Front page revamp - help required

[michaeld]

UPDATE: Google document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Evjwtg_4cdSaHqAsARHP3G8YDdfcmOFNw1qgWoCx_o4/edit .

Feel free to add your name to any specific items you are interested in helping with, or make a post about it.

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For a while, the PT have been meaning to give the AVEN front page a proper revamp. While there is much useful information, and Cicero in particular does a great job with the digest (which gets put on the front page each week), many parts are somewhat out of date and do not reflect modern ace discourse. To some extent we have been hampered by tech issues, but we are now at a place where we are ready to start redesigning the content.

We will need help in at least 3 areas.

1) Suggestions. What would you like to see on the front page that is not currently there?

2) Help with the writing and proofreading.

3) Design. We need both graphics designers and technical help with the web design.

For the time being we will be concentrating on 1-2 but we will need help on 3 before too long so feel free to put your name forward for that.

Re 1, my own initial list though there's plenty more that could be added:

• Information on other (related) identities. There is little information, for example, on grey-asexuality and associated labels even though they are an integral part of the ace community these days. I'd also like to include more information about gender identity and the strong correlation between being ace and being outside the binary (while also making it clear that sexual orientation and gender identity are not the same thing).
• A (reasonably) comprehensive link page to the online ace community.
• A guide to events and local contacts by area.
• Examples of much more recent media items. The ones on the front page are pretty old.
• Related, I think we should have a cut down version of the World Watch archive on the front page, with the permission of those writers/bloggers we'd be linking.
• Longer term, some educational resources for giving out on campuses and the work place.

Some of these things are already being done by other groups (e.g. various groups have a link page and I know Asexual Outreach has put together a pretty comprehensive event guide); my inclination is not to try and duplicate what other groups are doing, but to add something of our own and to link to outside pages where needed. We'd be very happy to work with other groups where appropriate.

This is a big task. It's way too big me for to do alone (and honestly I'm not even the right person for it) and too big for the AVEN Project Team to do alone. So we need your help. As a starter for 10,

• If you have suggestions re point 1, please post them here.
• If you want to get involved in especially the writing (point 2 above) or, longer term, design, please register your interest here or send me a PM.

Likely we will be working on skype much of the time, but if you don't use skype we can communicate through AVEN or email.

[bluetrench]

Regarding #1, what I find the front page lacking is a description of what sexual attraction is / what it feels like. I was having trouble identifying whether I'm ace because I didn't know if I'd ever felt sexual attraction before. After I read forums / blog posts from allosexuals about what it feels like, I immediately was able to say, "Huh. I definitely have never felt that before. I must be ace!"

[mayve]

I said I would help with 3, unless you don't want my help anymore.

[Rising Sun]

One thing I regret about the front page is that thrre is no direct link to the Wiki. The Wiki is an important resource, it even has the potential to be the best, but it's so well hidden that most people who have never heard of it don't even know its existence and almost no one uses its definitions as a result.

[deltaX]

I agree with having a link to the wiki somewhere on the front page that is easily accessible. Actually, all the suggestions that have been mentioned here sound like good ideas. :)

[mayve]

edited

[Splatacus]

I haven't got time to contribute properly, but I'm more than happy to proofread things for people :)

[michaeld]

Thanks all. Yes linking the wiki more prominently sounds like a great idea. Something else I heard mentioned would be a "how to get involved" resource. For example, how to join the various media teams, and what vis/ed projects are currently going that we need help in. Another thing that should be more prominently linked is the research rules, and a similar guide for media people would be in order.

Keep the suggestions coming in pls!

[littlepersonparadox]

Regarding #1, what I find the front page lacking is a description of what sexual attraction is / what it feels like. I was having trouble identifying whether I'm ace because I didn't know if I'd ever felt sexual attraction before. After I read forums / blog posts from allosexuals about what it feels like, I immediately was able to say, "Huh. I definitely have never felt that before. I must be ace!"

I've received a lot of emails saying the exact same thing. Confused because they don't know what sexual attraction is in the first place. Even if its not front page (although that would be ideal) we need to have this addressed somewhere.

For front page i could probably do coding and a bit with the layout. Links should be easilly obvious and availble. as well as a layout of what's going to be looking like before we start coding.

[michaeld]

Truth be told, I think one big reason it's not addressed is that there is no agreed definition of sexual attraction. We can give some possible ideas though, and remark it's not agreed upon.

[deltaX]

I think giving some possible definitions and a remark that there's no clear definition is better than nothing. I know that a lot of people are confused by what attraction is, so if it's possible to at least give people an idea it might be helpful.

[That asexual guy]

I agree that some world watch, visibility and education, and announcements need a place on the front. Not everyone is going to want to sign up to go into the forums and having regular fresh content on the front may keep some people coming back who don't want to be in the forums. The other thing is the site needs to remain fresh in some way.

