Currently it is difficult for users to stay up to date with new features unless they are actively following me or watching the repository on GitHub. To fix this I suggest two new features:
Update Banner
When a new update is released there should be a banner at the top of the page containing the following information:
UPDATE vX.X.X
- Short summary of changes
- Changes that are relevant for the end user, i.e. no developer changes
- Link to full changelog for this update (either PR or CHANGELOG.md)
- "Want to know about updates in the future?" which prompts them to subscribe to the Newsletter.
When the banner is collapsed the update title and one line of the summary should be visible. Everything else will need the user to open the panel.
Dismissing the panel should collapse it into an icon in the corner. It should remain dismissed between refreshes until the next update or maybe even permanently. It would be nice if the default wasn't to hide it forever though.
Newsletter
Since this isn't the kind of website you interact with often the banner may easily be missed. Therefore there could be a monthly newsletter which users could subscribe to if they wish to be notified of updates by email.
In order to not spam users with emails the newsletter should clump updates together and send them out as one email at the end of the month. If there have only been minor changes this month they are sent next month instead. The newsletter should also be as easy to unsubscribe from as possible, I've seen an "Unsubscribe" button sometimes appear in Gmail which I would like to make sure appears.
It would be convenient if the newsletter was drafted automatically based on the changelog, perhaps through GitHub Actions.
Currently it is difficult for users to stay up to date with new features unless they are actively following me or watching the repository on GitHub. To fix this I suggest two new features:
Update Banner
When a new update is released there should be a banner at the top of the page containing the following information:
UPDATE vX.X.X
When the banner is collapsed the update title and one line of the summary should be visible. Everything else will need the user to open the panel.
Dismissing the panel should collapse it into an icon in the corner. It should remain dismissed between refreshes until the next update or maybe even permanently. It would be nice if the default wasn't to hide it forever though.
Newsletter
Since this isn't the kind of website you interact with often the banner may easily be missed. Therefore there could be a monthly newsletter which users could subscribe to if they wish to be notified of updates by email.
In order to not spam users with emails the newsletter should clump updates together and send them out as one email at the end of the month. If there have only been minor changes this month they are sent next month instead. The newsletter should also be as easy to unsubscribe from as possible, I've seen an "Unsubscribe" button sometimes appear in Gmail which I would like to make sure appears.
It would be convenient if the newsletter was drafted automatically based on the changelog, perhaps through GitHub Actions.