Needed?? The Suggestion Box??

[Segedunum]

On Tue Mar 29 17:07:27, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> that said, while it may not be a huge problem for all users, it's certainly
> a growing annoyance (or worse) for more and more developers. and would it be
> more rewarding for KDE users if there were more user-centric channels for
> communication and interaction with the project available for them?   

Yes, it certainly is an annoyance. I can't understand users who file bugs, or 
worse, wishlists of functionality and then expect them to somehow magically 
be fulfilled.

However, there is an impression that I get, especially when it comes to some 
usability thinking within KDE, that there are some things which are totally 
non-negotiable, even if they are fundamental things that possibly should  
have been done differently had people known what the target userbase of KDE 
actually is. I hope that's not the case, but it seems to be so. Sometimes 
users feel that, for some things at least, even if they were to be able to 
submit a patch nothing would be changed.

There was a long and winding discussion on the KDE usability mailing list 
recently (and on some bug reports) that I think now has at least a partial 
resolution (not ideal, just needs someone to code and submit it now ;)), but 
that possibly shouldn't have happened had everyone been fairly clear about 
what KDE's target user base was to start with. No extra work for developers - 
just getting the fundamentals right to start off with so we don't have these 
things, or minimise them. It's not unusual though, and it surfaces every so 
often on other places like the dot.

It hints at a far greater problem within KDE as a project. What is it that KDE 
as a whole wants? Does the project as a whole want a desktop environment that 
primarily targets non-programmers or non-experienced computer users and 
people in the business/government environments? Does the project want to 
target experienced Unix desktop users who are used to five different choices 
of performing the same task, used to arcane keybindings and ways of doing 
things and menus that go on for miles?

The root problem of this is trying to know what KDE as a whole wants, what 
it's about and what it wants to work towards. If that can be discussed and 
nailed down then you'll have a firm basis for discussing user groups etc. and 
discussing what any problems there are in a rational manner because everyone 
will at least partially know where they stand. This year's aKademy is 
probably a good place to do that (discussing over IRC, e-mail and bug reports 
is awful, and whole a lot gets misinterpreted which spirals from there) and 
should probably be a central theme. Work out what we're about, and then work 
from there.

It's taught me something though. I won't discuss anything without a patch or a 
work-in-progress in future, and if it's something that is seemingly sacred 
and non-negotiable (for whatever reason) then I won't bother.

Cheers,

David
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