[pydotorg-www] Fwd: Our download pages are in abysmal shape.

[Michael Foord]

See below for reports and issues with the download links and pages. I'm aware that github issues would be the "right" way to resolve this, but we're getting a *lot* of reports about broken download links. It ought to be addressed systematically rather than piecemeal.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Laura Creighton <lac at openend.se>
> Subject: Our download pages are in abysmal shape.
> Date: 22 August 2014 13:19:56 EEST
> To: webmaster at python.org, infrastructure at python.org, lac at openend.se
> 
> I am answering mail to webmaster at python.org
> I just replied to this.
> 
> In a message of Fri, 22 Aug 2014 21:03:21 +1200, Will Walters writes:
>> Hello 
>> 
>> Can you tell me why I am unable to download windows version of Python please. Hitting the yellow download button will not work. Are you upgrading your website at the moment?
>> 
>> Cheers!
>> 
>> Will.
> 
> Will Walters is correct, the yellow button doesn't work.
> 
> However, in researching his problem I have discovered that we are
> now a great candiate for poorest website of the year, from a usability
> standpoint. 
> 
> Many links do not work.
> 
> We have a parallel structure
> 
> https://www.python.org/downloads/release/lots of files
> https://www.python.org/download/releases/lots of files
> 
> which have different naming conventions for python releases.
> 
> All over the python.org site are links to one place or the other,
> and they cross reference themselves, too
> 
> I am finding the downloads/release files to be useful.  The other set
> of files (downloads/releases) contains the release announcment -- which 
> could be merged into the relevant downloads/release file -- but otherwise
> doesn't have anything I find at all useful.  
> 
> There is also a menu bar all over the site which has a selection
> 'Downloads'.  Clicking on that selection there gets you a separate
> set of 2 buttons, which (at least on my machine here) covers up the
> two yellow buttons.  Those separate buttons actually work, unlike the
> yellow ones that don't but this whole drop down is a mistake --
> you either go to the new page with the yellow buttons or you don't
> but you don't provide two competing ways to do the same thing just
> because you mouse over the download secton on the menu bar.
> 
> But whoever was paid to make this mess really needs to be told
> to sit down and clean the whole thing up.  What we have right now
> is both broken and terribly confusing, and reflects very badly on us.
> 
> Laura


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