Organizing our efforts, as well as the modules itself.

WOW!  It's amazing to me to see such passion about the organization of a Web
site.  I am new to Ruby, and as a result, new to this discussion group.  I
posted for the first time yesterday (and recieved an excellent resolution to
my problem).  I also noticed Outlook was sending in Outlook Rich Text Format
to the list, so I *hope* I have made the appropriate changes otherwise it's
a pain when reading via the web site.

I did go to the discussion list web site (which I find INCREDIBLY slow) and
read a the last few days of posts.  This organization of the modules seems
to be a hot topic and I do have a few observations, comments, and a few
opinions.

First, I would like to start off with a few questions since I'm jumping in
the middle here (Although, over time it will feel more like the beginning
:).

I hope my questions, comments, etc.. are valuable--that is my goal.  I am a
marketing person by profession, but I love to develop in perl and Java.  So,
you can see why I love Ruby -- I am finding that it has some of the best of
both worlds (with a lot of potential).  I hope nobody minds my pointed
questions and comments, especially since they are UNinvited.

My questions, comments, and opinions....

1) Who is /responsible/ for the actual DESIGN of the reorganization?  (not
necessarily the web development)
	a) Has anyone asked/been assigned this responsibility?
	b) Who is the final decision maker(s) (after evaluating the excellent
suggestions from the list)
	c) Who will do the development?

2) If noone already has, it seems it would be productive if someone (or
perhaps 2 people) volunteer to fill the lead role in finding available
domains for ruby.  It does not necessarily have to be regiestered in this
person's name, nor should they have to pay for it.  I'll pony up a few bucks
myself.  Once a domain czar is appointed, we all could send off-list emails
with suggestions to them.  After determining the best 5-10 that are
available to us, the domain czar would post a list and we can do quick vote.
Also, can we set a date for this to be complete?  I'd suggest 30 days from
now.

3) Has the target audience for the RAA web site (is this the right way to
refer to it?) been *clearly* defined?  It seems that until that is done, it
will be difficult, if not impossible to come to a consensus on the best
design.

4)  I am comparing to CPAN, because it is something for us to all relate to
and base our discission on it's strengths and weaknesses.  This is an
opinion, but I feel strongly about it.  The CPAN web site sucks.  I give it
an F.  The CPAN module rocks in terms of features, but sucks in terms of
usability.  In my humble opinion it is somewhat cryptic and could use a nice
GUI.  If there is a GUI, I have not seen it, but would consider retracting
my comments about it's usability.

5) In terms of the hiearchy of CPAN and its modules, I have no real opinion.
I see this as decisions to made by the hard core developers who use it
everyday.  But, I believe the GUI design and *A* web site design needs to
have input from newbie developers, NON-developers, and people who are
interested in marketing the use of the language and not just using it for
development.  Please note I said *A* web design above, because of course
there should also be a web design primarily for developers.

I also think these designs might need to be separate discussions threads --
even if some of the same people are involved in both.  Should we get some
folks to volunteer for each group and come back with a few proposals
(specifications)?  I think we should be able to complete this in less than a
week or two.

And of course search should be right on top of the web page, and a link to
an advanced search.

6) Modules *need* the ability to be indexed for multiple categories.  I
think this is apparent to all of us.  I think 3 is a fine place to start and
we can allow for more/less as time goes on.  Perhaps we can also have a
'keywords' attribute for each module.  This field can be indexed and
searched and we can determine if the results of keyword matches appear above
or below the resulting matches for module categories.  Perhaps it's a search
option in "Advanced Search" :).

7) Can we create a few different discussion lists?  I suggest a different
list for:
* the development of the Ruby language itself
* the RAA archives, marketing the language,etc..
* Ruby language questions/answers
-- This is a start to be more user friendly in my opinion.

Sorry for the long post.  Again I just want to be helpful in promoting Ruby
and locating documentation for it --which is a challenge for me already. :)


-Dwayne