# Quarto-based mc-stan.org website - check it out!

**URL:** <https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321>\
**Category:** Announcements\
**Created:** [November 21, 2024, 4:15am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321 "2024-11-21T04:15:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mitzimorris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/mitzimorris/32/29_2.png) [@mitzimorris](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/mitzimorris)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 4:15am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/1 "2024-11-21T04:15:30Z")

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Please check out the new version of the Stan project’s mc dash stan dot org website which is designed to harmonize with the Stan docs: [Stan](https://mitzimorris.github.io/stan-website/)

This website is designed to make it easy to install and learn Stan. Under the “Learning Resources” tab we’ve added a new page linking to all the talks and videos from all StanCons, as well as a listing of all StanConnect sessions under “Domain-specific Resources”.

Comments, issues, and contributions welcome. Currently this repo is on my github account, but in the future, this will move to the stan-dev repo `stan-dev.github.io`.

Many thanks to Vianey Leos Barajas and Brian Ward for collaboration and feedback.

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**Author:** ![spinkney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@spinkney](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/spinkney)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 11:08am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/2 "2024-11-21T11:08:24Z")

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Looks good and I like the refreshed language.

For getting started add Stan playground and that you can try Stan out in your browser.

I think a super simple Stan program should be front and center with a short explanation of it. The meaning of it should convey, “This is what Stan looks like and it’s not scary!”. Then a link to run it in Stan playground.

I can put my hierarchical models tutorial from Stancon24 on here or we can move it somewhere. Let me know.

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**Author:** ![mitzimorris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/mitzimorris/32/29_2.png) [@mitzimorris](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/mitzimorris)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 2:06pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/3 "2024-11-21T14:06:36Z")

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> [@spinkney](#):
>
> I think a super simple Stan program should be front and center with a short explanation of it. The meaning of it should convey, “This is what Stan looks like and it’s not scary!”. Then a link to run it in Stan playground.

Excellent suggestion!

A few more things I should have mentioned:

The current home for this repo is: [GitHub - mitzimorris/stan-website: Do-over of mc-stan.org using quarto and mc-stan.org/docs theming](https://github.com/mitzimorris/stan-website) please submit issues and/or PRs to fix what’s there or build it out further

There’s a lot of room for improvement on the landing page (see above). These are the concerns and constraints:

- How did the visitor land here? There are a lot of use cases, but given that more people haven’t heard of Stan (sad) than have, we need a compelling, short overview which speaks to the visitor’s needs.
- For folks who are already using Stan, the top nav bar should answer the most-likely questions.
- The landing page should also convey that we’re open-source and friendly.
- Does this look good on your phone?

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**Author:** ![jonah](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/jonah/32/200_2.png) [@jonah](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/jonah)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/4 "2024-11-21T21:42:43Z")

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> [@mitzimorris](#):
>
> Please check out the new version of the [mc-stan.org](http://mc-stan.org) website which is designed to harmonize with the Stan docs: [Stan](https://mitzimorris.github.io/stan-website/)

One thing I just noticed is that (as of this moment) there are 27 clicks on the [mc-stan.org](http://mc-stan.org) link but only 9 clicks on the link to your new draft site. I think people may think the first link is going to the _new_ [mc-stan.org](http://mc-stan.org) site but it’s actually to the existing one and the second link is to your new one.

I think the new draft of the website looks great. Thank you for working on this! I opened one small GitHub issue already and I’ll try to make some time soon to go through the rest of it and see what I notice.

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**Author:** ![mitzimorris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/mitzimorris/32/29_2.png) [@mitzimorris](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/mitzimorris)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 10:21pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/5 "2024-11-21T22:21:35Z")

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thanks. evidently any word suffixed with “.com” or “.org” get linked - e.g. [thisisnotaurl.com](http://thisisnotaurl.com) and [wowdiscourseistupid.com](http://wowdiscourseistupid.com).

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**Author:** ![jonah](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/jonah/32/200_2.png) [@jonah](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/jonah)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 10:28pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/6 "2024-11-21T22:28:13Z")

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> [@mitzimorris](#):
>
> evidently any word suffixed with “.com” or “.org” get linked - e.g. [thisisnotaurl.com](http://thisisnotaurl.com) and [wowdiscourseistupid.com](http://wowdiscourseistupid.com).

Oh, you’re right. Looks like it did that in my comment too, which I wasn’t intending.

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**Author:** ![wds15](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/wds15/32/908_2.png) [@wds15](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/wds15)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 1:18pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/7 "2024-11-22T13:18:27Z")

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Hi!

The new site looks great. You could consider to include a Biostats domain specific web-site - [Applied Modelling in Drug Development](https://opensource.nibr.com/bamdd/) - to be included. Not sure I found it. This site has been open-sourced by Novartis, my employer.

Best,  
Sebastian

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**Author:** ![Sinval](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/sinval/32/18680_2.png) [@Sinval](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/Sinval)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 6:18am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/8 "2024-11-26T06:18:25Z")

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I would add `blavaan` to the [High-level modeling interfaces](https://mitzimorris.github.io/stan-website/tools/tools.html#high-level-modeling-interfaces) list.

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**Author:** ![mitzimorris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/mitzimorris/32/29_2.png) [@mitzimorris](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/mitzimorris)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 2:44pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/9 "2024-12-02T14:44:27Z")

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thanks for this! is `blavaan` just for SEMs? in which case, there’s another category of things to list: currently maintained packages built on Stan.

reopened this issue: [curated list of tools and packages like CRAN task view · Issue #6 · mitzimorris/stan-website · GitHub](https://github.com/mitzimorris/stan-website/issues/6)

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**Author:** ![Sinval](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/sinval/32/18680_2.png) [@Sinval](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/Sinval)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 2:53pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/quarto-based-mc-stan-org-website-check-it-out/37321/10 "2024-12-02T14:53:47Z")

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Although `blavaan` can run models without latent variables (i.e., regression/path analysis) it was designed mainly for Bayesian SEM.