# One-Click Ruby Installer needs a new home, can you help him?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 19, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282 "2009-05-19T05:46:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282/1 "2009-05-19T05:46:39Z")

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Original posted on my blog:

[http://blog.mmediasys.com/2009/05/19/rubyinstaller-one-clicks-need-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/](http://blog.mmediasys.com/2009/05/19/rubyinstaller-one-clicks-need-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/)

===

I must say that my skills to ask for something are really lacking, and  
my design skills are even worse.

So, I’m bringing this topic to the table, seeking for ideas on how to  
improve the Ruby on Windows image beyond just code.

I’m willing to offer money to pay for it, since I’m quite aware that  
Open Source and contributions don’t put food on the table.

Of course, I’m not rich, so the balance needs to be found 😃

So, what is the idea:

```
* Build the website with Radiant or a simple CMS over Ruby
* Design needs to be simple and provide access to:
     1. News feed (small articles)
     2. Download info and links
     3. Getting Started Resources (info and links)
     4. Contribute (RubyForge and GitHub info)
     5. Support (access to mailing list and forums of interest)
* Initial artwork (logo and iso) already exist
* Application icons can be highly improved :D

```

For the record: there is no need to be a Windows user or designer, so  
people on Linux and OSX are welcome 😉

If there is more interest, maybe a Bounty can be opened, but time,  
feedback and community response will tell.

Please, comment and pass the message!

---

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**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 9:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282/2 "2009-05-19T09:32:48Z")

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2009/5/19 Luis L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> Original posted on my blog:
> 
> [http://blog.mmediasys.com/2009/05/19/rubyinstaller-one-clicks-need-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/](http://blog.mmediasys.com/2009/05/19/rubyinstaller-one-clicks-need-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/)
> 
> ===
> 
> I must say that my skills to ask for something are really lacking, and

Indeed, it’s not clear what you are asking 😉

> So, what is the idea:
> 
> Â Â \* Build the website with Radiant or a simple CMS over Ruby

Building a web site is one thing but running it is another.  
Do you already have some hosting, or are you seeking a complete  
solution?  
If you do have one what are the features it provides, or what do you  
expect from the new one?

> Â Â \* Design needs to be simple and provide access to:  
> Â Â Â Â 1. News feed (small articles)  
> Â Â Â Â 2. Download info and links  
> Â Â Â Â 3. Getting Started Resources (info and links)  
> Â Â Â Â 4. Contribute (RubyForge and GitHub info)  
> Â Â Â Â 5. Support (access to mailing list and forums of interest)

Here it seems that aside the news articles everything else is hosted  
off the website, and only interface for picking articles on these  
topics is needed.

> Â Â \* Initial artwork (logo and iso) already exist  
> Â Â \* Application icons can be highly improved 😃

This is not related to the web site, is it?

Thanks

Michal

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**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282/3 "2009-05-19T14:55:58Z")

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On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 4:32 AM, Michal S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> 

Thank you, thank you, I do my best.

> > So, what is the idea:
> > 
> > - Build the website with Radiant or a simple CMS over Ruby
> 
> Building a web site is one thing but running it is another.

I’m going to take care of the hosting.

> Do you already have some hosting, or are you seeking a complete solution?

Well, again hosting is going to be out of my pocket too, so if a  
generous company thinks that One-Click Ruby Installer deserves a  
homepage and they could host it, will be awesome, but I’m not holding  
my breath.

> If you do have one what are the features it provides, or what do you  
> expect from the new one?

Well, the Wiki is unattractive, and hard to maintain. Doing gardering  
on the wiki takes longer, even with the help of some contributors in  
the past.

The website idea is offer, clean and simple a door to Ruby on Windows  
resources, which is often hard to find, mostly due lack of integration  
or growth on ruby-lang to hold this different things.

> 

Like a Wiki 🙂

> > - Initial artwork (logo and iso) already exist
> > - Application icons can be highly improved 😃
> 
> This is not related to the web site, is it?

Well, the logo is, the favicon is 🙂

> Thanks

Thanks to you!

Cheers,

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**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282/4 "2009-05-19T16:25:52Z")

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2009/5/19 Luis L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 4:32 AM, Michal S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > 2009/5/19 Luis L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):  
> > …
> > 
> > > Â Â \* Build the website with Radiant or a simple CMS over Ruby  
> > > my breath.  
> > > I think that hosting a web site (as opposed a download site) is not  
> > > completely out of question.

However, it is necessary to know what kind of hosting is required.

Still if you hosted the site yourself it would be sort of reassuring  
to know that as long as the the installer is going forward the site is  
likely to stay, too.

> resources, which is often hard to find, mostly due lack of integration
> 
> > Here it seems that aside the news articles everything else is hosted  
> > off the website, and only interface for picking articles on these  
> > topics is needed.
> 
> Like a Wiki 🙂

No, unlike a Wiki.

There are a couple of differences between a wiki and a newsfeed.

First, only few authorized people can typically post news articles on  
a news site but next to anybody can improve or spam a Wiki.

Second, a wiki is an unorganized cloud of random (des)information bits  
while a news site is more structured. It has typically articles sorted  
by time and category with some reasonable selection shown on the top  
page. Any attempts to force categorization on Wikis I have seen so far  
proved futile.

I imagine it is possible to turn commit messages and release notes for  
downloads into news articles automatically if they are hosted on a  
reasonably cooperative site.

A script could easily select the newest article from each important  
category to create a clean and simple top page that offers all  
important information in one place.

