Proposal for "Getting Help" page for LilyPond web site

[Carl D. Sorensen]

I'm not sure who is currently managing the development of the main LilyPond
web page, so I'm not sure who this should be addressed to.

I just went to the LilyPond web site with the idea in mind of being a
totally new user, perhaps even a Windows user who has never jumped into the
Linux/Open Source/GDP community before.  I was a bit surprised by what I
found (or didn't find).  There was nothing on the front page about getting
help.  

The current paths are to go to Documentation / Support (which is reasonable,
but doesn't have anything about help in it directly), About / Contact (which
is also reasonable, but also doesn't have anything about help in it
directly).

What if we put a link under Quick Links on the main page, titled Getting
Help, which pointed to a Getting Help page?

The Getting Help page would have:

1) A statement saying that "LilyPond does not have a graphical interface",
and an embedded link to the crash course.

2) A statement saying that "The first thing you should do is read the
Learning Manual", with an embedded link to the tutorial part of the Learning
Manual.

3) A statement saying "Review the FAQ's and look at the wiki", with embedded
links to both the FAQ and the wiki.

4) A statement saying "There's a user mailing list available.  Start by
searching the archives (with an embedded link).  If you can't find an answer
in the archives, post your question to the list.  Before you post, please
review the suggestions for asking good questions." with embedded links to
both the user list email and to
<http://www.gerv.net/hacking/how-to-ask-good-questions/>

5) A statement saying "If you think you've found a bug, you'll want to
report in on the bug-lilypond mailing list." and a link to the current bug
reporting page <http://lilypond.org/web/devel/participating/bugs>.

I think such a page would be helpful to new users as a single point of
contact.

I'd be happy to help with this.

Thanks,

Carl