From: James Britt <jamesUNDERBARb@...>
Date: 2005-01-21T07:42:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Best ways to accelerate Ruby's popularity

David A. Black wrote:
> HI --
> 
> On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, Ben Giddings wrote:
> 
>> zimba.tm@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>> An idea is to group the sites in an OSTG-like bar.
>>> ( cf. the top of the page on slashdot.org )
>>> This bar would be on every linked site of the bar, so that the
>>> connection between the sites would be more evident.
>>
>>
>> I think this is a good idea, if all the sites shared a common header 
>> of some kind, that would help a lot.  If nothing else, it gives you an 
>> idea how much you should trust some of the sites.
> 
> 
> I wouldn't want to think that a Ruby site I created would necessarily
> be considered untrustworthy because it didn't have a particular
> navigation bar.  Maybe those sites that want to join together can do
> so, but embrace an open-ended model when it comes to growth and
> initiative and trust :-)


The idea of some sites being "official" ,while others aren't, difficult.

I understand the value of branding, and how a common "look" can (often) 
reduce confusion.  But any look can be outright copied, so simply having 
a logo or banner means little.

Trust tends to come from a network effect.  If I determine one site to 
be trustworthy (say, ruby-lang.org), and it links to another site 
(rubyforge.org), I can infer that that other site is probably worthwhile.

That says far more to me than any logo or banner.

I don't see any shortcuts for people to figure out what sites are 
reliable sources and which aren't. A stamp of approval won't do it.

James

> 
> 
> David
>