757dev.org Redesign/Relaunch

[BretFisher]

Since the launch of 757dev Slack team 1.5 years ago, the name 757dev has started to become a "brand" for the Hampton Roads developer and designer community. Walking around RevConf 2016 I heard people referring to the community with things like "you should get into our 757dev community"... and realized it's become more than Slack. Kevin's now renamed polyglot "catch-all" meetup org to 757dev so I thought it would be a perfect time for us to discuss what 757dev.org should/could be.

Current code in this repo was the 1.0 of 757dev.org just meant to be a slack invite request. It should be tossed aside and replaced.

The vision I had for 757dev.org was a simple and beautiful splash page that served a few purposes that solve problems that keep coming up (in order of importance):

1. slack invite. even though anyone can invite, often people just want to request invite.
2. post our code of conduct to help keep it awesome for everyone.
3. For a newcomer, answer the question "what dev/design events are going on in HR". Weekly I run into someone in the local tech industry that doesn't know about us and doesn't realize how awesome and organized we are. I then end up in a mess of "go to this to get slack, then so search this on meetup, then go to revconf... etc". I really just want to say "goto 757dev.org"
4. provide a overview/list/links of major yearly events... nodebots, revconf, devfest, Code Across (Code4HR), etc.
5. logo for 757dev. everything needs a logo.
6. eventually, once we've got other things refined, it would be great to have a curated calendar of all related meetups and events on the page with rss feed or something. But that's a harder problem to solve and not as important as other goals.

getting involved

For now what we need help with is just putting the work in of locking down these goals into tasks and doing the work for the first two items above. Please discuss below, or in 757dev slack #757dev-org-relaunch channel.

And thanks for being 💥 Awesome ‼️

[BretFisher]

[BretFisher]

More thoughts on how to help:

• Designers: post screen shots or links to demo pages for things like design, logo, and content blocks
• Google Fu: find other cities that have done this and post them for inspiration (I know Boston is one, maybe Raleigh, but don't remember links)
• Writers/Marketers: come up with verbiage for how we communicate our awesomeness
• Community Know-It-All's: craft a list of yearly events in here, with event links, dates (if set), and logo/brand links if they exist.
• Coders: how we should run the slack invite. Maybe just keep it simple in vanella js hitting the slack webhook in client-side-js from a submit box. If it gets abused we can do something different. This way we won't need backend js (like I had with Meteor). I originally did that to prevent slack api misuse, rate limit, human validation, etc. but i'm likely over paranoid.

[BretFisher]

Also, ideally this is just static html/js served off github, maybe Jekyll, so we don't get too fancy too quick with backends, needing CI/CD, etc. Trying to keep it focused on a marketing page for all we do together...

[pchinjr]

I propose that we add the 757Makerspace to the list of user groups. Their space allows a lot of development and a great entry point for new coders.

[BretFisher]

@pchinjr can you grab proper links and image for us to use in the list and update your comment above with it?

[pchinjr]

[pchinjr]

www.757makerspace.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/757Makerspace/
Location host for Pop Up Robots on Third Thursdays of the month
Weekly classes on Saturdays 10am for kids 12pm for teens & adults
Monthly Open Build Night on First Friday of the month

[cupofjoey]

I'm thinking a sticky banner "Join Our Slack Page" for when you scroll down. Will help with new folks from ECPI or ODU if they come wandering onto the site.

[cupofjoey]

Are we anti-Bootstrap for this project btw?

[BretFisher]

I'm not anti anything that gets the job done.

On Aug 2, 2016, at 8:34 PM, Joe Hill notifications@github.com wrote:

Are we anti-Bootstrap for this project btw?

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[mnrowe]

I started working on this just trying to get something up, and running. I want to add a FAQ page that could help answer a lot of reoccurring questions in the community. If anyone with more insight on good questions to answer, I'm all ears as I have only been attending meetups for a month.

I'm gonna try to get around to writing better documentation so it will be easier to maintain and layout goals. If anyone wants to help I'll be in the 757dev slack just message me. I should be able to work on it after work and on weekends.

https://github.com/mnrowe/757dev
https://757dev.netlify.com/