Re: Lose the tagline (permanently)

[Abraham Lee]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 7:00 AM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:

> "Phil Holmes" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Abraham Lee" <address@hidden>
> > To: "LilyPond Development Team" <address@hidden>
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 12:56 PM
> > Subject: Lose the tagline (permanently)
> >
> >
> >> Dear Dev team,
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > I'd vote to keep it.
>
> Same here.  When people don't mind, it gives us exposure and
> reassurance.  When people mind, it's reasonably straightforward to turn
> off or change.
>
> Mutopia tended to have a severely overengineered tagline, I think they
> toned it down by now.  I do agree that it should be unobtrusive, but I
> think that the LilyPond tagline meets that bar.
>

Thanks, everyone, for your honest opinions (especially about the old
Mutopia tagline, which I agree with--it looks much cleaner now). I
appreciate that. I guess there will always be someone who does/doesn't like
this kind of thing. As long as it remains simple and unobtrusive and can be
deactivated at will, I suppose that will do.

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 6:11 AM, James <address@hidden> wrote:

> I think it should stay, we document how to turn it off. I always leave
> mine in. I might tweak the size or change the text slightly but only that.
>
> It is not that offensive, and actually in my own opinion having used it
> for scores in an orchestra I used to play in when I did disable it, I
> was asked if I used Sibelius or Finale to produce the scores.
>

I would doubt this was due to an apparent level of quality, but more of a
"Well, everyone seems to use S/F, so which did you use?" kind of thing. I'd
be willing to bet it was a question of expectation rather than accusation.


> So I left it back in and it generated a bit of interest.
>

Like I said, it definitely catches the reader's attention, which at least
makes people think about the program.


> Were we a huge FOSS project the size of Libre Office or MS Word - which
> by the way pops up a huge MS Word Screen Flash every time I run the
> program (that I cannot turn off) then I could possibly see the point.
>

That's my point exactly. Sibelius suffers from a similar case of narcissism
with its fanfare-filled startup (that thankfully can be turned off). Maybe
have it pop up the first time, but it's really not necessary/wanted after
that.


> I don't see it as cocky or a turn-off. It is what it is, and I expect
> that Music Publishers also have their own 'tagline' on every page of a
> score they produce - if only as a copyright, but often with their own
> name on it. What is the difference there?
>

I see what you're saying, but that's a little different. This is the user
imposing their own tagline, not the program. I have no problem with the
publisher putting on their own stamp, which I've usually seen as very
unobtrusive, almost not even there on the actual music pages. There
probably is *someone* out there that does this, but I don't think this is
that common.


> I am quite proud when I see that tagline on any score I 'find in the wild'.
>

I agree, I just hope we get to the point that we, too, can say "that score
looks so good, it must have been done with LP!" rather than relying on the
tagline to tell us.


> Historically see:
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-devel/2005-02/msg00279.html


Thanks for pointing to that thread. Nice to see what the original
motivation was.

Have a great day, everybody! You're all the best! Very grateful for all you
do to keep the LP wheels turning and improving.

- Abraham