Ratanagiri Proposed Site Structure

gistfile1.md

General Notes

• The index for the site is a splash page with the picture of the monk alone on the hill (per Aj. Munindo's wishes to get folks to slow down).
• Josh thinks we should try to keep the navigation as flat as possible (i.e. not nesting more than 2 deep) and put more content on a single page for greater usability.
• Photo galleries should be keyboard-navigable (hit the right arrow to move forward, left arrow to move back)
• Josh omitted the links page because they've fallen out of use in favor of links within content itself.
• Josh likes the idea of a random (or monthly) Dhp verse, possibly in the footer, but this would require dynamic content, which he believes Jekyll can't do.

#Page Layout:

• 960 (or so) px width. (The current site is about 850 px, but 960 is fairly standard.)
• Main navigation across top of page (like http://www.abhayagiri.org, but bigger fonts)
• Breadcrumbs (e.g. "Home -> Monastery -> Monastic training")
• Contact Us in footer

#Site Navigation:

• Home
• Monastery
  • Daily Visits
  • Staying
  • Retreats
  • Our Community
  • Governance (rethink this)
  • Monastic Training
• Teachings
  • Listening
    • Dhamma Talks Collection
  • Reading
• Offerings
  • Dana
  • Donations
• News
  • Blog
  • Calendar
  • Photos
    • (One per photo gallery)

#Page Contents (Bullet points under each page are intended to be subheadings or a description of the content in each page.)

###Home

• The purpose of the site
• A brief list of "If you'd like to do X, check out Y" (per Andrew White's suggestion, where Y is a link to one of the pages above)

###Monastery

• Aruna Ratanagiri
• Kusala House
• Daily Schedule
• House Rules
• Library
• Walks

###Monastery -> Daily Visits

• Directions
• House rules

###Monastery -> Daily Visits

• (How much advance notice, no visits during winter retreat, etc.)
• Book a visit form (submits to whomever the guest monk is)

Monastery -> Staying

• What to expect
• 2012 Schedule

Monstery -> Retreats

• Book a retreat form (submits to Kathanne Jones)
• What to expect
• 2012 Schedule

Monastery -> Our Community

• Introductory paragraph on the Sangha
• A picture and short bio on each monk and lay resident

Monastery -> Governance

• About the trust (Josh doesn't know much about what should go here)
• Committee member bios (with pictures, just like the monastics and lay residents)

Monastery -> Monastic training

• Becoming a monk
• Link to Ajahn Munindo's talk on monastic discipline

Teachings

• How to listen to a live talk

Teachings -> Dhamma Talks

• Link to subscribe to podcast
• All available talks, categorized by teacher, year, subject

Teaching -> Listening

• Details on subscribing to a podcast
• Available podcasts
• Links to any other recommended listening

Teaching -> Listening -> Dhamma Talk Collection

• Details on subscribing to a podcast
• List of Available podcasts

Teaching -> Reading

• Brief paragraph pointing to FSP

Give

• An introduction on the role of generosity in buddhism

Give -> Dana

• What the monastery can use

Give -> Donation

• Donation form, details

News

• Intro paragraph

News -> Blog

• (self-explanatory)

News -> Calendar

• Something like:

an embedded Google Calendar (or calendars) for the monastery, similar to Ajahn Brahm's itinerary: http://www.ajahnbrahm.org/

or a calendar RSS feed like Abhayagiri's: http://feed.abhayagiri.org/abm_calendar/

News -> Photos

• Combined photo galleries (these could use some updated content since the latest stuff from Aruno is 2009)

#Future Plans

• Get the site to look nice on mobile devices
• Search bar

#Open questions:

• How will we publish the blog as an RSS feed?