I approach things so bear with me. Here what I have so far.

• [x] Recover lost data from the Old Website. mypaint/website-old#3
• [x] Design the look of the Website. mypaint/website-theme#1
• [x] Create Wiki for Future Contributors. mypaint/website#4
• [x] Add/Link Brush pack to the Downloads Page. mypaint/website-old#6
• [x] Create Features Page. mypaint/website#8

If you guys have an ideas for site please let me know down below and I'll probably add it to the list if it's needed. Alright lets get to it.

[achadwick]

TBH, I'd like the FAQ to stay where it is so we can refer to it fairly reliably. I want users to be able to edit it too.

For the look: well, something a bit more modern than the old design would be nice! I'm not a huge follower of site trends, but "modern" seems to mean infinitely scrollable (not paginated), not column-based (normally one), and good for mobile right now.

Maybe use the (easily mocked, but serviceable) "page-sized dark image-background hero section with 2 or 3 white-outline CTA buttons" pattern. Yeah, I know, so generic. Perhaps just trim it down to a page-wide banner with especially awesome artwork (close-up photo of on-screen artwork being painted?) or a slideshow of similar in the index.html template, above the start of the blog posts? Anything to look a bit less corporate :grinning:

There are probably tons of readymades on http://jekyllthemes.org/ that can be adapted. One with strong support for multimedia posts would be best: particularly galleries, but consider that we might do tutorial videos too. It would need to be deployable without plugins, for hosting on github

Content: the default Jekyll theme's split between "pages" and "posts" is good.

Pages should be points of engagement that fire users off into development land, or towards the downloads or online communities relating to MyPaint, as well as basic info. We definitely need a who-we-are page listing out the devs, and probably a glossy what-this-program-is brochure page. IIRC, Krita have an especially good "how can I get involved (with development, site coding, artwork, resources, community building, you name it...)" page.

Posts of course should be development news, links to Things of Interest (e.g. tutorials, new brush packs) and release announcements, and I'll try to keep the blog updated.

The site could host brush packs if the artists are willing. I've gone with the convention of putting images into /assets/ - do we need to split this at all, or is it OK to just lump?

[odysseywestra]

Thanks for your input. With The FAQ, I'll probably just link them in the features page.

Plus with design I'll probably build from one of the themes from the Jekyll site. I'll expand more upon in another issue once we have a set list of what the site needs, but I'll definitely don't want it to feel corporate.

With images if we name them correctly, we could avoid using folders. That's something I could expand upon in the website's wiki for contributors.

One thing I would like to do in the future is to have it in multiple languages, but I'll worry about that later.

Anything else we need for the site?

[achadwick]

https://d3js.org/ has a lovely demo browser built into the top page, and some good clean design.

Do people expect a Fork Me on Github ribbon, or is that old-fashioned now?

[odysseywestra]

Okay I'll check that out when I get the chance. I'm not sure about the fork me ribbon. I could put the fork me link on the Get Involve page if we were to do that.

[nekohayo]

I would be happy to host you folks for free (and unlimited), if that can help. It would be my way of giving back. FWIW, I've been online for over a decade, my servers ain't going to disappear all of a sudden.

[achadwick]

@nekohayo Thanks for the offer, but for the website I think github pages will be enough.

On the other hand, mypaint/mypaint.github.io#2 may need some real hosting ☺

[[EDIT: oops, update issue reference!]]

[nekohayo]

I'm confused, didn't you just point to this very ticket we're on here?

[achadwick]

@nekohayo Sorry! Just noticed that too, and fixed.

[achadwick]

I've reinstated a second pile of old posts, and dropped the placeholder since http://mypaint.org is now fairly reasonable as far as bare-bones info goes. Oh, and added a favicon ☺

Please continue to dig around in Google caches and archive.is captures, and send PRs for missing pages. I have dumps of the posts' texts and will continue to reformat those into markdown-with-front-matter and put them in place.

[odysseywestra]

@achadwick awesome sauce!

Okay It looks like the needed features are listed. if no body has any suggestions by Monday, I'll lock this issue thread and create the issues for each list item.

@nekohayo Thank you for the offer, but like @achadwick had said, github pages will be enough for this website. With hosting community forums, I do have have someone interested in sponsoring the server, but if they change their mind Monday, I can open that offer to you if you wish.

[martinxyz]

For nostalgia I recovered the old Website (sorry could not resist): http://log2.ch/old/old-mypaint/

[achadwick]

For comparison/inspiration? The newly rebuilt http://www.gimp.org/ - good solid landing page with useful info along the top, and a download button front and center.

[odysseywestra]

Okay I did set a due date for MyPaint.org Relaunch Milestone to January 1, 2016. This is to help me and those that help to stay focused.

[AesaraB]

The scope of this issue is too broad.