Copy-Editing

The best explanation I've seen is on Diasporial, have you had a look at that for inspiration?

Wanted to update this discussion. @goob has been helpful in providing some documents to hack on. I've got it up in two places, for those of you that would prefer not to use Google services to interact with the doc. I will be checking on both regularly:

Google Docs
PiratePad

I'd love the community's help in shaping the message that our project has, and the way it's presented. :)

Hi everyone, I've been invited to this group by Sean. I sent him some 18-month old drafts, which he's uploaded. These will need a lot of work, and I'll try to get started straight away.

My feeling is that it's best if we have a splash/landing page with little descriptve text on - just a hook (Something like 'Diaspora - the social network where you are in control') and a mention of freedom, privacy and decentralisation being at the heart of the project, how it's open-source and free, anyone can contribute or host a pod, with links to other pages with more explanation of these various points.

Something like:

WELCOME PAGE

hook

principles: freedom, decentralisation, privacy [links to more]

how to get started
- sign up
- host a pod
- contribute code
- donate
[links to more]

So we keep the main page simple and can have a really clean design, with some nice graphics, rather than loads of text.

Copy-editing has been updated. I just need to create a graphic to demonstrate a cross-pod connection between two users. I've combined what I believe to be the best from the current site, Goob's work, and my own adjustments.

@dennisschubert Have at it.

Hi Sean, I'll have a look at your latest draft. Can you get the three pages I sent you yesterday onto the foundation site now, just for the time being? I think it's critical that there are some pages which give simple explanations of how to join Diaspora and where to find a pod. At the moment the foundation site still redirects to the old project site, which is hugely out of date. The pages I sent you are based on those pages, so are no worse than having the redirect, but have the benefit of up to date information. Ta.

Fixed.

Thanks. I'll try to post my edits to the copy tomorrow.

Sean, I have appended the copy I have written for the pages I put up to your PiratePad document.

However, if you're creating a new site, I would suggest taking a different approach. This copy was adapted from the old diasporaproject.org site, and I'd think radically differently if we're creating a new site.

For example, on the landing page I'd simply have a hook (could be something like 'Do you love connecting with interesting people? Do you care about your privacy?') with links to other pages containing information on the various aspects of Diaspora, to keep the page as simple as possible. And have a sign up button on the landing page too, which took you to a brief explanation of the decentralised nature of the network and how to choose a pod, or set one up yourself, and a link to poduptime.

Do you want to work together on a different approach like this, or stick with the amendments/updating of the old site?

ps: could you change the name of this sub-group to diasporafoundation.org team, now we're using that domain? Ta.

@seantilleycommunit , do you want any more help with copy-writing and -editing, or do you have all the copy you need? Just ping me if you want any help and I'll do what I can.