Re: Kickstarter was not successful... but it did help things...

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,

On 11/23/13 18:44, Doc O'Leary wrote:
> In article <mailman.6859.1385147294.10748.discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>,
>   Markus Hitter <mah@jump-ing.de> wrote:
>
> > Isn't the obvious conclusion this default look should change, to be at
> > least as modern as the quite modern technology inside? It's all about
> > looks these days.
> I disagree.  What *should* happen is an old adage: form follows
> function.  What is *mostly* wrong with the GNUstep site is that the
> content isn't goal-oriented.  Since it has no function, it doesn't much
> matter what form it takes.
Or better, it has more than one function!

Accusing the looks of either GS or its webiste (looks as in 
"appearance") is just too easy. And is the voice of one of the many GS 
users.

> > Perhaps the very first Kickstarter should go for a great look. Website
> > as well as default look. Ideally with the last word not from developers,
> > but from an artist ;-)
> A good graphic designer could pretty things up, but it'd still be
> lipstick on a pig.  The current powers-that-be need to figure out what
> their actual message is (other than "do we really want to attract
> them?"), and then let the structure/look of the web site follow from
> that.
The problem is here again the message. I redid the graphic on the 
website, but not the structure and contents, thus is still "sucks". Most 
often when people moan about the website, I'll point that the content it 
there, but it is not well organized. Actually, most often information is 
2 clicks away.
But gnustep has many goals. Mostly it attracts to two major kind of 
users and again to two major kinds of developers! And users and 
developers have different interests and needs.
I started splitting things up, but then stopped due to lack of time

I am astonished that I often do read on other mailing lists (e.g. 
netbsd, openbsd, windowmaker) of people wanting again old-style plain 
look. People that admit they like Windowmaker and are sick of gnome 3 
for example. However often they get scared away by the maze of big and 
small problems and inconsistencies that range from the packages to 
crashes (e.g. Edwin's GWorkspace odyssey).

Pleasing them all is not easy, most often we scare them all away.

I'm just happy I fixed Edwin's bug :)

Riccardo