Hi Marc, On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 5:37 PM, Marc Paré <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't know if you were part of the prior discussions on this, but the > general consensus is that the Design team is usually consulted on matters > involving matters to do with graphic design which is why we are holding the > screenshot discussion on this list.
IMHO, the taking of screenshots is covered adequately in the English documentation team's Contributor's Guide (see Chapter 2, "Producing User Guides", page 10 onwards). Personally, I feel that it would be most useful if the Design team were to keep its eye truly on the ball and work on new UI/UX designs for the LibreOffice software. That is actually the most pressing task we'd have for you guys, IMHO. > The LibreOffice project has many > tentacles but some of these tentacles do need to cooperate with other > tentacles. The design team does a good job at keeping the LibreOffice > "public face" consistent. My personal feeling is that the Design team is slightly over-extending its remit with an initiative that is non-crucial if not trivial, and for which there is not a general consensus. I'd much rather see you guys focused on working with the devs on UI/UX design for the LibreOffice software. > As to your reference again of "manage their own work, without anyone trying > to impose ideas on them > "from the outside" (meaning from people who are > not actively involved > in the actual work)." seems to be a little negative > when some of us who would like to contribute are asking for a little more > clarity in guidelines. It doesn't sound like people would have a voice to > express their opinions about a part of LibreOffice where they would like to > participate. Anybody who writes to the documentation list is always given advice and recommendations by one or more of the other contributors at first asking, and is free to make comments and suggestions - which get listened to willingly and objectively. > You can't on one hand complain that there is not enough help to update > manuals and create more documentation and then complain when people ask for > clarity and better guidelines and infer that they are butting in where they > don't belong. I don't remember complaining about anything at all, Marc, except that you're trying to impose a standardized theme and working rules on the English docs team and website team when there is a non-negligible number of people voicing disagreement with various aspects of the premises you've adopted and what you're trying to achieve. > If growth in contributors was a problem with OOo and that it > is again rearing its ugly head with LibreOffice, then maybe there needs to > be a little tweaking here and there to help new people join and contribute. Well, I'm not sure who's vision of "tweaking" is being implemented, or whether they correctly identified the reasons for a drop-off in contribution before doing so... > Or at least, is this not part of the project's hopes? Have more members > contribute? Certainly. I'm not sure that this particular initiative by the Design team is going to contribute to that goal. But, in any case, we're also wasting time and effort on circular arguments in the ML. Any recommendations you write will not be mandatorily binding upon other project contributors, and will only be adopted by those contributors if they are seen to be useful and sensible, right? The Design team could really make a positive difference to our project's success if it were to work closely with the core devs on imaginative new UIs to cater to the various new platforms on which LibreOffice could be used. Our environment is evolving fast, and I just don't see the LibreOffice project coming up with bold imaginative answers to the challenges that *really* face us. If we don't move fast, we could end up being marginal and side-lined. The Design team needs to be a central player in ensuring that this does not happen. Perhaps you could just leave the details of documentation work and web content development to some perfectly competent people working in those areas? -- David Nelson -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/design/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
