Repository Suggestions

I don’t like WTF because I don’t really like Web Transport Facility (spiderman’s wrists?).

I certainly don’t care about the language (foul) issue as it is a predominately American hangup. Swearing on TV bad, violence on TV okay. That being said, there are people who don’t approve of either and from what I have seen there is a large number of "Christian Webmasters" who might be offput by such language/innuendo and therefore I agree with JaredC on that. I don’t necessarily consider Christians inherently prudish but some of their fellows or colleagues may be conservative and may not want to refer them to MODx for fear of off putting them and having a poor reflection on the referrer.

As I have mentioned, all we have to do is make sure that the majority of people who are going to use MODx can find what they are looking for. If we want to brand MODx as the hardcore punk rocker version of a CMS for the leather and ink set then we could go far with WTF but since I have read that MODx aims to be in the top3 CMS application/frameworks we should think about it.

Cheers,

Jay

Jakob Nielsen has a timely article on Bridging the Designer/User Gap that relates to this in more ways than one.

Quote from: smashingred at Mar 17, 2008, 10:39 AM

Jakob Nielsen has a timely article on Bridging the Designer/User Gap that relates to this in more ways than one.

Let’s all go: http://www.nngroup.com/events/tutorials/camp.html

BTW, Donald A. Norman (the other half of the Neilson/Norman group) was one of the world’s most famous researchers on human memory and cognition before he got interested in human-factors design and usability. He’s the real deal.

Bob

This is an interesting topic that Jason and I have discussed offline quite a bit. And just to be clear, Jason is definitely not a genius, though he occasionally plays one on the Intraweb. You’ll have to trust me on this one; he has trouble with basic arithmetic.

In all seriousness, what I certainly hope and think is friendly ribbing with the "genius" comments, can obscure the important discussion of what’s really important here. It’s not all about Jason, nor does he/we ever want it to be. Jason desperately needs technically adept folks with lots of experience to challenge his ideas and assumptions, and to contribute to the development. This is why he leans more towards what I sometimes thing is more technically accurate descriptions of what’s going on. Never mind the fact that it might take a while for someone like myself to grasp what it all means, Jason’s target is getting developers on board and contributing. I also think there’s a bit of fear that making it too marketing-friendly might continue to bring on an onslaught of designers that can’t help sort through the technical challenges. In other words, if MODx is going to survive, we can’t have it all resting on Jason’s shoulders on the technical architecture side.

Given that, the WTF is the last remaining bit to nail down before 097 is ready to release as a public alpha. Given that, it’s time to make a decision on what this sucker should be called, so it can be changed in the instructions and code. "WTF" does have some negative connotations even though Web Transport Facility is a perfectly and technically accurate description of what it does. If we’re going to make a change, we need to do so under a couple of key guidances:

1) We really focus right now on the developers and coders. Sure the system needs to be easy for end users to understand once implemented, so our semantics should reflect that, but we need to really focus our marketing efforts even more so on attracting developers than we have with 096 ... in fact we should probably encourage non-coders to stick with 096 for a while.

2) We need to choose something that is semantic, and "packages" seems to be the best of the alternatives to date since it’s not really limiting to any one type of add-on/extension/component/whatever. That way everything that gets installed in MODx comes from packages, but the question remains, what do we call where all the packages are collected? Or does that really matter? packages.modxcms.com works as a URL, so I guess "Package Repository" might work. From a navigation standpoint, I think I’d be more inclined to just call it what it really is: "Downloads". Which really does beg the question: should it be downloads.modxcms.com?

Simple Package Update Device - SPUD

But seriously, I’m assuming that the thing we’re talking about will, at some point, be accessible from within the MODx Manager. If so, we’ll want to consider how the name will look from that end as well.

Thanks for that post Ryan. I think that we were looking for that clarification. I agree that we need to attract more developers to increase development of MODx and to aid Jason and Shaun et al. in building out MODxNext.

I’ll have to think on this one. I think it would be good if we had an idea of the type of person/people developers that the team needs. Do we start posting for coders looking for a challenge? How do we get the great geeks to come aboard. Jason, how did you arrive at MODx, how was it that the other team members got involved and why?

