- Journal
- We have a new site! How to use it.
We have a new site! How to use it.
Submitted by cassidyjames on Fri, 06/17/2011 - 08:35Now that the dust has settled from our massive new remodel, I'd like to show you what you can do on this site! We've already introduced the web team and shown the developers around, so now it's time to learn about the rest of the site.
I'm going to go through section-by-section to give you a good idea of everything that can be done on this site. Consider this your official elementary website handbook!
Register!
First of all, if you're not registered and logged in, do it! You get a whole lot more out of the site. Just use the links on the top-right of any page. This lets you comment on entries like this, ask questions in the Answers system, message other users, contribute to the docs, and even more in the future.
Download
This is the current home page of the site! You can download elementary OS as a 32- or 64-bit direct download or torrent. Don't know what any of that means? Then just click the giant download button at the bottom; we've preselected the best option for most users.
You can also donate if you're feeling generous; all money goes into the project's fund to pay for things like the website and any future costs.
Discover
Maybe I'm biased (I helped out with this section a ton), but this has got to be one of the coolest parts of the whole site. It's an area with big (1:1, in case you're wondering) screenshots of various parts of elementary OS. It even has little hotspots on the apps so you can hover over them and get more details about that particular item.
Go through the different apps using the bar at the top of the page. You can even choose to install many of the apps right from the page (provided you're on a Debian-based system like Ubuntu)!
Journal
Well, you're here, aren't you? Check the Journal for official news, updates, interviews, and more, all from our team of writers and all in one place. Make sure you're registered for the site so you can add your own bit of thought with the comments!
Check out the sidebar for Journal entries with the most comments, entries we consider "featured," and interviews. You can also click a tag at the bottom of any entry to see other entries with that tag.
Support
The Answers system is one of the most useful parts of this new site; simply browse and vote on questions and answers! You can also just ask a question and let people vote on and answer it. Again, make sure you're registered and logged in to utilize the awesome features.
The User Guide is a nice area that has all sorts of neatly-organized information about installing, using, and customizing elementary. It's in a wiki-style format, so you can submit changes for review if you're logged in.
You can check out our Live Support to connect to the support channel on IRC. It's an always-on chatroom where people interested in elementary hang out and are often ready for your questions. If someone doesn't answer right away, keep in mind that many people join and "hang out" in the channel even when not actively engaged in conversation. In other words, be patient and someone will be around to answer your question.
Get Involved
The Get Involved section of the site tells you how you can help contribute back to elementary OS. It covers helping with code, bugs, translations, and anything else. Check it out for links to our Launchpad projects for easy contributing.
Developers
This was covered pretty in this previous Journal entry.
Private Messaging
See that little icon next to your username when you're logged in? Click it to be brought to the private messaging system! You can see all messages in your inbox, or click "Write New Message" on the top-right to write a new message. Just enter the username(s) of any elementaryos.org user(s), make a subject, write your message, and click send!
That nifty little icon will turn red and show you the number of unread messages that are in your inbox, too, so look out for that. You can also send a message to a user from their user page, which is accessed by clicking on their name (for example, in the comments on the Journal).
Hopefully now you'll be able to get the most out of our new site. Cheers!
First of all, I like that when I like something and only I like something, it actually says, "Only you like this." Auto-insults. Nice.
But more seriously, is there a way to get email notifications for comment responses, so I have some means of checking in with the conversation?
Great work! ;)
Okay, I'm a bit confused about the File Browser option in the User Profile page. As far as I understood it's not a cloud, nor an online storage device as you can only upload picture files. Can someone tell me as to its intended purpose, and how do you delete files that you've uploaded.
Thanks in advance,
Danny
The file browser is there so you can upload pictures for the various wikis, support section etc. Currently, I have disabled the option of deleting any files because I don't want someone to delete pictures that are live on the wiki accidentally - but I hope to implement a better system at some stage.
I just noticed the big changes, and the new site is AWESOME ! It looks gorgeous and has really useful information. I especially like the improvements done to the "Discover" section and I was really waiting for the "Developer" part. You've already done better than many distributions ;)
Just a few suggestions :
- The Answers section is great, but the big ad on the right make the entries a little bit too tight. Wouldn't it be better to put either several smaller square ads to the right or banner style ads on the top and bottom ?
- Vala code highlighting support in the "Developer" pages would be great
- Photos or avatars in the "Team" section ? That would add some personality :)
One more thing : Did you guys develop all the website from scratch ? Did you use a framework ? Some CMS ?
Glad you like the website. :)
A few others have commented that the answer entries are little small, I agree. I will hopefully be widening them at some stage.
Code highlighting is another thing which I hope to add over the coming weeks.
As far as using avatars or photos for the Team page, I'll see what I can do but I'm not sure all Team members want pictures of themselves on the site.
Regarding what we used, the site is using the Drupal CMS.
That and a craptonne of voodoo khampal magicsauce.
that's a great idea! I kind of want to do it now
Great work. Let's fill it with content :)
let's fill the wiki!
The site looks gorgeous!
Maybe it's in the works but now you have to make an Empathy theme with this great comments style.
Great work.
Thumbs up for Empathy theme!!
God, can't wait to see elementary, like, 2 years from now when it's completely moved to Pantheon.
Thanks! Ooh, and that's a great idea! I kind of want to do it now. xD
btw,i noticed a typo: line 2 "intorduced the web team".. =)
Fixed on behalf of Cassidy. :)
Aha! Thanks. the editor kills my browser's built-in spell checker. :-/
This is so awesome! Web-team: you're the best! =P
Thank ya sir!
...said the guy with "Press" badge XD
I'm on both! Check my user profile. But I suppose the higher up badges take precedence? Or maybe khampal just wants to show off that I'm a press team member, but not a super admin? xD
Is there an RSS feed for the Journal? If not, I may forget to read you all the time (well, that's just me, anyway)
We certainly do! :) http://elementaryos.org/journal/rss.xml
Aha! We should add that to the head so RSS-detecting browsers can pick it up automagically.
Like.
Fantastic website.........well done!