[Usability]Application specific path conventions

[Mathew Johnston <johnston capsaicin ca>]

As an administrator, I'm noticing that application settings are not
being stored in intuitive locations. 

For example, galeon stores its drop down list history in gconf path
/apps/gnome-settings/galeon-snapshot/ while most other settings are in
/apps/galeon-snapshot. Why is this? Why do applications store some
settings in ~/.gnome2, and some in ~/.gnome2_private?

An, administration, or architecture, section in the HIG may be useful to
address these issues.

I've seen posts by other people which complain about these things.
Perhaps all that's needed is clear documentation (maybe a README file in
the directories?) that describes the point of them? I am clueless as to
why apps put settings into anything other than ~/.appname/, until
someone gives me a good reason :)

Thanks,
Mat.