User Story 1:
Sally comes to opennicproject.org, sets her computer up with the correct nameservers. She then fills out one form and receives a domain name and a user account for the CMS/Forum so she can discuss and ask for help. Sally is happy with that and gets on with filling her new sally.geek site with content. This exclusive content drives some of her friends to join the OpenNIC community too.
User Story 2
Alice comes to opennicproject.org, sets her computer up with the correct nameservers. She then fills out one form and receives a domain name and a user account for the CMS/Forum so she can discuss and ask for help. Alice is really keen on networking and finds the 'advanced' site. She learns about how OpenNIC works and helps out running the infrastructure.
User Story 3
John has a blog at john.wordpress.com. His friend, Sally, leaves a comment on a post. "I am not surprised you had trouble catching Salmon in those boots, you need a pair like mine, see sally.geek.opennicproject.org/boots.png". John goes to sally.geek.opennicproject.org/boots.png but since he does not have the nameservers setup, he is redirected to a "Join OpenNic" page.
[ apart from the fact that John may well be p$$%^ off by the unwarranted re-direction of his browser, *sally.geek.opennicproject.org* happens to a sub-domain of a standardTLD, just like *john.wordpress.com* is, so tell me .. why exactly would John need to go to the trouble of changing his nameservers, let alone want to wear Sally's boots??? ]
A mockup of the front page. Concentrated on Actions. Tell potential users what to do.
Welcome to OpenNIC.
The goal of OpenNIC is to "establish and maintain a global DNS system which guarantees equal access and influence to all people on the Net". More
1. Setup your computer.
2. Join OpenNIC and get a free .geek domain
Redirect idea
On the opennic public site there is an intelligent redirect page. So a .geek user can link to his/her content in the legacy internet. So a user goes to sally.geek.opennicproject.org, the redirect page runs client side code (e.g. Javascript), it tests if the page sally.geek exists, if it does it redirects the user to it, if it does not exist (i.e. the user does not have the nameservers set up), then the user is forwarded to a helpful page saying "Join OpenNIC to see this content".
Something like (pseudocode):
if( !get("http://www.weblionx.geek") ) {
This way the users of Opennic will naturally market the community, just by hyperlinking.
Aggressive promotion
I also gave this task to brianko, but to bolster the content available in our namespace I believe we should contact websites and ask them to setup a domain alias.
Essentially the amount of work is minimal and the gains should outweight the amount of work necessary, mainly since they gain another domain (redundancy).
--deepy
<WeblionX> Needs a friendlier interface.
<zeth> well consistent information would be a nice start
<zeth> there are many different places with different info
<WeblionX> That's part of it.
<julian_work> i am trying to fix that
<julian_work> but we need more help to tell us how it should be organised, what info is missing and so on
<zeth> I signed up for a drupal account. a wiki account, a domain form and a broken OpenNic become a member form
<julian_work> broken opennic?
<zeth> This did not work for me
<zeth> https://www.opennic.glue/dbase/member_register.html
<julian_work> drupal is for geek central, seperate entity from opennic
<zeth> I think you guys should start with one form, one domain
<zeth> ok
<julian_work> do not know how u found the dbase page, the opennic.glue page is joomla
<julian_work> the wiki is for the working groups of opennic, it enables them to work together on documents and ideas
<zeth> well somewhere it said you had to be a member of opennic before you could apply for a domain name
<julian_work> yup
<WeblionX> I think we need two (And a half) websites.
<zeth> but there is no way to become a member of opennic
<WeblionX> A dev website and a regular website.
<julian_work> wiki is the dev side, and http://www.opennic.glue is the regular one
<WeblionX> The regular website would have a legacy domain, and an opennic domain.
<WeblionX> And all TLDs would be subdomains of the main site.
<julian_work> ahhh ok, we have the public site as a doorway into opennic
<zeth> I think it is a little on the complex side
<zeth> how about, the geek central is the main user site
<julian_work> yer, how do u suggest it be done?
<WeblionX> I'll make a mock-up of the layout.
