Wiki Pages re: Development shops

[Chris Conrey]

I just noticed that when we blew out the old wiki that we lost what used to be a great list of Rails development shops.   Now it had its flaws obviously, but I think this is a good chance to help get that page back to a manageable resource.  I'd like to make a few suggestions and get feedback before I make the changes:

1) Organize by country first, then alphabet rather than pure alphabet (similar to user groups)

2) Have this page moderated heavily to prevent spamming - Not sure how we can do this except through constant vigilance.   Obviously many of us represent companies or commercial entities but it doesn't need to be a huge advertising forum.

3) Move the "Commercial" to the same level as Community or Contributing so that it is not as lost on the page.

Feedback before I go in to start hacking away at it?

Chris Conrey
chrisconrey.com
Human->Geek Relations at Integrum
@conrey on Twitter

[Matt Aimonetti]

Sounds good to me Chris. Thanks for taking care of that.

I fully agree with 1 and 2, I'm not sure I understand 3 tho. Can you explain a bit more?

Thanks,

- Matt

[Chris Conrey]

sure re #3 - if you go to the wiki right now the "commercial" tab is tucked away in the middle and doesn't stand out from the main tree in the same way that Community, Contributing to the Wiki - ie look like H2s instead of H1s.   It looks as though that tab is built into the addons/plugins listing almost.

I'll start work on the page itself while you look at that.

Chris Conrey
chrisconrey.com
Human->Geek Relations at Integrum
@conrey on Twitter

[Matt Aimonetti]

I fixed the "commercial" header. I think we really should consider re doing this wiki landing page. I was hoping for the new design to be in first, but designers seem to be busy.

Anyone feels like suggesting a better homepage organization?

- Matt

[Chris Conrey]

Matt,

Thanks looks better.

I'd even go so far as to say that we should redo the whole rubyonrails.org landing page - its not super clear to a newb where to find things like the wiki.....

Back to the anti-spamming point - how would you like to deal with a spammy company listing?  contact the person who listed it or just self edit? (primarily pointing out RoRGuru's listing....)

Chris Conrey
chrisconrey.com
Human->Geek Relations at Integrum
@conrey on Twitter

[Chris Conrey]

Ok formatting changes made to the development shops page here at http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/developmentfirms  grouped by continent then country in a west to east format for the continents then alphabetical by country, then alphabetical by firm.   

Chris Conrey
chrisconrey.com
Human->Geek Relations at Integrum
@conrey on Twitter

[Jeremy McAnally]

Why not just say "Hey look at WorkingWithRails.com"? Seems like we're
duplicating information that will inevitably be incomplete and out of
date.

--Jeremy

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[Matt Aimonetti]

Why not just say "Hey look at WorkingWithRails.com"?

Mainly because most of the companies on workingwithrails.com are not Rails development firms. However, I would love to see a well organized consulting shop listing with clients, comments, historic etc.. Maybe I should look at what linkedin offers or contact the working with rails guys.

- Matt

[Chris Conrey]

I've looked into the LinkedIn option and also WWR - the problem we're going to have with both of those - and the wiki itself - is people are putting their own classification on if they are a Rails development shop or not, and are responsible for keeping their own listing up to date.

Perhaps a way to "report" a link from the wiki that is no longer up to date or relevant?

Chris Conrey
chrisconrey.com
Human->Geek Relations at Integrum
@conrey on Twitter

[Jeremy McAnally]

Well, even outside of that issue you're going to (a) get a diluted
list anyway you do it and (b) in the big fat list format, it's hard to
really read and get any useful information out of. I mean, it's
relatively tame right now and I find it hard to read. Maybe split the
content up more somehow?

I don't know; I'm just tossing out ideas here. :) I think we need a
canonical list of companies, but maybe it should be handled by
something that's more suited to it or we need to spend some time
setting up a good structure for it so it's a lot more useful.

What do you guys think?

--Jeremy

[Matt Aimonetti]

I think we need a canonical list of companies, but maybe it should be handled by something that's more suited to it or we need to spend some time setting up a good structure for it so it's a lot more useful.

I agree, I just think the wiki is a good place until we have something better. I also wonder if anyone would be willing to actually create what's required.

- Matt

[Chris Conrey]

Jeremy and Matt,

What would you like to see more for a canonical list of companies?  I agree the wiki isn't perfect, but it is better than the old version, and it's the best we have right now.

Chris Conrey
chrisconrey.com
Human->Geek Relations at Integrum
@conrey on Twitter

[Jeremy McAnally]

Hrm I don't know. I think maybe as Matt suggested, stick with the
wiki for now and build something better and more tailored.

Perhaps we could toss the idea out to the list or blog and see what
people come up with?

--Jeremy

[Chris Conrey]

That's my opinion - if we know what we want it to be it is a lot easier to make it happen.

Chris Conrey
chrisconrey.com
Human->Geek Relations at Integrum
@conrey on Twitter