SCN: SCN site and logo redesign

[Doug Schuler]

Since flaming is not a problem for you, Patrick, I'll flame away... :-)

Basically I have two comments --

The first is that I think the current logo is fine.  Perhaps clean it up a
bit, fine-tune, etc. SCN currently has a logo that is distinctive and has
been identified with our efforts over the years.  It has been used in
presentations to large audiences both in the states and elsewhere and has
been shown in print in many venues.  I think that changing the logo --
especially as I fear to make it more dot-commy, more space-age, or
whatever by "modernizing" it and taking any edge it might have off is
really a bad idea.  (It reminds me a bit of my [five-year] *old* essay on
"how to kill community networks -
http://www.scn.org/commnet/kill-commnets.html.  We're NOT the phone
company searching for a logo that looks coolest, we're a community network
system with a set of idealistic principles
(http://www.scn.org/commnet/principles.html) that are still critical (and
probably always will be).

The second is that this redesign is NOT what we need at the moment.  If
anybody has taken a look at our web page this YEAR they'll know what I'm
talking about.  Yes, it has been nearly a year since there was any sort of
content on our front page.  It looks (and has for months and months!!!)
like the "message of the day" on a unix dialup system. When I think of all
the squandered opportunity here I feel almost sick.  This site gets
thousands and thousands of hits every month and it has almost always been
some message like "SCN is moving in 3 months" or "SCN now back on line."

We had an excellent model almost all of last year -- see
http://www.scn.org/week/ -- but that went away.  I don't know if it was
internal politics but it was a very palpable NET LOSS for SCN and what
we're trying to accomplish with SCN.

I am sorry for *flaming* here but I have written probably 10 letters to
the board and to others and to the best of my knowledge I have never
received any feedback on this issue.

Redesign, schmedesign, let's put some CONTENT on our front page!!!!

-- Doug


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On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, patrick wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> This message was originally posted to the webmasters and webeditors email
> lists. JJ brought it to my attention that I should post the message about the
> site and logo redesign to this list. I'm new to the list as of 5 minutes ago.
> 
> SCN is planning on updating the site to make it look more professional. 
> 
> This is the goal for the site redesign communicated to me by Ti Locke:
> 
> The goal is have the board vote on two or three possibilities for both a logo
> and a site redesign and then ask SCN users to comment. Meeting is 9/13, with
> comment period of say, two weeks...with new logo and site design going up first
> week in October. That would put Ti right on the timeline for both
> grantwriting...and having web mail up and running. 
> 
> Patrick
> SCN Web Team Coordinator/Webmaster
> 
> P.S. Did I leave anyone out of the loop?
> 
> P.P.S. If you have logo ideas, sketches, complaints, accolades, please email
> them to this email address and I will collate them and let the board see them.
> Everyone's input is important. We need to hear how you feel about what the logo
> should express, what colors we may want to use for the site, type of layout. So
> give us your ideas.
> 
> Don't worry about flaming me. It's been a cooler than normal summer and I wear
> virtual asbestos.
> 
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