James Britt wrote:
> Add this to your hosts file;
> 
> 207.44.216.66  beta.ruby-doc.org
> 
> and browse to
> 
> http://beta.ruby-doc.org/

I can't do beautiful design.  If I tried to design myself out of a paper 
bag, I'd probably suffocate, so take my comments with a grain of salt...

but yuck.

That page is *way* too busy for my tastes.  I'm overwhelmed with 
bold-face, small-font links all over the place that overflow their 
boxes.  At a glance, I have no idea what I'm looking at, and no way to 
find what I'm looking for.  I'm sure the links are useful, I just don't 
feel invited to click on any of them.  I don't know if they have to do 
with Ruby or not, and don't know what I'll get when I click on them.

Then there's a huge ad over on the right side of the page, which makes 
the overall layout look like the type of page you find when you mistype 
a URL and end up at a page that's trying to make money off people 
mistyping URLs.

Overall, it has the aesthetics and user-friendliness of the classified 
section of a newspaper.  Classified sections have their uses, it's just 
not something that you want to cozy up with and read for fun.

But, like I said, I am no graphic designer.  I just have my own likes 
and dislikes.  It's not my site, and despite its flaws it has a lot more 
useful ruby information than my site ever did.  On the other hand, it's 
not where I'd send anybody for more information on Ruby.

I think any redesign efforts should focus on ruby-lang.org, and not any 
of the other Ruby sites anyhow.  Instead of your having to put up ads to 
help pay for your bandwidth, people should be able to access Ruby 
documentation at ruby-lang.org (at least in my opinion).

Anyhow, I really don't want to be harsh or mean.  I really appreciate 
that you're hosting the most comprehensive set of Ruby documentation out 
there right now.  That's a real service to Ruby programmers.  I just 
don't happen to be on the same aesthetic wavelength as you.

Ben