We touched on this earlier in another thread about our target audiences and it seems to me the sooner we can get the new site up with some clear, CONCISE copy relating to why people (coders) should/ought to get involved in MODx. Where it will take them, what it will do for them and etc.

So without burdening the coding team with minutiae of how we’ll accomplish this. I think the blog is a start but I think some (I can’t believe I am saying this) Social Networking might help. Facebook, some of the php forums, some proggie forums (out of my league). I am not saying that Jason or anyone else on the coding team has time for this but it could be a help.

Another thing is that as MODx becomes a more popular designer, end-user application it will make more sense for developers to learn it and extend it as there will be financial and skillset advantages in adopting MODx. So while we do need more coders more users means more demand and more demand means more value in devs investing time into MODx as part of their arsenal.

I think that we should move to active team recruitment and make it a priority to get people interested in blowing MODx up.

Okay this was on my 6th espresso (yeah Cuisinart).

downloads.modxcms.com on the site and mod_rewrite for the manager or command line for packages.modxcms.com

Cheers,

Jay

In light of what Ryan is suggesting, maybe we should save "downloads" for the current site where 0.9.6 and the older add-ons are available and use something more like packages.modx.com for the newer stuff. We’d still need a title for the landing page and links to it. I guess UPS is taken.

Maybe we can come up with something catchy involving package transport (PT Boat?), or if not, just something straightforward:

Package Repository
Package Archive
Package Transport Terminal
Package Central
Package Warehouse
Package Depot

Although this is assuming that everything there will be in the form of a self-installing package (a la FireFox) rather than just a download and I don’t know if that’s a safe assumption.

Woot I am late to the party but my my this is dense...
Funny how words reveal how different our perceptions can be

I think it’s very easy to get lost in trying to find the "best" and/or "most original" denomination... but maybe "keep it simple and stupid" should be the motto here. The most widely used terms are downloads, addons and extensions.

The advantage (or con if you switch point of view) of downloads is that it does not specify what kind of item can be downloaded : application, addons, even templates... Which brings the question : do we want a single "place" for everything, or do we also want some different place like templates.modxcms.com ?

If we want "generic", then make it simple and go for downloads.modxcms.com

If we want to target several groups then maybe set up different "places" :
addons.modxcms.com
templates.modxcms.com
....

The "problem" I have with package is that it will bring up expectations, for me "package" means installer, click n’ go I agree with BobRay.

Frankly, I liked the Web Transport Facility and the "wtf" spin but that’s just me I like things provocative

And there is a notion that I think we might be loosing along the way here : the "transport" part.
Maybe I got it wrong but with 0.9.7 installing and upgrading addons is going to be done remotely from the manager, is that it ?
(will people even need to go to the "repository" anymore ?). It means it’s a process as much as a place to store addons/extensions.

If so, it seems essential to me that the name reflects this somehow as it is an edge over many systems.

Let’s play with this a bit...

How about "webxtender.modxcms.com" (playing the MODx X card in the name, we would write it webXtender ) ?

In terms of the location for all the files/scripts no matter what you call them should be in a single place. We can use categories and/or child sections for the various types but it seems redundant and confusing to go to one place for templates and another for snippets and another for modules.

As far as the transport part is concerned. If it is to be that there will be a way to either use the commandline or some type of server based service to get/update MODx and or any type of addon then it could/should have its own name and since it lives in its own context that it could be WTF because the idea of the Web Transport Facility would trump the negative connotation of the abbreviation since you likely wouldn’t use an address bar to download but the manager.

In any event, I say we get past this quickly, get the new site content up and out and move onto some more important goals like attracting more great developers.

Cheers,

Jay

Transport packages can be installed remotely if servers or configured right, but many shared servers will still need to manually download them and upload them to their site, the the transport packaging mojo takes over. A package is a vehicle, a thing, not an action (installer). But they do handle pretty click and go behavior once they’re put in place (transported) to your local package repository on your server, whether that’s done remotely within the manager or manually using FTP. At least that’s my understanding of it all.

My preference is for something simple and direct with no chance for misspellings. "templates.modxcms.com" might be a template showcase, but it could still link to the transport package repository be it locally at MODx or at a separate, remote location. My honest vote would be just for calling it "downloads", which is where you get all things MODx, for both legacy stuff (the download section really needs a major overhaul, and 096 will be around for quite a while) and for the shiny objects.