[pydotorg-www] project plan

[skip at pobox.com]

    Michael> Just because they are tools that *we* as programmers are
    Michael> familiar with (and not all programmers are by any stretch of
    Michael> the imagination) is no reason to make it so complex.

But change for the (apparent) sake of change seems wrong to me.  I have yet
to see a concrete proposal for what you would use to replace the current
technology or who the potential users of the current technology are who have
been unable to surmount the current barriers.

    Michael> There is also no conceptual reason that we couldn't come up
    Michael> with a system that allows both ways of working (a through the
    Michael> web system that generates patches for example) - but insisting
    Michael> we stick with the current system because we are familiar with
    Michael> it and have no reason to change is not good.

That would seem to fall into the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
category.

I suspect that the initial impetus for this effort was that the website
content needs significant rework.  For the time being at least I think it
would be best to focus on the new/revised content and structure and leave
the tools as-is.  I'll grant that the current tools used to maintain the
website aren't for everyone, but they work for the people who currently
twiddle the bits and they will get the job done without requiring a big
investment in developing new tools or adapting other off-the-shelf tools to
handle our specific needs.  The last time the site was redesigned Tim
Parking spent a large amount of time developing a new tool set, then a
couple years later Andrew Kuchling reworked them to get them to the state
they are in today.

Skip