Topic: Is it ok to discuss...

[NoTo]

Is it ok to discuss... how unattractive SME is compared to others? 

I know that back in January Wellsi asked for discussion on the mailing lists about the future of SME, so I'd hope it's been discussed to hell and back. But because the site and admin interface are still very "20th century" I'd guess that either no conclusions were drawn or it wasn't discussed.

Because discussion lists have a habit of being the email version of Robot Wars, I tend to avoid them.

Or am I wrong? Should I raise the topic in the list?

I'm keen that SME become attractive to end users of the software, but it just strikes me that so little is being done to actually draw people in that it might be a political hot potato, and that's not a place I want to go 

I like SME8 and am thoroughly impressed by the skill of the developers and contrib makers, but worried that there's nobody thinking about the many other aspects.

Mods/admins, please feel free to slap me aside the ear and delete this thread if I just stepped on a landmine 

[janet]

NoTo

If you are referring to the server manager, it has been raised before.
There is a suggestion/desire to rewrite server manager, but as always there are too many tasks & new feature requests (NFR's) & not enough workers (coders with suitable skillsets).
See here for starters, and I 'm sure this has been mentioned quite a few times more recently in the devinfo & discussion lists & in bugzilla, so search some more too.
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,44806.msg216172.html#msg216172

It just takes money to pay someone like Charlie to do the work & sme would have a lovely new interface, assuming he would want to do it for a fee.
Many aspects of sme server have come into fruition over the years because of sponsorship by corporates, small businesses & individuals who wanted some specific feature developed & were willing to pay for it.
Otherwise we "mere mortals" just have to wait until a skilled developer or developers are willing to give their time to create a new interface etc.

Probably at present attention is on getting sme9 out the door, so maybe after that the skilled developers can look at other improvements etc.

Feel free to jump in & say what you want, but probably raising it on the discussion or devinfo mail lists are the best place depending on what you want to say. The devinfo list is really for more serious development issues & coding tips & help etc.

You will probably be advised to just get in & do it
ie if you have the interest, the skillset or the money, then just start the thing you want done going & see what happens. Help will be given to those who are willing to step forward & do something.

[stephdl]

No noto you are allowed to ask, to do, to start anything you want in relation to the project sme...

"If you miss a feature, make it" this is my way of life

the team is tiny, but skilled, however we lack a bit of people in bugzilla even for testing version released, or why not to make new features....

the shock of nethserver is behind us and now we have started to work hard to get a new version of sme server...but it is hard to retrieve all the delay.

we are volunteers, we are the community, but we are not legion

When John crisp asked to me to be in the koozali foundation (as others), i accepted because  i thought if we did nothing it was the end of the distro. SME8 was released since 8 month and the work for the new release had not started.

Perhaps the mailling list is the better place to discuss of this topic more than the forum, but the best is to start, the place, the topic, the idea, are details, the most important is to do it.....sorry French translation inside.

i'm really happy that you want that things move on, and i encourage you to stay close of bugzilla, to write some documentation, and all that can make better our distro.

[NoTo]

Regarding server manager, it doesn't need re-writing. The functionality and underlying code is already there and working just great. It just needs a new 'look', ie re-organising in a more logical way, a change of colours, typeface etc, and some nice iconography. That's all. It just needs someone with a good sense of design to make it more inviting. It then becomes a very powerful marketing tool. Perhaps employing the voluntary time of a design student to use it as a project, getting them to come up with anice 'look' and designing some icons and drafting a layout based on good "information design" (I think it's called). It would then take a competent web developer a few hours to integrate, given nothing underlying would change. Just strikes me as one of the more obvious and simple changes that would transform perceptions.

Similarly simple is the landing page for the whole site. At the moment it's like trying to sell pretty shoes without showing the shoes, but instead presenting the manual for the materials used, chemical makeup of the dyes, and technical description of the polymers used to make the soles 

I think we need to just take a look at the way ANY product web site present it's first impression to understand how that simple aspect could be easily improved.

I only say all this because I care 

[NoTo]

No noto you are allowed to ask, to do, to start anything you want in relation to the project sme...

"If you miss a functionality, make it" this is my way of life

the team is tiny, but skilled, however we lack a bit of people in bugzilla even for testing version released, or why not to make new features....

the shock of nethserver is behind us and now we have started to work hard to get a new version of sme server...but it is hard to retrieve all the delay.

we are volunteers, we are the community, but we are not legion

When John crisp asked to me to be in the koozali foundation (as others), i accepted because  i thought if we did nothing it was the end of the distro. SME8 was released since 8 month and the work for the new release had not started.

Perhaps the mailling list is the better place to discuss of this topic more than the forum, but the best is to start, the place, the topic, the idea, are details, the most important is to do it.....sorry French translation inside.

i'm really happy that you want that things move on, and i encourage you to stay close of bugzilla, to write some documentation, and all that can make better our distro.

You're right, but I'm not talking about ANY of the technical stuff. The technical stuff is already at a high standard. I'm just talking about the simple aesthetics, the "user experience" that requires no technical changes or additions, just a change of how we present it.

[stephdl]

look at http://www.koozali.org/, i miss of english writers for two articles

[NoTo]

look at http://www.koozali.org/, i miss of english writers for two articles

That is perfect, it needs to be the front page of contribs.org and smeserver.org too 

[stephdl]

nope it needs time and people to read my bad english, i'm french

it needs to finish two articles in project/about and project/foundation

[stephdl]

The look of smeserver i have it on my very long todolist.....but you have to know that : don't loose your time to wait after a guy who will do for you, learn how to do it and make it...

easy to say, but Informatic is not my day job, and in january 2013 i didn't know what was a patch and the diff command

[alefattorini]

Hi NoTo,
you say "It just needs a new 'look', ie re-organising in a more logical way, a change of colours, typeface etc, and some nice iconography."
have you ever tried NethServer? It's very similar to smeserver but with a WebUI very fresh and modern.
Give it a chance
http://nethserver.nethesis.it/index.php?id=development_features_nethserver-sme-server
If you have any question, i'm here.

[kmccarn]

You know, of course - that that's why every iteration of Winblows is so very different..... Personaly - I like being able to find things right where they were 5 years ago - even if the underlying systems have changed.

My .02 worth