Ciaran McCreesh wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:22:19 +0100
George Prowse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Not my point. My point is that most Gentoo users would either not
see the question or not respond. Those that both see the question
and take time to respond are highly atypical.
If you were clever enough and wanted the largest amount of answers
you would put the questions around ever communication channel gentoo
has, you would then get the opinions of the majority of users.
No, you'd still be way off. You'd still only get the opinions of users
who actively monitor Gentoo communication channels. It's well
established from the fallout of previous changes that no matter how
widely something is communicated, most people won't see it until their
system breaks and they try to find out why.
So you think nothing should be done because some people don't interact
in the Gentoo communication channels?
I wish ALL users would vote in a poll on the forums
That wouldn't tell you what all users want though. It would tell you
what forum users who take the time to respond to a poll want. Again,
not a representative sample. And that's the issue at hand -- Gentoo
has an extremely hard time delivering information to most users.
Getting information back is even trickier. The set of people who
respond is heavily skewed towards better-informed users who have
time to seek out and participate in that kind of questioning.
Ahhhhh, now I see! The fact that we would get answers from some users
is the reason why it shouldn't be done
No no. The fact that some people would use those answers to make design
decisions is why it shouldn't be done.
So those people that would reply would make wrong
suggestions/answers/whatever..
Thats a pretty bold comment when one of the main Off The Wall posters
codes rocket propulsion software for the British Government.
as to what we the users want and what direction we want Gentoo to
go in.
I want guaranteed total stability, instantly available updates,
guaranteed backwards compatibility, the ability to install any
package from source using my configuration of choice in under
fifteen seconds and a herd of nubile bisexual redheads. Can Gentoo
deliver that?
Irrelevant conclusion
Not at all. What users *want* is something that can't be done. Most
users don't have the technical knowledge to realise that what they want
is impossible. Asking users will thus merely get a long list of
impossible goals.
People at Gentoo tend to know what they would like, if they suggest
something that is unobtainable and are given reasons why, 2 things would
happen:
1. They would have a greater respect for the developers for actually trying.
2. They would have knowlege to be able to suggest an alternative.
It's no different than elections here in the US, people gripe but
most of the gripers don't vote.
Do you really think it would make any difference if they did? All it
would do is lend credibility to the process, and provide people with
the argument "well you voted so you agree to accept the decision of
the majority".
It would make a difference in the relations between users and
developers.
Yes, lots of users would be extremely annoyed when they're told "sorry,
we're not going to deliver all those things you asked for".
Being a user yourself, why are you so against yourself having a say?
I have a say, as does anyone else who feels like contributing. Were
things moved to a poll, no-one would have a say at all.
That doesn't stop you having your say by contributing...
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
