Re: [OT] Acronyms again [Re: [Usability] GNOME 2.6+ usability: points of critique]

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004, John Spray wrote:

> Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:22:41 +0100
> From: John Spray <jcs116 york ac uk>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [OT] Acronyms again [Re: [Usability] GNOME 2.6+ usability:
>     points of critique]


> I think this is one area where people have become justifiably touchy:
> there have been umteen people writing whiny articles about how much
> better gnome was back in the day.  I for one am sick and tired of people
> threatening to stop using GNOME, as if to try and dignify their whining
> with blackmail.

I think most Gnome developers are mature enough not to take it personally,
and see past the bluster and try to figure out if there really is a
problem to be solved and something we can improve upon.

Like I said no matter how good it gets there will always be something
to complain about and we should try and sort the wheat from the chaff,
distill the problem from the hot air.

> It's as if they expect that all the other GNOME developers and users
> will throw up their hands and say "Were we stoned or something?  Let's
> put everything back as it was in 1.2!".  It's bloody irritating, and I
> don't think that anyone but callcentre staff has a duty to not express
> their irritation.

While I understand how easy it would be to treat his message harshly we
should not give in to that temptation.

We may not be forced to be nice to hostile users but simply by being on a
Gnome list you represent the Gnome community whether you like it or not
and being rude reflects badly on the real heros of Gnome, those who
quietly work hard to improve things and rise above the squabbles.

We want people to use Gnome, and with that comes people with lots of
criticisms and we have to try and treat them as fairly as the first person
that made those same criticisms.  It is very easy to forget that the
written words can seem far more harsh then the writer originally intended,
good writing in English is difficult (I dont claim to be a good writer and
English is my first langauge, I wouldn't have used the dodgy analogy
above if i was a good writer :).

Not all users can be helpful and productive members of the community but
if we are polite and encourging we might be able to redirect their anger
into helping fix the problems and they might stick around long enough to
learn how to contribute.

> A user complaining about a specific bug is fine, and should not be
> dismissed with "fix it yourself".  A user making such sweeping
> complaints about software that he claims he will not be continuing to
> use invites scorn.

> Mr. Fendt seems to be complaining not just about specific software but
> the entire community that's behind GNOME, since software cannot be
> arrogant, only those who make it can.  He wishes that GNOME's
> development was guided by those who think like him.
>
> While Alan is educating us all in netiquette, perhaps he'd like to tell
> the original poster that referring to gconf as a "lousy 'regedit'

I tried.

He might not have realised that he was pushing buttons and done it on
purpose but it maybe not.

I'm surprised that someone who claims to have used Gnome for so long is
not a little more aware and forgiving of the compromises and tradeoffs
needed to actually get anything done due to the politics open source and
that he did not make any mention of him trying to report bugs or bring up
the issues with developers.

It also happens that comparing gconf-editor to regedit is as bad as
comparing Abiword to Wordpad and I expect other projects have similar
insults hurled at them and the obvious insults are often the most
offensive.

> rip-off" might have somewhat lowered the tone of his message.  In fact,
> in the spirit of the original poster's writing style, I shall refer to
> his message hereonin as "that lousy post".  How's that?

Eloquently put.

- Alan