[Guest]

Link to wiki would be fine - but honestly, I am STILL confused about what sexual attraction is, after discussing it IRL and online with a lot of different people. So, yeah. Nothing will stop the confusion completely.

[Soup Can]

I think that links to the FAQ pages should be one of the first things that you see (I swear that they were, the first time I came to this site, years ago). It would be good because that's the information people usually want to know when they first discover the site.

I think it would also be better if the links to different pages (like the forums, contacts, etc.) were underneath the AVEN banner rather than above it but that's a whole site thing.

There should also be a list of identities, even if it's just some of the umbrella ones, and a link to a more comprehensive list. I think that it would be good to mention romantic attraction as well gender and sexuality.

I like the idea of providing links to local contacts. I think a link to the meetup section of the forums would be good because, even if you don't actually want to meet people, it's good to know that there are actually people like you near you and not just on the other side of the world. It would also be better for those meetup groups if people knew that the groups existed straight away so that people could start attending events straight away, if they wanted to.

[michaeld]

Thanks!

I like the idea of providing links to local contacts. I think a link to the meetup section of the forums would be good because, even if you don't actually want to meet people, it's good to know that there are actually people like you near you and not just on the other side of the world. It would also be better for those meetup groups if people knew that the groups existed straight away so that people could start attending events straight away, if they wanted to.

I feel a prominent link to the alt lang fora might work better for that (or as well as). Even though we have meets from all over, our meetup section is pretty well dominated by the English speaking Western world, partly as this is the English speaking forum and partly because the asexual community genuinely is largest in these places..

[Robin L]

Are we sticking with Drupal or is Cole switching to WordPress?

I would like to see the urls be reverted to how it was before, since the current structure with /?q=page.html looks weird, is unnecessary, and breaks all previous links. If anything, we can use clean urls with just /page

[Guest]

I would like to see the urls be reverted to how it was before, since the current structure with /?q=page.html looks weird, is unnecessary, and breaks all previous links. If anything, we can use clean urls with just /page

This could be changed by editing the .htacess file. you can re-route pages to other. It does not take long to change.

[TooOldForThis]

I'd very much like to proofread. I sent a PM as well.

[Sennkestra]

I can definitely help out with #1 and #2, and I may be able to help a little bit with #3 depending on the exact needs (I can help with basic graphics stuff, but I'm not an actual designer)

Will post more when I'm not at work, but a few things that come to mind first:

1. Re: the wiki, links to it were actually deliberately hidden because so much of the wiki is out of date or blatantly incorrect, and that needs to be remedied before it's promoted anywhere. The wiki is always looking for more volunteers if anyone wants to help wit that! That said, I do think it would be good to build in a place for the wiki to eventually be linked, and just keep it hidden until the wiki is actually ready.

2. Expanding the asexual perspectives section, and perhaps giving it searchable category tags (ex: grey-ace, aromantic, heteroromantic, etc.). We haven't added any new stories in year, but I know there would be lots of people up for it if we re-opened submissions

3. Making a press kit page, with: short, soundbite-y quotes, downloadable high res version of AVEN's logo, downloadable high res images of ace individuals or events, etc.

4. Having a glossary page independent of the FAQs

5. Having a "how to get involved" page with suggestions for how to get involved in asexual activism or be an ally to asexual communities - for ex. starting an ace group, adding "asexual" to your group acronym, requesting Invisible Orientation in your library, etc.

6. making the alt language site links (aka those flags on the bottom that no one notices) more visible: they're pretty much impossible to find unless you look for them every since the redesign. (just moving them up to the top would do great)

7. Check all dead links and consider rehosting copies of some things on AVEN.

8. Personally, I actually prefer not giving a clear definition of sexual attraction, since there likely really isn't a clear universal definition, and trying to make one usually causes a lot of problems for various groups.

9. Updating the FAQs and perhaps adding some side FAQs with more specific subjects (ex: coming out to people)

10. A blog/news section for various announcements (we sort of have this now but I'd like to see it more clearly marked as such). Ideally, also someone would be in charge of posting regular announcements of various news items, not just the ones where everything blows up on tumblr/twitter

11. And related to 10 but less related to the front page: a mailing list! People often ask me about it and then are sad when there isn't one.It could just be something like an RSS feed of postd announcements or Cicero's weekly roundups.

12. Finally, DONATION PAGE. Ask for money. Use the money. Take over the world.

[michaeld]

Are we sticking with Drupal or is Cole switching to WordPress?

