How about http://www.ubuntu.com/community ? See the "Contribute" section.
Also, Ubuntu has Ayatana. We talk about UX and usability things at Ayatana Discussions ( https://launchpad.net/~ayatana ), which is open for public. There's also an Ubuntu UX group ( https://launchpad.net/~canonical-ux ), which is for the very few Canonical UXers. On Tue, 2009-12-08 at 11:02 -0800, Sujoy Chabri wrote: > Hi, > Yes. > In brief , there is a need for a common place where user can > express/share their experience. Like Mozilla:- There are many ways to > get involved with Mozilla. You don’t have to be a C++ guru (or even > know what that means!) > Approach should be simple enough to encourage users, > Atanu > > ______________________________________________________________________ > From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Tue, 8 December, 2009 4:57:02 PM > Subject: [Usability] Reaching Users > > Firstly, I think bugzilla has no place in any discussions of > usability. Bugs are absolute, and bug tracking software is designed > for people to report, and then developers to fix. Usability issues > are largely subtle, subjective and often require some debate. While > the bugzilla approach may apply to minor issues 'Why can't I use my > scrollwheel here, etc' it is simply unable to handle anything that > could be considered innovative or new. It is my belief that bugzilla > will never lead to a substantial improvement in software - If you > placed Windows 95 on a bugtracker would it fix the fundamental issues > with usability, security and stability? Architectural and large > ranging issues are simply a bad fit for bug tracking software. It is > also intimidating and works in absolutes, while usability doesn't - > it's more of a discussion. I would be very hesitant to post anything > non-trivial to a bugtracker - it's simply not the place. > > > > Secondly, and ironically, there is no greater divide in the software > community between developers and users than in the FOSS community. > While most closed source, commercial software has various easy ways > for users to give feedback, Linux doesn't. > > Barrier 1: The majority of Linux distro's (Ubuntu and Suse to name > two) have no place on their forum for discussing ideas or engaging the > community - it is all one sided 'support'. There are plenty of forums > for discussing how to get your sound card working, but nowhere for > discussing a way to make fixing it yourself simpler. > > Barrier 2: The lack of any feedback forums above is understandable in > context. The main distro's package the upstream apps and release them > - they are not directly responsible for problems in Gnome's etc > codebase. As a result there is no real way of knowing who made or > maintains which program or module to suggest improvements to. > Identifying and reporting anything non-trivial is in itself > non-trivial. Unless you want to blog about it, there is largely no > venue for feedback. > > Thirdly, there seems very few systems designed to engage such users at > the developer end. As a developer myself there seems to be nowhere to > go to discuss such issues. I was hoping that given the 'community > contributed' nature there would be pages of free-flowing ideas and > discussions, but if there is I can't find it and I am sure neither > could the majority of other people. It seems the nexus point for > Gnome usability discussions is a near-dead mailinglist. > > Windows Vista was pretty rubbish, I am sure there is no debate over > this fact. Windows 7 is pretty damn good and a worthy successor to > XP, and the reason that it is so good is because the massive backlash > of hate and criticism of Vista (by an audiance largely looking to find > fault) gave them a massive list of key issues to address. I would > place good money on the fact that if Vista was well recieved, 7 would > not have been anywhere as good as it is now. > > Free software though, as stated above, has no real outlet for users to > speak their mind about problems. The community is largely self > censoring (as who would complain about free food?) and the people who > are not happy with the software largely just go back to Windows/OSX. > I always feel that the opinions of 1 unhappy customer is more useful > than the opinions of 100 happy ones, but the Linux community in > general consists entirely of 'happy ones' - everyone who is unhappy > just leaves, rather than sticks around and tries to change things. > > Before any real progress can be made on usability and improving the > marketshare of Gnome (and Linux as a result) these issues should > largely be addressed. Users need a place to say why they don't like > something without being called idiots or trolls. There is very little > point in having a community contributed OS that the community cannot > contribute to. Most users can contribute ideas after all, but few can > contribute code - which seems to be the sole focus. > > Flame away! > > _______________________________________________ > Usability mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. > _______________________________________________ > Usability mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
