Over the last year or so Reclaim Hosting has been working with Bryan Mathers to help us rebrand as an independent record label. I’ve already shown my love to Bryan’s work in other ways, but today I wanted to take a minute to showcase some of the really incredible work that Bryan has done for Community. In the last few months, we’ve slowly switched over from a Github external documentation site (previously at docs.reclaimhosting.com) to a Discourse Community forum page. Not only does this new space contain all external documentation, but gives users an area to ask for advice, post feature requests, and keep an open dialogue about all things Domain of One’s Own.
We’ve organized the Community site into seven categories:
1. Documentation: Guides to help you with a variety of tasks related to your domain and site. From WordPress to DNS you’ll find tutorials here to walk you through every step of the way. And if you don’t find a tutorial you need, create a topic and write one for the community!
I think my largest concern with this one was how it would look sized down on the Community site. But it has honestly really grown on me- the vinyl cover seems perfect for this category. I love the colorful nature of this piece, and I think it’s a great representation of the many subcategories that help organize our docs.
2. Questions: Everyone has questions and most likely someone here has an answer for you. Whether it be about hosting, domains, or anything else you need help with, this is the place to ask.
At first look, I immediately saw timmmmyboy, the answerer of all questions. And the question mark on the shirt is brilliant.
3. Feature Requests: The Feature Requests area of the community is the place to post fresh ideas for things you’d like to see implemented at Reclaim Hosting.
Possibly fan mail? ;)
4. Domain of One’s Own: Domain of One’s Own is a program that started at the University of Mary Washington in 2012 to give every student, faculty, and staff the opportunity to get their own domain and web space. Today Reclaim Hosting offers structured domain programs at over 40 institutions.
“As I turned my turned my amp up loud and began to play…”
5. General: Topics that don’t need a category, or don’t fit into any other existing category.
A record player, capable of playing any and all tunes, is fitting for obvious reasons. And a really subtle but brilliant touch: the record playing there is actually one that Bryan gave us a while back:
^Top left: Reclaim’s cloud hosting ensures that your content is stored simultaneously in multiple places.
6. Blog: Announcements from our website syndicate to this category for discussion.
Also want to take a moment to say that I love how all the artwork has this consistent scribbled background in a light gray color.
7. Meta: Discussion about this site, its organization, how it works, and how we can improve it.
Though similar to work in the past, I like the idea of a storefront being representative of the Meta category. And as Bryan puts it, “What’s more meta than outside the store looking in?”
And my personal favorite…. a notice board that represents the entire community site as a whole. I love that both older artwork (Flame Thrower, Repo Man, EduPunk) and newer artwork are incorporated on the same board. I think that it’s a true testament to all that Reclaim is; we’re constantly building on ourselves as a company– today’s work becomes an addition to yesterday’s work, and so forth. I also love the notice board metaphor not only for as a communal space but as a place to showcase the work and needs of an individual. It is our goal to eventually have case studies up on the site to highlight the awesome work that people are doing with Reclaim, and this graphic might be the perfect stepping stone to that.