I would like to see the urls be reverted to how it was before, since the current structure with /?q=page.html looks weird, is unnecessary, and breaks all previous links. If anything, we can use clean urls with just /page

These are really questions for Coles, our tech admin. I've pinged her. :)

I'd very much like to proofread. I sent a PM as well.

Thank you!

I can definitely help out with #1 and #2, and I may be able to help a little bit with #3 depending on the exact needs (I can help with basic graphics stuff, but I'm not an actual designer)

Will post more when I'm not at work, but a few things that come to mind first:

1. Re: the wiki, links to it were actually deliberately hidden because so much of the wiki is out of date or blatantly incorrect, and that needs to be remedied before it's promoted anywhere. The wiki is always looking for more volunteers if anyone wants to help wit that! That said, I do think it would be good to build in a place for the wiki to eventually be linked, and just keep it hidden until the wiki is actually ready.

2. Expanding the asexual perspectives section, and perhaps giving it searchable category tags (ex: grey-ace, aromantic, heteroromantic, etc.). We haven't added any new stories in year, but I know there would be lots of people up for it if we re-opened submissions

3. Making a press kit page, with: short, soundbite-y quotes, downloadable high res version of AVEN's logo, downloadable high res images of ace individuals or events, etc.

4. Having a glossary page independent of the FAQs

5. Having a "how to get involved" page with suggestions for how to get involved in asexual activism or be an ally to asexual communities - for ex. starting an ace group, adding "asexual" to your group acronym, requesting Invisible Orientation in your library, etc.

6. making the alt language site links (aka those flags on the bottom that no one notices) more visible: they're pretty much impossible to find unless you look for them every since the redesign. (just moving them up to the top would do great)

7. Check all dead links and consider rehosting copies of some things on AVEN.

8. Personally, I actually prefer not giving a clear definition of sexual attraction, since there likely really isn't a clear universal definition, and trying to make one usually causes a lot of problems for various groups.

9. Updating the FAQs and perhaps adding some side FAQs with more specific subjects (ex: coming out to people)

10. A blog/news section for various announcements (we sort of have this now but I'd like to see it more clearly marked as such). Ideally, also someone would be in charge of posting regular announcements of various news items, not just the ones where everything blows up on tumblr/twitter

11. And related to 10 but less related to the front page: a mailing list! People often ask me about it and then are sad when there isn't one.It could just be something like an RSS feed of postd announcements or Cicero's weekly roundups.

12. Finally, DONATION PAGE. Ask for money. Use the money. Take over the world.

All good points! Agreed for the most part. With #8 I we can keep it vague while also giving different ideas. For example some people define sexual attraction as "an innate desire for partnered sex" and some disagree with that definition. Some (such as myself) prefer to define as "directed libido"; however there are some people who say they experience sexual attraction without any kind of libido. (Of course there are many more in the ace community who are the other way round: libido but no sexual attraction.)

And then some people do not agree with the lack of sexual attraction definition at all: I think there should be some coverage of the alternative views, even though the lack of sexual attraction definition will remain our "official" definition of asexuality, to the extent we have such a thing. I think that as long as we give several different ideas, and further links if necessary, we'll get across the point that there is much diversity of opinion on what sexual attraction is.

What would be a big mistake is to declare "sexual attraction is ___" as if it's an open and shut case. We won't be doing that.

Another thing we can do to keep the site fresh is have a "definition of the day (or week)". More generally, we need volunteers for keeping the front page up to date consistently, week by week. That's a task I'd be exceptionally bad at. Cicero is great at it, but it can't be down to one person to do everything. I think it would be reasonable for one person to keep it up to date in one particular way - e.g. the list of news articles in the last week, definition of the week, perhaps a revived post of the week, etc - just one of these per person. So if anyone thinks they could do this kind of thing, at least for a period, let us know!

[A Member Once Known As tqz]

Regarding #1, what I find the front page lacking is a description of what sexual attraction is / what it feels like. I was having trouble identifying whether I'm ace because I didn't know if I'd ever felt sexual attraction before. After I read forums / blog posts from allosexuals about what it feels like, I immediately was able to say, "Huh. I definitely have never felt that before. I must be ace!"

One thing I regret about the front page is that thrre is no direct link to the Wiki. The Wiki is an important resource, it even has the potential to be the best, but it's so well hidden that most people who have never heard of it don't even know its existence and almost no one uses its definitions as a result.

I agree with having a link to the wiki somewhere on the front page that is easily accessible. Actually, all the suggestions that have been mentioned here sound like good ideas. :)

There has been a broken link in the banner at the top of every.single.page for a while now: the “Learn More” button. Well, except on t[T]he actual Overview page itself which already has the working link to it within the “About Asexuality” menu.

[EDIT: Actually, the link does not work on any page. It might not go to an error page from certain pages, but even in those cases it also does not go to the “Overview” page. Front page and forum pages do lead to the 404 error page.]