> > > Â Â \* Initial artwork (logo and iso) already exist  
> > > Â Â \* Application icons can be highly improved 😃
> > 
> > This is not related to the web site, is it?
> 
> Well, the logo is, the favicon is 🙂

Perhaps I got too distracted by the application icon 🙂

Thanks

Michal

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**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282/5 "2009-05-19T18:59:10Z")

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Luis L. wrote:

> improve the Ruby on Windows image beyond just code.  
> 1. News feed (small articles)  
> If there is more interest, maybe a Bounty can be opened, but time,  
> feedback and community response will tell.
> 
> Please, comment and pass the message!

If you need, I can host that site when it will be finished. For free, of  
course!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282/6 "2009-05-20T01:19:07Z")

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On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Michal S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> 

Well, I believe the hosting part of the equation is not a problem.  
Downloads are going to be located as usual at RubyForge.

The intention of this is not replace RubyForge for bug reporting or  
downloads, but provide a better, simplified and clean access to Ruby  
for Windows, which ruby-lang is not offering and neither RubyForge or  
the current Wiki page.

> However, it is necessary to know what kind of hosting is required.

I mention the development of the site in Radiant CMS or a Ruby CMS, so  
the hosting is going to be Ruby/Rails based.

> Still if you hosted the site yourself it would be sort of reassuring  
> to know that as long as the the installer is going forward the site is  
> likely to stay, too.

Well, that’s what I said, I intend to host myself. Also, I intend to  
contribute with my personal money for the design of it.

> > Like a Wiki 🙂
> 
> No, unlike a Wiki.

Well, I tried to be ironic, but I meant to say more as Knowledge Base  
containing links to the different resources in the different  
categories: from compiling to using Ruby in different scenarios  
(either on Windows or deploys from it to Linux).

> …
> 
> I imagine it is possible to turn commit messages and release notes for  
> downloads into news articles automatically if they are hosted on a  
> reasonably cooperative site.

Manual administration is not going to be a problem, being the central  
location of all this will make things more easy.

> A script could easily select the newest article from each important  
> category to create a clean and simple top page that offers all  
> important information in one place.

Which basically Radiant can do it with some Ruby magic.

> Perhaps I got too distracted by the application icon 🙂

Sorry 🙂

So, in better words I think I going to run this as a  
Bounty/Contest/Challenge:

I’m going to open a Pledgie, and put some money there. This means the  
designers that want to participate will need to be able to collect  
money using Paypal.

Next, Designers can create mockups of the homepage, and use “as  
inspiration” the logo/branding for the installer that already exist:

[http://blog.mmediasys.com/2008/03/29/progress-of-one-click-installer-rubyinstaller/](http://blog.mmediasys.com/2008/03/29/progress-of-one-click-installer-rubyinstaller/)

Important things the site needs to allow:

- Simple, clean, friendly design.
- Latest news about releases.
- Latest version information
- Latest Links added to the Knowledge Base
- Access to Download information pages
- Access to Knowledge Base pages
- Access to Get Help pages
- Access to Contribute information pages

Advance details:

- Download information will contain both 1.8 and 1.9 latest downloads.
- Prior download can be accessed via RubyForge
- Knowledge Base pages are small descriptions and links to the source  
of the information, either a blog, a wiki or a screencast being hosted  
elsewhere.
- Get Help pages are going to summarize mailing list or groups where  
users will likely get more feedback about their issues running Ruby on  
Windows.
- Contribute will provide links and information to access RubyForge or  
GitHub and what are the requirements to help on the project.

Mockups are going to be open to the wild as a poll, and people will pick  
them.

Pledgie will remain active until deadline of the poll.

Once the poll deadline has reached, the best mockup which follows the  
above criteria is going to be selected as “winner”, which leads us to  
the next point:

Before any designer do the mock up, they need to consider:

- Once design is approved, both hompages and inner page needs to be  
completed as valid HTML+CSS
- Cross browser (yeah, IE, I’m talking about that beast) needs to be  
considered as supported.
- Designer could have experience integrating this with Radiant and  
provide advice, but is not mandatory.
- Full pledgie money is going to be paid when HTML and CSS elements  
are handed over to RubyInstaller project team, in public, using a Git  
repository.
- Credits and copyright of the design will remains in the design  
owner, but he must give authorization for usage in [rubyinstaller.org](http://rubyinstaller.org).

I want this be the most clean, clear and public as possible. I want  
community choose what community likes, not what my personal taste  
dictates.

All the money collected up to the date of the poll is going to be  
transfered, so is a risk, could be 100 or could be 2K, community will  
decide.

Sounds good? I’m going to take this copy and use for the pledgie 😉

Cheers,

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**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 11:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/one-click-ruby-installer-needs-a-new-home-can-you-help-him/168282/7 "2009-05-21T11:34:44Z")

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2009/5/20 Luis L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> [http://blog.mmediasys.com/2008/03/29/progress-of-one-click-installer-rubyinstaller/](http://blog.mmediasys.com/2008/03/29/progress-of-one-click-installer-rubyinstaller/)  
> I think asking for mockups is the wrong thing to do. I am not sure a  
> good tool for eveluating future web design exists but to me it looks  
> like mockups are not the tool.

There is a disturbing tendency to design web pages as flyers and then  
forcing the flyer into HTML without regard to web functionality.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that good colour balance is also part of  
functionality. However, adding right style to a working web is  
relatively easy due to CSS but making a good looking web usable tends  
to be very challenging. Often the desire to make the page look like  
the flyer on which it is based sacrifices much in the functionality,  
ease of use and compatibility departments.

There are probably some designers that are somewhat aware that the web  
has its specifics but judging from the state of pages I visit there  
are very few who actually understand the web.

Thanks

Michal