NoOp wrote:
On 07/18/2011 05:28 PM, Rostyslaw Lewyckyj wrote:
Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
...
If you're planning to move or take away our cheese, we still
don't know about it.
Succinctly stated! :)
We, users, can not influence the product. All we can do is
offer our opinions after the fact and choose to stay or leave.
I disagree. Users are *always* invited to participate in pre-release&
nightly testing, submit code, assist in providing suggestion, etc., etc.
You'll not find that (or at least not as openly) in other products that
offer the same as SeaMonkey.
Inviting end users who are incapable of coding or testing is an empty
promise. Yes, SeaMonkey users tend more toward the power user end of the
spectrum, and many of them are very knowledgeable and capable. But I'd
still bet a substantial sum of money that the vast majority -- say over
85% -- are just end users. They're familiar with the product, know how
to use it well, but are not now and never will be a source of code or
design features. So if we shut them out by saying "when we want your
opinion, we'll give it to you," we're just shooting ourselves in the
foot. (Not that I think the Mozilla organization intends that.)
The point of this discussion is that the vast majority of SeaMonkey
users (other than that very small élite who do contribute) find out
about feature changes far too late in the process to provide any useful
input. If the developers want to know what end users think, they need to
ask them before the code is carved in stone. "Do you use XXX
always/sometimes/never"? "Would you like to be able to export YYY to ZZZ
format?" "If we did away with the Forms Manager, would you care?" And so
forth. As things stand now, the developers have to guess what end users
do and think based on their own personal experience with the product and
feedback from that very small élite. Mostly they make good choices, but
it's a chancy proposition.
We can all B&*%h& moan, but the fact remains that SeaMonkey is an
opensource *all volunteer* project. If you can't develop, then at least
test pre/nightly release. Provide feedback on the
mozilla.dev.apps.seamonkey list
or ask here. While I may have not agreed with all of the
responses/feedback/comments I've received from some developers, I've
*always* found the kind folks that support& work on SM in their own
free time responsive& helpful. For that I definitely thank them for
both the fish and their kind work.
Please don't misunderstand. Some people are bitchy by nature, but most
of the rest of us bitch and moan only when we have a good reason. I was
very unhappy with what they did to the Forms Manager a few versions
back, and I said so (after the fact, of course!), but I stuck around
because I still think SM is the best thing since sliced bread, and on
balance I think the developers mean well and work hard to produce an
even better product. I don't mean to accuse the developers of bad faith
or bad intentions, but any organization has systematic biases and
loopholes that allow or even encourage certain characteristic mistakes.
And inviting end users to shut up or write code is such a shortcoming.
There must be a third way that we can contribute, and that's in the
usability area. Remember that all the developers' hard work is pointless
if they make an end product usable only by geeks. You may think it's
cake to hack an rdf or css file, but most of your users don't, any more
than they want to tune up their cars the old-fashioned way with a strobe
light.
If you'd like to help:
<http://www.seamonkey-project.org/dev/>
Here's a thought; change to Thunderbird + Firefox (or Opera or some
other mailclient/browser) for awhile. Don't use SeaMonkey. I've actually
tried this on multiple occasions & I've *always* come back to
SeaMonkey. I also tried this on multiple customers/friends/relatives; I
installed Opera/Firefox/Zimbra Desktop/Chrome/Thunderbird/Safari, etc.,
and they *all* came back to SeaMonkey.
Bottom line is that 'you' the user can indeed influence SeaMonkey. No it
may not happen in 2.2.x, and you may get "well we can't due to the
Firefox code), but in the end the user *can* influence& help SeaMonkey
by participating in the project; report bugs, test pre-releases,
participate on the dev list, write documentation, etc., etc.
I can say that I've not done much (except test pre-releases) lately
due to time issues, but I do think that every little bit helps.
<http://www.seamonkey-project.org/dev/get-involved>
Thanks for the invitations. As always, I'll do what I can when I can. I
do want the SeaMonkey project to succeed, and a big part of my
definition of success is that the program should become popular.
--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
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