Incidents, once in a while

[Carlos Leonhard Woelz]

Not sure this is a core devel issue, but since I replied to
kde-usability, I will reply here as well.

I should have replied to the original message, but here goes my
(unsolicited) my comment on this situation:

On Wed, 1 Sep 2004 20:13:49 +0000, "Frans Englich"
<frans.englich at telia.com> said:
> Aaron replied:
> "i think that by simply going ahead and pretending to represent KDE's
> usability processes, including writing articles that are, quite frankly,
> embarrassing to those involved in the project is not useful and in fact
> hurts
> our efforts. i have no plans for KUA at this point due to this and due to
> your limited knowledge in the field that is directly reflected by your
> solo
> efforts in this regard. we have several usability professionals that are
> getting involved in KDE usability and KUA does nothing to enable this
> process."[6]
>

This comment is hardly constructive. Moreover: it is a flamewar starter.
Sometimes we have to build bridges to bring people in, instead of
repelling motivated people. The "usability is for the pros" argument is
not 100% true: there are tons of usability tasks that are a function of
work more than experience (I am *not* claiming anyone is saying this, it
is preemtive argument :p ). Therefore, finding common ground between
motivated developers, independent of each other (perceived)
qualifications, is the obvious thing to do.

Frans pushes his agenda hard (not necessarely a bad thing), but is
sensible to arguments. I remember at least one time when confronted with
different views, Frans admitted he has wrong and we moved on (everybody
has the right to be wrong). But by simply dismissing his opinion and
work as "non-professional", without further argument, you are simply
driving him away. I would hate to see that: active developers with
general usability focus are not commodity, and there is more work than
what we can manage to do.

Cheers,

Carlos Woelz
-- 
  Carlos Leonhard Woelz
  carloswoelz at imap-mail.com