1) If you want to participate in Mandrake development, you have to get involved in Cooker. There's no way around that.
The only sort of exception to that is the beta process, and the greater Mandrake community had the opportunity to voice their opinion then. 2) Unhappy people bitch, while happy people usually stay quiet. You overrate the "backlash" against the new rpmdrake. I guarantee you more users are happy with the new rpmdrake than not, you just don't hear from the happy ones. As a user happy with the new rpmdrake, I'll take this opportunity to speak up. I couldn't even use rpmdrake until the new one was made. The old one sucked and didn't even work. I hated it. The new one is beautiful. Lyvim Xaphir wrote: > When the "beginner" rpmdrake was introduced, there had been no opinion > polls heralding it's existence to the general population. There had > been no activity or screenshots or sketches of possible UI > configurations listed on the mandrakeclub anywhere. There was no > knowledge among any of the Mandrake kin (non cooker) that anything new > was coming; and therefore there was no chance in hell itself that any > decisions concerning it would involve the public. If I went to newbie, > expert, or Mandrakeclub forums right now and asked any of them had > participated in a beginner research program to create a "beginner" > rpmdrake to replace the old, or even if any of them had been asked > whether they actually even wanted a replacement or not, exactly how many > people do you think would respond in the affirmative? > > The target audience for rpmdrake is beginners. Yet beginners don't use > cooker. Yet Mandrakesoft polls, mailing lists, and surveys exist for > the purpose of hearing from beginners and users. Yet those resources > were completely unused prior to the rollout of beginner rpmdrake. The > impression is that that had to be on purpose. > > Rewind to 9.0 development cycle. There was an immediate backlash to the > rollout of the beginner rpmdrake replacement. Should we have been > surprised? You might say, "Well, they are going to bitch no matter what > changes were made, so we lose either way". My answer is that no body > can truly bitch about a voted decision because that is the maximum > position of strength. And if they do, then they are still wrong and the > commonsense majority will recognize the wrongness. But that's naturally > not what we have here. So the users used the only outlet that they had > for their frustrations at the time of 9.0, which were the rpm voting > polls. The power of public opinion was vast as the "standard" rpmdrake > poll rocketed to the top of the total poll list, which is prioritized in > order of votes cast. There were only perhaps four polls above it. > Actions taken? Responses? None. > > Fast forward to 9.1 development cycle. This is when I myself started > paying attention, since I had begun distributing cooker cd's, and I also > had bravely and somewhat foolishly moved my production rig to 9.1 cooker > in a blind act of faith. Beginner rpmdrake hit me like a ton of > bricks. Other disgruntled users (not me) again implemented a "standard" > rpmdrake UI poll on Mandrakeclub rpm poll section, and again it's > popularity was phenomenal. Once more it rocketed to the first priority > page number one, completely unopposed, page one being one out of about > 17 or 18 pages at the time, if memory serves. Again there were only a > bare handful of polls above it. Actions taken? None. Responses? None. > Explanations to the general public as to what was going on? None. > Basically confusion reigned supreme. It is true as Buchan pointed out > that a handful of more knowledgable Club members went to Cooker and > complained, but their voices went basically unacted upon regarding the > real differences between beginner and standard rpmdrake. > > Fast forward to about a month before Deno decided to leave > Mandrakesoft. The 9.0 and 9.1 "standard" rpmdrake polls were shut down > and thus rendered invisible to the general public, stifling further > forum conversation within those polls. Again there was no explanation > given other than an answer I posed to the Club about the problem. I was > basically told that we needed to migrate because the beginner rpmdrake > was "better". > > So, that's it. You might continue to say that yes, users do have > input. Perhaps that is true to a very limited degree, but it's barely > just true enough to be able to make that statement. At least in the > case of rpmdrake. The questions in my mind remain: If the user > interface's cosmetics and design are for the users at large then why > arent users at large questioned and polled regarding the user > interface's cosmetics and design. If the Club money is supposed to give > your vote a priority over other users and a voice in the Club regarding > development then why is it that your Club money does not give your vote > a priority over other users and a voice in the Club regarding > development. > > Some might say, yes it does. I say, not when it really counts. > > More pointedly: If the mechanisms for public feedback and opinion are in > place and operational as they are, then why is it that those mechanisms > for public feedback and opinion are abused with disuse during the most > critical changes in the Mandrake distribution evolution, i.e. the most > critical changes in the most *key* components of the Mandrake > distribution. > > Thank you for your attention to this matter. > > --LX > >
