Reduce the blog to just blog, expand and improve mm.cc homepage into one pager, and add 'offerings' and 'open value network' pages on mm.cc

Few things including what has been mentioned in this discussion regarding the user experience and our collective identity that we will need to carefully re/visit and I think that can bring a fresh air into the space. Sometimes changing a blurb give new wings....or whatever :) So yes - let's creatively approach this and see what we come up with.

I want to do this and see the clear need. and simultaneously designing the homepage doesn't motivate me currently. I sense a considerable effort involved in it beyond just design. I feel more like putting the energy I have available towards making a better experience 4 the users we have. that's where i feel the UX is really significant at this stage.

that said I think we can start a hackpad for a creative evolution of the homepage, and if people want to start gathering some media, that's good - when preparation is done and all the pieces there I am likely to execute the designs.

Hopefully replying to loomio through email works as intended...

I just wanted to add that I think our "blog" should be its own independent thing, and contextualized that way... This means that it is prominently linked to on the homepage for logged out users... and a link is also available for logged in users.. (maybe with the links at the bottom i.e about, colophon, etc.)

Going to the blog would mean seeing the latest blog posts (currently our blog doesn't show any on the front page)... Then, other stuff like products/services/offerings/slidedecks are either just simple blogposts or are not in the blog area at all... This stuff can have its own presence on our logged-out home page, just like the blog, and when logged in it can be in the about/get involved areas

fully agree there Rob

@ishanshapiro it sounds for what the scope of this proposal actually is, you could have just agreed? I know that I made a suggestion in the initial description that you and I would be executers of the action, but I tried to leave that part out of what the actual decision was. This is just trying to narrow this down, as opposed to alternatives, as a desirable course of action, not necessarily to begin right away, or assume specific people. Also, voicing the other things that are being held as high pressing priority would be nice to have seen those show up in the question to the DevCom about priority? I would love to hear more about what 'making a better experience for the users we have' means and involves from your perspective

@benjaminbrownell your disagreement also held two aspects, one of whether this is "priority" and another one that hinted that you disagreed with the actual idea. Maybe we experiment with limiting the scope of this convo thread to how this is a good idea or not? That way, we can know that your 'disagree' is actually a block to the very idea of doing this.

I know that asking you further questions here is an implicit ask for you to dedicate more of your time to this thread, which sounds like that is the fundamental thing that you're not digging. It leaves us with an interesting question of whether doing that, intentionally, is a 'block' of its own. What it feels that I can do, is also show interest and curiosity and dedicate some time to that which you are emphasizing as priority, which I will attempt to do more of.

Back to content, the loomio homepage is another good example of a strong communication of what they do and what the platform is. Can you think of a style that you've seen that can convey all of that better?

Sure. Couple of things - and by the way I don't resent being called back to this conversation, there are several interesting and illuminating aspects to it.

My overriding sense is that this isn't an initiative that is set to move ahead very swiftly or smoothly right at the moment - maybe that's because I can't see more of the 'sensemaking' map around what's involved. But it also has to do with the fact that I'm basically "OK" with homepage and blog as they are now, and have no problem waiting till another significant update push in a month or three to deal with updates there.

Second, I'm just not feeling that the increasingly ubiquitous scrolling homepage is actually a good choice for us, stylistically or UX, or content wise. I think it's significant to note that maps are a very different and unique UI / UX to almost anything else out there on the web right now with the degree of design sensibility that we have invested in it, and i'd want the homepage to really follow that trend and stand out in some ways, not just head towards convention or convenience.

Perhaps the blog site could change around to be more like that, and re-integrate some of the content that you are pointing to above. I don't know. I'd want to get more of this thinking out on a map where we can work with it, and frankly this doesn't feel like the time for me to invest much in that process. Glad to follow along and input here and there, if you / others want to take it further.

And finally, please don't feel like i'm coming across with resentfulness that you (connor) aren't doing other more important code work, it's not that tone of feeling in my mind, just a more practical desire to rank what I am seeing as priorities so that you are aware of that and can factor it into your decision making about spending time. Interests and enthusiasm are of course another factor there. Steer as you willl...we can all help set course!

The idea of making the metamaps.cc homepage in the style of a map is intriguing!

I think the blog currently doesn't draw me in. It works informationally but I agreed to this proposal because I think it is a priority.

My initial attempt to imagine a map based homepage would be awful UX. I think at the very least if it were map based we'd want all topic cards expanded by default to show more information.

Sure. Couple of things - and by the way I don’t resent being called back to this conversation, there are several interesting and illuminating aspects to it.

My overriding sense is that this isn’t an initiative that is set to move ahead very swiftly or smoothly right at the moment - maybe that’s because I can’t see more of the ‘sensemaking’ map around what’s involved. But it also has to do with the fact that I’m basically “OK” with homepage and blog as they are now, and have no problem waiting till another significant update push in a month or three to deal with updates there.

Second, I’m just not feeling that the increasingly ubiquitous scrolling homepage is actually a good choice for us, stylistically or UX, or content wise. I think it’s significant to note that maps are a very different and unique UI / UX to almost anything else out there on the web right now with the degree of design sensibility that we have invested in it, and i’d want the homepage to really follow that trend and stand out in some ways, not just head towards convention or convenience.

Perhaps the blog site could change around to be more like that, and re-integrate some of the content that you are pointing to above. I don’t know. I’d want to get more of this thinking out on a map where we can work with it, and frankly this doesn’t feel like the time for me to invest much in that process. Glad to follow along and input here and there, if you / others want to take it further.

And finally, please don’t feel like i’m coming across with resentfulness that you (connor) aren’t doing other more important code work, it’s not that tone of feeling in my mind, just a more practical desire to rank what I am seeing as priorities so that you are aware of that and can factor it into your decision making about spending time. Interests and enthusiasm are of course another factor there. Steer as you willl…we can all help set course!

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Well, what starts to come to mind for me isn't exactly a 'map based' home page, but some other kind of creative solution that somehow matches the kind of spatial, navigational feel of the canvas. Even if it was something with basically the same content that's laid out here, but you scroll through it by going IN TO the page along a Z axis instead of the Y axis regular scroll...or something that brought in some cool new famo.us ( http://famo.us ) flow elements...i don't really know what's possible within time, scope, energy, skill here.

Ok, I say we let this proposal close, and don't take it as a 'let's go forward with X' thing. It seems like there might be consensus about the blog side of things, which I will create another decision for here, but that exploration of the options for the homepage could be pursued a little bit more! I'm digging the alt. ideas that are surfacing for it, and think that we can refine the 'homepage' aspect of the proposal, with further collaborative thinking and dialogue.

One thought I would add is... We are already asking our users to stretch cognitively and think differently (Thinking in terms of maps/nodes/networks etc..) So maybe it would be best if when they look at something like our blog or our homepage that there are many familiar aspects... vs doing these things differently too.

"Oh! This is their homepage... I know how to get the information I want from here!"

or

"Ok this is their blog... I know how to use this! I can click here and subscribe, I can see the most recent post.." etc...

I agree with that as well Rob, that it's an important aspect for us to consider. Mark from San Fran also made this point when we spoke with him