A Rocha's new web site

This is the actual debate on what should and should not make it to the new web site. Add items here, according to the proposed categories. Also comment on other people's ideas, including on their necessity.

Absolutely needed
Things you feel should really, really be there.

Accessibility
It is becoming increasingly important that websites conform to the standards on accessibility. User can easily adjust font size etc without wrecking the site.--B.bowles 10:53, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Same is true about window size: having a fluid layout which lets users resize their window without showing "empty space". – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

All languages, all characters
Arabic mixed with Czech should work. Characters like proper inverted commas (“ and ”) and dashes – such should be possible. – Júlio talk 17:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Don't forget Chinese! --M.connett 04:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I've moved Nathan's comment to item Pages in all languages below, as it's a different issue. – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Dynamism (but without Flash?)
One thing that brings people back, or encourages them to show us to others, is a dynamic feel. This can mean simple auto updates like showing a current date; the time in each of the ARocha time zones; relevant news feeds; pictures that are different each time you visit; restrained use of appropriate animation... However some ways of achieving animation demand recent software and a fast connection which may discriminate against some parts of the ARocha network. Animated gifs can be an easy alternative.--B.bowles 10:53, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree with you, Brendan, about the need for dynamism. I believe this is especially true for my generation who grew up with the internet. If your website is old/out of date, I won't want to look at it and it will certainly loose credibility for younger, more critical eyes. It does not need to be as flashy as Gordon Pennington's Burning Media Group Website (which is very cool!),, but should convey very quickly (a few seconds of scanning) what you want to get across, or at least where I can go to find it. --Nathan Lemphers 13:02, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Infectious
We want to be a site that visitors channel others to. A must-see. Part of this is to build in 'excellence'. Equally important is to provide the linking infrastructure, eg an attractive 'Tell a friend' link on every page; an interface with myspace, facebook (Do we need an ARocha myspace?); a downloadable snippet of html which can be pasted into someone else's site and which will install a link to the ARocha site complete with logo (read from our server)--B.bowles 11:04, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

We currently have a facebook group started up by some A Rocha staff in Canada (currently 18 members). See to find out more about Facebook. I use it to keep in touch with friends. Their is an administrator for this group as well who can act as a moderator/quality control --Nathan Lemphers 13:09, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


 * About an A Rocha myspace: I think we must let teams do their thing inside arocha.org; and if they have to resort to other sites for things which are clearly core A Rocha, then we're not doing it right. It's OK for a bunch of friends who want to chat about going to Les Tourades; it's definitely not OK if the Les Tourades team need to have a blog somewhere because they can't do it inside our site. – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Links which won't break
Right now, links break whenever we add new pages; we can't have that anymore. – Júlio talk 17:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Pages in all languages
All pages ideally should be in all languages. I've been helping with content for the AR France webpage and there is a rather large disparity between what is shown on French version versus the English version. I suspect this is the same for many other NOs. --Nathan Lemphers 12:56, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Right now, the minimum content on each language is:
 * Home page
 * Monthly webflash
 * One page on each menu: Who we are, What we do...

I would like to see the minimum on each language to also include:
 * One page on each National Organisation's work
 * One page on each major project around the world, including on each centre

All of this reviewed on a regular basis (every six months, for instance). – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Preview before save
We need to see what the page will look like before we make it go live to the world! – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Straightforward upload and download of files
On the externally facing website especially, it should be straightforward to put up pdf files and forms, e.g. for volunteers. The team website should be able to have "knowledge base" pages (Rob's idea) where conservation science data in a variety of forms can be stored and shared within and between teams: GPS data, spreadsheets, photos.... On the team website, we should be able to have pages on which one can easily upload and download copies of all A Rocha publications (Francois' idea), pdf copies of things others have written about A Rocha (these can be very useful in spreading the word, and fundraising), educational materials that the EEN comes up with, etc. --M.connett 04:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


 * The knowledge base seems like a separate topic to me. Very valid too. – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Probably Necessary IF we can do them
Things you feel would be useful.

