Re: AppMenu design feedback

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

On Mon, 2013-02-25 at 10:36 +0100, Donato Marrazzo wrote:

> > Developers have regular meetings on IRC.
> I expect that IRC channel is for people actively involved in
> developing and design.

Yes, exactly.

> As "normal" user, I'd like left an "asynchronous" feedback... and
> since it seems that many share my concerns, I hope that somebody from
> design team take it in count.

I agree and very much understand what you mean.... but after 20+ years
in Open Source... it just doesn't really work that way.  If you feel
strongly about something you need to dig in to be heard, to have
influence.  Making comments just isn't going to make it happen.

I don't know if there is an 'official' term for the people - but I call
them 'pitchers'.  They drive by and 'pitch' messages, ideas, thoughts,
criticisms, criticisms, criticisms, and more criticisms, etc... over the
fence at developers.  Most never even slow down. Here is there
idea/comment/criticism/... and a set of tail lights receding to the
horizon.  If, as a developer, you took time to deal with every message
that came over the fence you'd actually never do any development.  And
it would be REALLY depressing as most of what comes over is ad-hoc,
misinformed, and generally content free.

[aside... I could be doing development right now.... I slap the back of
my own head]

Corporations have teams of people to take that stuff, make people
***FEEL HEARD***, and - most importantly - to shield developers from the
noise; so that developers can develop.  Open Source doesn't have that.
Developers need to insulate themselves [many won't call it this, but
again 20 years.... that is what is happening].

You've completed the important step of filing a bug or following a bug.
Now it helps just to mention it as many places as possible [but all
*appropriate places], so maybe it slides across the right persons
field-of-view.  That helps.  I do not think this list counts, AFAIK, I
haven't seen anything that indicates much developer involvement here.
At leasing popping onto the right IRC channel and mentioning the bug
might help.    Or post a bounty on something like
<http://www.freedomsponsors.org/>, one never knows, you might get a
comp-sci student to take a look for beer money.

And with all things human, being known helps [having karma].  Having a
couple developers who recognize your e-mail address, name, etc...  I
know I am much more likely to respond to messages from people I
recognize from over the years - they get some automatic credibility.
So I always recommend to get involved in a project at least a little
bit;  if you enjoy and use GNOME why not throw in a little time on the
bug squad <https://live.gnome.org/Bugsquad/>  That doesn't require
developer know-how, can make a real difference for the project, and
builds karma.  You'll learn stuff and meet fun people.

> Often I use vmware for my daily job, so maybe that it's the root
> cause... 
> I really appreciate when after killing gnome-shell, it restart without
> killing apps... but I have a dream: working without gnome-shell
> freeze/restarts.

Agree.  I have not been able to nail down what exactly happens here.  

> I've filed a bug, but maybe there something wrong because nobody
> answer:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=913095

Is there a reason the bug is on RedHat and not the GNOME bugzilla?  I'd
guess that upstream is a better place.