I noticed the “Learn More” button not working and felt rather discouraged before I signed up in July this year. It got me wondering whether the site was still active if a dead link prominently displayed as an inviting button at the top of every page was overlooked. Someone else figured out how to report it about a month later, but as of today it still leads to an error page (and includes yet another error about the error page being unavailable, too). Here's the bug report:

http://www.asexuality.org/en/tracker/issue-102-error-404/

Seems like the perfect place to me for a link to the wiki.

1. Re: the wiki, links to it were actually deliberately hidden because so much of the wiki is out of date or blatantly incorrect, and that needs to be remedied before it's promoted anywhere. The wiki is always looking for more volunteers if anyone wants to help wit that! That said, I do think it would be good to build in a place for the wiki to eventually be linked, and just keep it hidden until the wiki is actually ready.

Dynamic websites are always under construction. I think hiding it prevents people who would want to help make changes not find it and not be inspired to help. Otherwise, I would think that it would've been taken care of and updated by now.

[Member54880]

There have been a lot of updates to the wiki recently, and I agree that it should be linked on the main page at some point.

If the issue with defining sexual attraction is too confusing, maybe there could be more focus on how someone may realize they're asexual, or how they describe it? Maybe we could, with posters' permission, use quotes they used describing their lack of sexual attraction.

I think there was some sort of "how to get involved" resource on the wiki, but it might be outdated.

If we include a page with visibility projects on it that were initiated on or by AVEN, including sections on the World Pride events, the World Watch Archives, and the results of the 2008 and 2014 AVEN surveys. The 2008 survey already has its own section on the main page, but the results of the 2014 survey are hosted off-AVEN. Other visibility projects off-AVEN could also be linked to.

I agree that more recent media items need to be included. We could add what are considered the largest and most high-profile appearances.

Because of the potential ethical issues surrounding the approval of Flibanserin/Addyi, it may be useful somewhere to include a section to reassure asexual women that they shouldn't be pressured into taking the drug. Among those most at risk of having that happen may be those who aren't aware of their asexuality. It'd be important to reach out to them.

[Sennkestra]

I think there was some sort of "how to get involved" resource on the wiki, but it might be outdated.

There's two sections on the wiki - one that has a short name that's out of date, and one that has a really long page name that's up to date. I think that part could pretty might be directly copied to the main page from the wiki, it just might need to be tweaked a bit.

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As far as ongoing content generation, I think that will really depend on cole and what interface ends up being used for the front page - iirc the current setup can make it difficult for volunteers to add new information, but if there were a more user friendly updating method then volunteers could be a possibility.

(At the moment, I can help with updating the static content but I unfortunately can't commit to regular posting)

Also, is there an estimated timeline for this project yet? Or is that another task you need help with?

[Maalie]

I'm busy at the moment trying to start a training business but I'm happy to proof-read things :)

[ithaca]

I agree with Sennkestra that we shouldn't put anything at all about what sexual attraction is. We're talking about feelings, it's a bit like if we decided to answer the question "what is love" (please get the song started, please).

[Sennkestra]

BABY DON"T HURT ME

[michaeld]

OK as an experiment I made a google document. I sent the permission to allow everyone to edit. I don't know if it will get spammed as I'm posting it in a public place, but if it does at least I can revert it, and we'll have to then lock it down. So let's just try this...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Evjwtg_4cdSaHqAsARHP3G8YDdfcmOFNw1qgWoCx_o4/edit

I've tried to summarise the ideas we have so far.

I've put down the names of people who've volunteered in some capacity. (It doesn't include people who have offered suggestions - if you'd like to be involved in the work please say so!) I've also not yet included people who have only expressed an interest in private, at least till I get their permission.

If I missed you, please add yourself back with my apologies!

At the moment we're still in the brainstorming phase. So feel free to suggest adding or removing items from the list.

If you are interested in helping with a particular item please put your name beside it or make a post here. I suggest at most 3 per person though it depends how much time you have! There can (and usually should) be more than one person on a particular item.

My general plan is to

a) work out who would like to work on what,

b) let people work on it in groups for the next week or two; either doing general research or maybe making a first draft,

c) have a meeting on skype (if you don't skype we'll find a way round it) maybe 19-20 september to see where we are and go from there.

How does that sound?

[Robin L]

I've added my name to the doc.

I think for the FAQ revamp, it would help to copy each FAQ page into a separate Google doc for easier editing, and copy it back afterwards. Not sure if this would lose formatting though.

[Wailly]

I can help out with coding as well.

[Sennkestra]

Oh, and another thing to start on early: make a site map of what things will have their own pages, map out what will be subpages of other pages, etc. Then you can start writing the content of each page.