Joerg Barfurth wrote: <snip summary: IZ votes have drawbacks />
I have no doubt that IZ votes have a lot of drawbacks. To all the reasons you listed, I would add that people who are not happy are more likely to post to an issue than people who think everything is just fine. But IZ votes is what we have, and it's what we have to work with. 200 IZ votes is a lot. I claim that on the basis that only one issue in IZ has reached that vote count. You mention that a company could ask its employees to vote. That's not actually wrong. If a company with 200 people feels that an issue is that important, it's reasonable to argue that that opinion should count as 200 votes. > But people that are not developers (e.g. from the marketing project) > could track that and act as a relay telling a wider audience in less > technical terms about important specs and feeding reactions back to the > developer. That would be ideal. However, it depends on our ability to find a volunteer to do that. Let's try to pick something that is easier to do right now. You know, take a small step. And hope that this will encourage someone else to take the next step, and volunteer to "translate" the specs in terms that non-developers can understand. > There surely are improvements needed. But from experience this is a > difficult issue and probably there are no simple solutions. Nope. No simple solutions. > >I don't have a full solution right now. But I expect that whatever > >solution happens, will involve sending emails to the discuss list, since > >that's where discussions happen, and where users are located. > > I don't think that will by itself help. The more technical and formal > mails used in the development process don't really fit a discuss list. Well, it's the best I can think of right now. And I think it sets the stage for things to improve later. Perhaps a few technical people in the discuss list will notice things in those email and provide "translations" for everyone else. If nothing else, at least we can say that developers too a step to communicate with users more. That, on itself, means that users will have fewer reasons to complain later on. > And few developers track the discuss list - and even less read here > continuously - due to high volume and too much irrelevant (from a > developer POV) content. Heck, I consider most of the content irrelevant. :-) I am not suggesting that any developers join or follow the discuss list. Just that those spec emails be CC'd here, and let the discuss list do as they like with them. > >I have a question: How regular are the emails to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ? How > >long > >are they? > > See the archives > <http://specs.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=announce>. Hhhmm... I see what you mean. Well, some of those emails would be considered "noise" by most people at discuss. Like this one: ---//--- Email Start --//-- http://specs.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=108 ---//--- The replacement representations for encrypted OOo files have changed. They are now more application neutral. Find the specification here: http://specs.openoffice.org/appwide/desktop_integration/ooo_file_thumbnails.sxw ---//--- Email End --//-- But others would actually be quite valuable here. For example: ---//--- Email Start --//-- http://specs.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=104 --//---- Title : Desktop Menu Integration Location: http://specs.openoffice.org/appwide/menus/desktop_menu_integration.sxw Status : final Abstract: In modern graphical user interface there are several standard mechanisms for a user to launch an application, such as menu items in the Start/Launch menu or a (double) click on a document specific to that application. OpenOffice.org 2.0 provides these mechanisms as well. Comments: The start menu for Windows has been redefined. ---//--- Email End --//-- This would be an email that would be good to have on discuss. The abstract is clear and non-techncial. The quickstarter case is another example of something that can be expressed in a similarly non-technical email. The email could then link to the specification, just like this one did. Would it be feasible that this kind of email, be CC'd to discuss? > When looking for it I found it to be (too) well hidden. It isn't even > mentioned on our main mailing list page. BTW: Do you know of > [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is the list to track the step from > specification to implementation. Nope. I hadn't heard of that list. I think OOo lists are too deeply hidden, and they got worse recently. It used to be that you could find the marketing, documentation, api, etc after one click from the home page. Now it's harder. Finding the native-lang lists now is nearly impossible. The way I find them is: (1) I find the lists from the API project. (2) I edit the URL to change 'api' by 'native-lang'. It's the only way I can find them. :-( Cheers, -- Daniel Carrera | I don't want it perfect, Join OOoAuthors today! | I want it Tuesday. http://oooauthors.org | --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
