Collecting requirements for a KDE-wide instant messaging solution (was: Re: radical proposal: move IRC to Rocket.Chat)

[Adriaan de Groot]

Can we please keep this thread limited to collecting-requirements, and 
therefore arguing over which requirements are required or what their weight 
is? That, rather than re-hashing the discussion elsewhere on which platform 
with which sub- and superset of features is popular in which location.


Top-posting, because this is email and I can annoy people by doing so.
GPG-signing, because this is email and I can do so.
Taking the time to write a longer response, because this is email and I can do 
so(*).

On Wednesday 09 August 2017 09:36:42 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> On Mittwoch, 9. August 2017 01:59:00 CEST Christian Loosli wrote:
> > PS: on the importance of emojis and (animated) stickers: I can see why
> > people want them for friends and family, I love the sticker packs I have

IM is communication, and communication is culture. Let's not forget that. Paul 
Adams and I once experimented with the "dude" communication protocol, which 
contains only one word, "dude", and a vast range of intonations, tone-
lengthenings, and eye-rolls. It was a very effective and largely encrypted 
real-time, face-to-face, communications mechanism. Hard to teach to others, 
though.

Culture, though, is learned. And culture is often local. As Christian and 
Thomas's messages express, the locality matters; the population matters. So 
before we dive into "this is a useless feature for me", let's inventory. 
Collect requirements. Then we can also describe, later, which populations or 
cultures have that specific requirement.

> It's just that young people do _not_ use email unless absolutely forced to.

Driving this kind of stake in the sand isn't helping the discussion. Also, we 
are not talking about email -- which is a non-ephemeral, searchable, 
permanently archivable, signable, threadable communications mechanism -- right 
now.

And you know what? Even using email is a cultural thing; culture is all about 
forcing people to do things. I forced my kids to eat with knife and fork, 
because that's my culture. I forced them to stop pooping their pants. I forced 
them to look at me (and not their phone) when talking to me. They forced me to 
accept that some music, created in the 1980's, does not suck. Culture can 
develop and change, too.

> There is a reason why it can take days until someone replies to an email on
> the VDG mailing list, while the various Telegram groups the VDG is in are
> buzzing with activity.

So? Again: collect requirements. Then talk about which requirements are 
inspired by what kind of community / culture / population.

[ade]


(*) But email is not an IM / chat functionality, so it is expected to have 
totally different characteristics from an IM client.
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