Proposal for the redesign of www.debian.org/doc/

[Jeff <jeff@antistatic.com>]

Proposal for the redesign of www.debian.org/doc/
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The current main documentation page does not support the (expected) goal
of the user:

* Find the needed documentation, quickly. *

I feel there are several problems:

Section 1:  The first link on the page goes to the Debian Documentation
Project.  This is not what the users are looking for and does not deserve
top billing.

Section 2:  While some of the desired documentation is linked here,
there's a lot missing.  The paragraph based format is very hard to scan.
An off-site link to the Linux FAQ does not belong here.

Section 3:  The links to the Linux How-To's and Linux Documentation
Project are appropriate.  However, they are the largest and most prominent
links on the page.  This gives the impression that the Debian project
thinks their documentation is not going to be of much help compared to the
standard Linux docs.

Section 4:  While a link to support page makes sense here, an outside link
to debianhelp.org does not.

I would like to propose the following changes:

Section 1: Short anchor link list of the general headings with short
explanations.

Section 2: Link list of the current and active debian documentation broken
up into sections such as user manuals, administrator manuals etc.  Use a
list format with the document title linked in blue and a short
explanation.  The explanations should be from one to four sentences long.
This is the MOST IMPORTANT part of the page.

Section 3: Highlight the Debian Documentation Project.  Note that more
recent or obsolete documentation is available from this page.  Also,
advertise the fact that helping the DDP is one of the best ways for new
users to help Debian.

Section 4: Link list to the Linux how-tos and to the links documentation
project in a format fairly similar to what currently exists.

Section 5: Link to the debian support page.  Move the link to
debianhelp.org to the support page where it belongs.  Note that both the
debian mailing lists and debianhelp.org maintain archives, and that users
should check the archives before posting new messages.

Note:  I'm not sure about the order of the last three sections.
Suggestions anyone?

If people think this is a good idea, someone will need to work up a
proposed page for approval, and the DDP will need to be involved.

Let's discuss this!

-Jeff

jeff@antistatic.com