SCN: New Web Pages

[Al Boss]

I like the new interface. Sure, it's not done, but the only Websites
that are done are the ones that are dead. I have a bigger concern,
though:

Haven't I seen this movie somewhere before? Like every time we change
the SCN interface (even the Freeport one)? The plot summary goes like
this:

1) The appropriate committee/individuals (as far as they know) takes
on the work and lets everyone know they're doing it (again, they think
they've let everyone know)

2) They put the results where people can see them (as far as they
know), and invite the appropriate people (as far as they know) to have
a look

3) They collect feedback and incorporate it into the site

4) The revisions go public

5) Everybody gets pissed off.  They're fuming because this is the
first they've seen the changes, first they've heard about the changes,
the changes are stupid and ill-considered and didn't include their
feedback and whoever did them meant well but should've done it
differently and can we please have our old comfortable pages back even
though we raised the exact same stink about them three years ago the
last time anyone was brave enough to change anything?

---------

Am I the only person who thinks maybe we have some sort of process
problem here that forces us to undergo the same conflagration every
time we do this? 

Rod is the one of the most careful, considerate, and
process-respectful people I've had the pleasure to work with. He's not
going to admit it unless pushed, but I'll bet he's got an electronic
trail dating back months indicating this set of revisions wasn't the
Big Secret implied by our reactions. Even if I'm wrong and the new
look is the result of a mad hermit sealed in a cave hammering out HTML
unseen by anyone else till it appeared live, I think my point still
stands.

I suggest we take some of the energy we're putting into this reaction
to the new pages and figure out the ideal way we'd like to see the
next interface update happen. Who should be involved, representing
what constituencies, how does beta testing occur, what's the feeback
cycle, blah blah blah. 

I propose we start with YAEL (yet another email list) for everyone who
wants a piece of how new interfaces are done. Spend a month or so
gathering opinions (the one item of which SCN has no shortage),
consolidate them into a draft of how we'll do things, get feedback and
make changes, get consensus, post the process on SCN, and let the list
sit quietly till we decide to bring our interface up to date again.
Then publicize the effort, use the list as a channel for anyone
interested to keep tabs on what's up, get in your two cents' worth,
whatever it takes.

There may be a better solution. That's fine. Let's just address the
problem and try to fix it. The problem is that our usual coping
mechanisms for doing things on SCN don't work when we do global
interface changes. Every single time the folks doing the changes do
their best to do it right and involve the right people and every
single time they get flamed because from the outside looking in it
seems they did it wrong and didn't involve the right people. 

If we keep doing what we're doing, we'll keep getting what we've got.
Except for a couple of new names this thread is identical to the ones
from all our past global changes. Let's write a new ending for this
movie.

If there's anyone I haven't insulted or angered enough in this
broadcast message, please let me know and I'll do my best to recify
the situation on an individual basis.

Al
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