Add announcement banner

[ischoegl]

Changes proposed in this pull request

I noticed that the pydata-sphinx-theme project uses a banner to invite the community to contribute. I'd suggest doing the same for the Cantera project.

Here's a screenshot:

Checklist

• The pull request includes a clear description of this code change
• Commit messages have short titles and reference relevant issues
• Build passes (scons build & scons test) and unit tests address code coverage
• Style & formatting of contributed code follows contributing guidelines
• The pull request is ready for review

[bryanwweber]

This looks great. The only suggestion I have is to link to the Google group and suggest contributing there, too. I suspect we might be able to get people to answer questions from other users before code contributions.

[ischoegl]

This looks great. The only suggestion I have is to link to the Google group and suggest contributing there, too. I suspect we might be able to get people to answer questions from other users before code contributions.

Thanks for the suggestion! I changed the link to check out our User Group.

[speth]

I agree that making a more visible appeal for people to contribute to Cantera is a good idea.

However, I find the banner a little intrusive. It also seems to cause some positioning problems with the donation and NumFOCUS links that appear at the bottom of the navbar. As an alternative, what about putting this information at the bottom of the navbar along with those links?

[ischoegl]

I agree that making a more visible appeal for people to contribute to Cantera is a good idea.

However, I find the banner a little intrusive. It also seems to cause some positioning problems with the donation and NumFOCUS links that appear at the bottom of the navbar. As an alternative, what about putting this information at the bottom of the navbar along with those links?

@speth Thanks for pointing out the positioning issue - hadn't noticed, as it will go into the right place once you start scrolling (and the banner will disappear).

I actually like the intrusiveness of the banner, although I'm not convinced that the UG or the GH page are best for the redirects. Rather, I think that it would be good to have a page on 'getting involved' in the community section (which imho should move from the website to the main Sphinx docs, as the news section is outdated). It is my opinion that we need more people and shouldn't be shy about asking ...

[ischoegl]

@speth / @bryanwweber ... I added a PR for a new 'getting involved' page on Cantera/cantera-website#269 (suggestions are welcome!). Once that is in place, this would be the landing page for the banner link.

[ischoegl]

@speth … I updated the landing page and fixed the padding. I can tweak the banner color further (I based it on the orange in the Cantera logo and either reduced saturation or value to 25%; the screenshot on top is updated).

[bryanwweber]

For the first sentence, I think being more explicit would be good:

Cantera is a community-owned project and we need your help!

The second sentence, "contribute" doesn't sound right to me, but maybe that's just me ☺️ To actually offer a suggestion:

If you want to support Cantera, check out the Getting Involved page. Thank you!

Just a suggestion, you don't need to take it completely!

[ischoegl]

@bryanwweber ... thanks, but we need to be as short as possible (otherwise it will break into two lines as the window gets narrower). Here's another version:

Cantera is community-driven - want to help? Get involved here!

[bryanwweber]

That makes sense. What about dropping the question so it's more active and urgent:

Cantera is community-driven and needs your help! Get involved here

[ischoegl]

Sounds good! Here's what we have now:

and