We've had almost nobody ever make this point. While I don't know if I agree with exactly what you're after, it is a great idea to bring it up and discuss it. Thanks.
On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 10:22 PM, Stephen Judd <[email protected]>wrote: > All great answers, Peter. > And very reassuring answers. > Post them almost verbatim! > I suggest you put it in the Introduction page, with the subtitle "Who are > we?", right below "What does it do?". > > I offer a couple of edits here: > *What is our business model?* > We accept donations to cover expenses, but we are not trying to turn a > profit. > I think on our 10th year I'll donate whatever we have to a charity (that kids play one is pretty neat) > We enjoy building useful apps that satisfy people's needs. Period. > We are not trying to capture a protocol, a format, a platform, a traffic > stream, > or any other element of the IT environment. > > I think the wording is a bit forceful, but it's a good start. > *What do we want out of you?* > Nothing but your satisfaction. > Not even that. People don't have to like Growl, we just have to. > > We do not require you to sign up for anything. > We do not even run ads. > Please do tell us about bugs, though, if you find any. > > > Posting actual names of team members is also reassuring, because it exposes > data > that wouldn't be volunteered if you were hatching some nefarious scam. > But don't confuse this motivation to make information overt with the > different but complimentary motivation to assign credit to the > contributors. > The people who are trying to decide whether to use the product are usually > quite disjoint > from the people who want to find out exactly where the expertise and effort > are coming from. > sj > > > I really don't think this matters that much to be honest. I know you do or you wouldn't have typed all of this, so no need to argue the point really. We have a lot of good faith out there with millions of people at this point is what I'm saying really. Chris > > On 2011/05/25, at 10:35 PM, Peter Hosey wrote: > > On May 25, 2011, at 17:09:53, Stephen wrote: > > Foremost, I have a suggestion... > > The second most important thing potential new users of a software system > need to know is: Who made this thing? That question stands as proxy for > several other questions: > > What is their business model? > > What are they likely to want out of me? > > What are their motivations? > > Why should I trust their product to not be malicious? > > Why should I trust their product to not be accidentally damaging? > > > Your webpage is slick and beautifully constructed, and its Table of > Contents lays out most of things I might want to know about: > > Download|About|Applications|Styles|Documentation|Screenshots|Contact|Donate > > However! Notice that none of my questions above are answered anywhere in > those documents! > > > There are some companies whose software I would not trust to install on my > machine no matter what it did. (Some are wildly famous, most are wildly > not.) And so I'm not going to invest the time to read all the information in > that Table of Contents. I need to gain some insight into who you are first. > > > We're a bunch of volunteers, who work on Growl in our spare time as a hobby > project. > > What is their business model? > > > We don't have one; we're not a business. > > What are they likely to want out of me? > > > Nothing. We accept donations, but we don't charge anything or run ads. > > What are their motivations? > > > Part fun; part working on a program that a lot of people (including us) > find useful. > > Why should I trust their product to not be malicious? > > > Growl is open source (this one is addressed on the website by the > availability of the source). Anybody can read our source code to see what > we're doing, and build from that source themselves if they don't trust that > we build it from unmodified source. > > Why should I trust their product to not be accidentally damaging? > > > You shouldn't. Everybody screws up. Always keep backups, especially when > trying a program you've never tried before. > > But, we are competent, and nobody's lost data because of Growl yet (that we > know of). > > If Growl or any other of our products does cause damage or any other > problem, it is accidental, and we ask that please report it to us and be > willing to answer our diagnostic questions so that we can fix it (if indeed > it is a fault in our software). > > Please lay it all out somewhere, and raise its profile right up to the > level of the ToC. I suspect you have good answers and it will do you a world > of good to be forthright about answering all those questions. > > > There is a Team page listing our names (similarly to the credits list in > the Growl preference pane), but it's a bit out of date and you're right that > we should make it more prominent (I couldn't find a simple way to get to it > from the front page). > > I like your idea of a more general “who are we?” page, too. We'll have to > think some more about how best to do it. > > Next a compliment... > > Everyone's first question about a software product is: What does it do? > > And that one you have answered. > > > Thank you. > > You don't know how significant it is for someone to tell us that. We had > problems for years making it clear what Growl does; it is very good to hear > that we have done it. > > (It is astonishing to survey the number of programs offered that assume you > know what it does without the builders ever saying. An echo of this > observation is in the number of programs on your computer right now whose > About menus do not explain the merest thing about the purpose of the > program.) > > > Excellent point. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Growl Discuss" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/growldiscuss?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Growl Discuss" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/growldiscuss?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Growl Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/growldiscuss?hl=en.