Integration with the Teams' Web Site
The Teams' Web Site should have the same editing possibilities as the main site, and should only be accessible to people who have a username and password. By the way, each user of the Teams' Web Site should have their own password. – Júlio talk 17:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Each user having an "own" password would make it easier to create some working group pages to which particular people would have access to jointly work on conservation data analysis, a scientific publication, a grant proposal, a brochure or the like. --M.connett 04:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

RSS feeds
Particularly the internal team website needs a mechanism to tell users when something new is added. RSS feeds are a mechanism to set this up individually for different pages of interest, e.g. there is a particular group of people who would want to know when there's a new page about Climate Stewards business policy, different perhaps from the group that wants to know when there's a new publication about GPS methods. I think having the ability to add RSS feeds to the different national organisation pages might also increase traffic to the externally facing websites. People come to look at a page more often if they know it is changing periodically. --M.connett 04:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Search function on every page
There's a "search" box for the whole website on the current international homepage, but it would be useful on other pages as well, particularly for those who are looking for information about a country's activities, or activities on a particular species or ecosystem. There's such a wealth of information among older pages buried deep in the navigation of the current site, especially A Rocha's many, many newsletters (for that it would need to be a search that can also go into pdfs--Lucene?). A search function on the team (internal) website would also be useful. Also, if we could make whatever modifications are necessary to have the webpages spidered by Google, more people searching for such information generally on the web could be brought to AR's site.--Marie 11:52, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Google is already indexing all of our pages. – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Single login
Right now, editors on our web site need to log in to each account; they should be allowed to log in once, and change the web site as they read it. – Júlio talk 17:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Visual editor
I think a better WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) is needed. The editor interface for this wiki, for example, still shows a lot of HTML code symbols that represent an undesirable maze for people who are not experienced with HTML. --M.connett 04:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


 * WYSIWYG means seeing how things will appear as you type them, like in Word. I like this kind of coding, but then again I am a webmaster and have been using this very system for two years... there are visual editors out there, though. – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Should not be there
Things which you feel should not be in our CMS.

Bleeding-edge technology
I am for innovation which doesn't break what's working. I am severely against: – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
 * layouts which work only on a certain browser
 * Flash, animations, etc. for things which would be better without it
 * gadgets which would benefit some users to the detriment of others, like those off broadband

Customisable layout
Some sites let users change the layout: background colour, number of columns, even the whole page style. I don't think we need that. A good layout to rule them all – Júlio talk 17:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

The icing on the cake
These are things that might not actually be necessary, but that would make you personally very happy to see there.

“Best before” warnings
I'd like the system to tell me "The page on A Rocha Finland hasn't been changed in six months." Wow, has it been six months already? ^_^ – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Blogs or a discussion forum
I personally don't think this would necessarily be a benefit on the externally-facing website, but in the team website it might be really good to have a place where anyone who has access can share a blessing, a verse, a prayer request, an observation or question or whatever, and others can add replies and comments. --M.connett 04:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Picture of the day
We have tens of thousands of pictures among us, and many are outstandingly good. I think dynamic pictures, who tell a story, are better; for an example see Serge Hänzi's Black Woodpecker carving a nest. Wow! So we'd have a different picture each day, with a single paragraph as caption. Translated into all languages, and featured on the main page. This would need a system for storing the pictures and captions for many days to come, and then automatically at midnight switch to the new day's Picture of the Day. – Júlio talk 17:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Amen, amen, amen! and it would be nice if the team website could have some beautiful pictures too, to rejoice the hearts of the team! but adding pictures suggests that the WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) should have at least some minimal layout tools such as table creation, so that pictures can be easily aligned or wrapped with accompanying text. --M.connett 04:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Scheduled page updates
I would like to be able to put the webflash up on the 28th, and tell the system "This page goes live on the 1st of the month." – Júlio talk 15:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)