Re: gnome-about-me

[John Williams <john williams lists gmail com>]

On Tue, 2005-08-02 at 19:52 -0700, Jeff Waugh wrote:

> There are many different sources of information we can use. We started by
> discussing passive information, such as popcon stats, ntp and web stats,
> etc. Having an active source will be very useful information though, even if
> as stat-cynics we don't think it will be ULTIMATELY AND COMPLETELY ACCURATE.
You are right to be a stat-cynic, if by that you mean that much published research and estimates of percentages are unreliable.

If, however, you mean that the science of statistics is useless (as
opposed to mis-used), I beg to differ.

> I know I'm repeating myself, but here's what I think the only really useful
> and sane strategy is: Put a link in the About GNOME box to a "stand up and
> be counted" web page on wgo. Simple, effective, and you don't even have to
> find the feature in your desktop (because it will be exposed on the site
> too).
Wouldn't it be more effective if it was in "About Me"?  The only
relevant issues I can see are:

1.  We assume that more users will see "About Me" than will see "About
GNOME"

2.  We assume that (major) distros will modify "About Me" and not "About
GNOME".

Can we get any comment on validity of assumption (1)?

Can we get ANY HARD DATA on assumption (2)?  Anyone lurking who works
for a major distro?

Bottom line:  it probably is not worth arguing too much about the
perfect place for this functionality.  What really matters is that it
happens.

-- 
John Williams
Research Analyst
Department of Marketing, Otago University
http://www.commerce.otago.ac.nz/marketing/staff/williamsj.html