<zeth> I would say, that a user turns up at geek central
<zeth> fills out one form
<WeblionX> But basically it'd come down to three domains, two websites, and subdomains for each TLD.
<WeblionX> And the TLDs would share user accounts.
<zeth> which makes him/her both a drupal account and the domain
<julian_work> ahhh well, some one already re-designed the glue site, i am waiting for opinions -> http://pere-lol.com
<WeblionX> So once you register you can get a domain under any TLD.
<julian_work> ok, sounds good so far
<zeth> and you get rid of the broken opennic registration
<julian_work> i am not sure how u got there my friend
<zeth> someone is a member of geek central
<zeth> and they can just be happy with geek central
<zeth> but if they want they can also get into opennic
<zeth> but no forced requirment
<WeblionX> Geek is part of opennic.
<zeth> To get a .co.uk domain name I do not have to join ICANN
<WeblionX> Yeah.
<WeblionX> You get it from a reseller.
<julian_work> joining opennic is only required if u wana vote
<WeblionX> Or a registrar, rather.
<zeth> so geek central is like godaddy of the free world
<WeblionX> Except godaddy can do more than one TLD.
<WeblionX> Which is my point.
<zeth> well they only have loads to screw you out of more money
<julian_work> see opennic is not matured enough to be that yet, but what i am working on will allow my tld geek to accept remote dns registrations from resellers
<WeblionX> You should have one unified account for OpenNIC.
<WeblionX> And you can participate in voting if you want, or just get domains.
<julian_work> so whatu are saying, from there u can register any domain name in any tld right?
<WeblionX> Yeah.
<zeth> well, I think from a marketing perspective, just get one domain working well first
<zeth> and spread that
<WeblionX> That's kind of what I'm saying.
<julian_work> which at present we have two fully operational domains in that sense
<julian_work> oss and geek
<zeth> yup fair enough
<julian_work> and tonight if i get a chance i shall get free up to speed
<WeblionX> The problem is you need seperate accounts for every TLD that way.
<zeth> well if we concentrate on Geek central for a minute
<zeth> User goes to Geek central, fills out a form, gets a domain name and a drupal account so they can chat and discuss
<zeth> that should be the priority I think
<zeth> because then people will start putting content up on the .geek
<zeth> on their .geek names
<zeth> if they are networking buffs they can take it furter
<zeth> but 80% of people may be satisfied at that
<julian_work> yup, could we make this work, could we instead do it from the main opennic site, that way have it all run from one site for now???
<zeth> whatever you like
<WeblionX> That's what I'm saying.
<julian_work> Ok, sounds like a plan.
<zeth> the main thing is that the user has a clear path through
<zeth> big button "Join now and get a free .geek domain name"
<WeblionX> Basically, you'd have something like "www.opennic.glue" and "www.opennicproject.org" be the same website.
<WeblionX> Then you'd have geek.opennic.glue and free.opennic.glue and so on.
<julian_work> ok then. So what did u think of the site i posted before to show u what the new site could look like/
<WeblionX> Those would be the individual TLD pages.
<zeth> the blue one?
<WeblionX> It could be better.
<zeth> I think it is nice design but the front page needs different content
<julian_work> it is just a template pretty much
<julian_work> have u joined the mailing list zeth?
<zeth> not yet no
<julian_work> Well if u could join that would be great, then you could send a mail to the community to discuss your good idea
<zeth> What I would add to the front page http://pastebin.com/m16253471
<zeth> something roughly like that
<julian_work> that sounds good, as it also promotes the tlds in the opennic namespace
<zeth> update http://pastebin.com/m50f81c60 - I seemed to lose a T
<zeth> of course you can be more verbose if you like, but you need to tell people what to do
<julian_work> yup yup... sounds good
<zeth> all successful web services have simple entrance
<zeth> simple way to get into it
<julian_work> it makes sense
<zeth> You would probably want a read more link http://pastebin.com/m53d07cb
<zeth> so you can explain it in more depth
<zeth> but I would not be too wordy on the front page
<zeth> concentrate more on Actions
<julian_work> yup, straight to the point
<WeblionX> http://ettw.net/index/opennic.png
<julian_work> ok that makes sense
<zeth> what is the difference between .geek and .free in target market?
