T10243: Some KDE applications could use better icons

[Nathaniel Graham]

ngraham added a comment.


  In T10243#206510 <https://phabricator.kde.org/T10243#206510>, @ndavis wrote:
  
  > These things are what happens when the experienced people with all the unwritten knowledge go away. The redesigning of icons is a direct result of that. People redesign when they don't understand the system they are working with.
  >
  > This post might sound a bit hostile, but please understand that it's just so frustrating to work with so little from the beginning and have someone who is a capable designer and who seems to have some old forgotten knowledge complain about the state of things. Maybe you and everyone else had other things in your life, maybe you and everyone else got bored (I know I am getting bored with icon work). That's fair, but try to understand what the rest of us have to deal with and maybe help out.
  
  
  Yeah.
  
  I don't know what happened in the past, but I've heard some vague stories about some split in the VDG and how all the designers left in 2016 or something. I know Uri went off to do his own thing, Jens is gone, Andy is gone, Hugo is mostly gone, you're mostly gone, and so on. When I joined KDE in early 2017, the perception of the VDG seemed to have hit rock-bottom among developers, and it seemed to have no leadership or direction.
  
  This is the world we were left with, and without a real maintainership hand-off, we've basically had to rebuild things ourselves without--as Noah points out--documentation, experience, or a deep understanding of why things came to be. As a result, in our enthusiasm, we've made some mistakes and had to revert changes that weren't popular. We were learning as we went, because we had to build up the knowledge and experience ourselves.
  
  But this is a common fate for open-source projects where the maintainership duties are not handed off properly. Open-source projects are public. Without solid direction provided by a maintainer or leader, they drift randomly in different directions until either they die, or new leadership appears, at which point they might start to drift *consistently* in a different direction. :). The only way to ensure that a project goes in the direction you want it to go in is to continue being active in that project, or ensure that the leadership or maintainer positions are handed off to someone who shares your vision. You can't just say, "Hands off, we did things for a reason, please don't touch it," and then disappear, or else some weirdo internet randos like us may find it and decide that it's awesome but needs some changes, and you might not like those changes. :)
  
  So come on back! :) Teach us your knowledge. Help us make icons that are beautiful and meaningful and also win the support of the developers of the apps they're going to be branding. We want to learn from you!

TASK DETAIL
  https://phabricator.kde.org/T10243

To: ngraham
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