<julian_work> free is just a statement
<zeth> I think you should pick what is your premium brand
<julian_work> geek would be
<WeblionX> I'm just showing how it would go.
<zeth> concentrate your efforts on getting one going
<zeth> sure
<julian_work> i am geting quite a few geek domain requests,
<WeblionX> You could have as many as you wanted.
<julian_work> well weblinox it looks good
<zeth> yeah technically you can have sure
<zeth> but from marketing viewpoint
<WeblionX> The point just is that opennic would be unified.
<zeth> you want to get one popular first
<zeth> sure, that is good
<WeblionX> The main page could show off .geek
<WeblionX> Not saying it can't.
<zeth> yup
<WeblionX> That's just the domain layout.
<julian_work> yup, well we need a PR person for opennic still! :)
<zeth> and then some second or third level page could offer the rest
<WeblionX> For sure.
<zeth> well I am kind of volunteering for the user relations team
<WeblionX> And if you know what you want, you can go there directly.
<julian_work> ok, so we have a few big changes yo make. We need a clear plan for this to work. :)
<zeth> another question
<julian_work> yes
<zeth> can you detect from browser if someone is using your nameservers?
<WeblionX> No.
<julian_work> no, u would have to use some reporting tool on the server like lire
<julian_work> look at reports.opennic.glue for an example
<zeth> oh right
<julian_work> does that help?
<zeth> cause I was thinking that those who turn up at your .org website, if they are on your nameservers then you redirect them to .glue
<WeblionX> You can have named virtual hosts be seperate, so you couldn't do anything until you get an OpenNIC server.
<WeblionX> Mmm, yeah, I don't think you can do that.
<zeth> if that was somehow possible, then you could have a hyperlink like
<zeth> weblion.geek.opennic.org
<zeth> on the legacy web
<zeth> and if they didn't have the nameservers on
<zeth> it would dump them at the "join opennic" page
<WeblionX> Well, you might as well not have a legacy version like that, then.
<zeth> maybe one could do in Javascript somehow
<zeth> I mean
<WeblionX> Well, if it redirects them automatically there's no reason to have one, since if you are using opennic, you can use the regular one.
<WeblionX> Instead of weblionx.geek.opennic.org they'd just use weblionx.geek
<zeth> user clicks on weblion.geek.opennic.org, the opennic site tries to send him to weblion.geek, if it fails then back to opennic
<WeblionX> Well, you could do a general redirect, possibly.
<WeblionX> *.geek.opennic.org could be set to an autoredirect page.
<zeth> yup
<zeth> and that autoredirect had logic
<WeblionX> You could probably do it with javascript using xmlhttprequest or whatever it is.
<WeblionX> A simple server parse would include the relevent details.
<zeth> yup, it pings the page first, and if it works then it sends the user there
<zeth> otherwise it sends them to the "Join Opennic"
<WeblionX> Something like if( !get("http://www.weblionx.geek") ) { open("http://www.opennicproject.org") } else { open("http://www.weblionx.geek") }
<WeblionX> pseudo-code, of course.
<zeth> then the users of opennic would do a lot of marketing for you
<zeth> exactly
<julian_work> Zeth, do you wann right up your ideas on the opennic wiki with weblionx, so this convo is not lost and the ideas are actually written down so we can implament this great idea/
<zeth> sure
<zeth> so I am a .geek user who leaves a comment on my friend's blog
<julian_work> that would be really good, cause what u guys are discussing is a great idea, that will help opennic greatly
<WeblionX> Great, opennic domains aren't working for me again.
<julian_work> what DnS server are u using weblionx?
<WeblionX> Someone's unofficial one.
<zeth> "I wrote about this on my post weblion.geek.opennic.org/fish"