[mythtv-users] family acceptance test.

Stephen P. Villano stephen.p.villano at gmail.com
Thu Aug 13 05:01:17 UTC 2015



On 08/12/2015 04:28 PM, Kirk Bocek wrote:
>
>
> On 8/12/2015 1:24 PM, Thomas Mashos wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 1:19 PM Phil Bridges <gravityhammer at gmail.com 
>> <mailto:gravityhammer at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 4:08 PM, Thomas Mashos
>>     <thomas at mashos.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>         On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 1:02 PM Phil Bridges
>>         <gravityhammer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>             On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 3:52 PM, Eric Sharkey
>>             <eric at lisaneric.org> wrote:
>>
>>                 On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 1:44 PM, Phil Bridges
>>                 <gravityhammer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>                 > Was there ever any discussion about the
>>                 rationalization for why the
>>                 > interface would change from something usable to
>>                 something that isn't?
>>
>>                 I think that's an overly harsh characterization of
>>                 the situation.
>>
>>                 I use it and find it perfectly usable.  Is it exactly
>>                 laid out how I
>>                 would have done it?  No.  Could it be improved? 
>>                 Sure.  But I don't
>>                 think it deserves this level of hate.
>>
>>                 Eric
>>
>>
>>             Hate?  No.  Confusion?  Yes. Intuitive (especially
>>             compared to the previous version)?  No. I think the
>>             empirical evidence of the sheer number of "how does this
>>             work?" question shows that.
>>
>>
>>             _______________________________________________
>>             mythtv-users mailing list
>>             mythtv-users at mythtv.org <mailto:mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>>             http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>             http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
>>             MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>>
>>
>>         I'd argue vocal minority. People that like it don't bother to
>>         pipe up on the mailing list about it. People that don't like
>>         it are more likely to post about it. I had similiar threads
>>         when I changed the Mythbuntu theme's recordings and videos
>>         screens. So much that I decided to release the old version as
>>         a "classic" version of the theme (as it was easy enough to
>>         do). Less than 1% of all mythtv users use that classic theme
>>         (0.8%, 60 users), and the Mythbuntu theme (the one with the
>>         changes that were "universally hated") is used by 50X more users
>>         -- 
>>
>>
>>
>>     Don't forget option #3 - they just stop using it without posting
>>     about it. ;)
>>
>>     In either case, I don't understand the "if you don't like it, fix
>>     it" response to people that are just trying to figure out how it
>>     works.
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     mythtv-users mailing list
>>     mythtv-users at mythtv.org <mailto:mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>>     http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>     http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
>>     MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>>
>>
>> Please show me where people are asking how it works. This particular 
>> thread was started looking for an alternative to mythmusic
>> -- 
>> Thomas Mashos
>>
>
> Well, me. I didn't specifically ask that to be guided. But I couldn't 
> get it to work when I sat down to use it. It wasn't obvious. It wasn't 
> easy. And my wife was tapping her feet expecting me to come to the 
> dinner table.
>
> Now enough people are damning with faint praise here that I'll go back 
> and try again. But the first sip from the well has been pretty bitter.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
Out in the real world, when software is to be developed, the end users 
are consulted (or should be, when management decides features, the 
software typically is useless to the end users), features are discussed, 
interface and user experience is discussed and over time, the project 
creates software that is useful for the end users to accomplish their 
tasks. Security gets added in long after.  ;)
What happened here is one thing that corporations hate about open 
source, a developer decided to pick up a project, then change the 
software in a way to the developer prefers, rather than seeking end user 
input.
I work for a Fortune 200 company, if such a massive change in user 
interface and operability were suddenly introduced, that software would 
very likely be uninstalled from all systems and replaced with something 
predictable.
But, such sudden changes also give ammunition to those who dislike and 
distrust open source software.
In a world where change management goes through committees, sudden 
drastic change is unwelcome. When such changes are even heard from in an 
open source project not used by that environment, mistrust of all open 
source projects becomes set.
Thankfully, MythTV is obscure enough that most corporations would have 
never heard of it, but other projects have shot open source in the foot 
by similar drastic changes.

Just a little food for thought from an old systems and security 
engineer, BOFH and information security professional, who also had one 
devil of a time trying to get MythMusic to work and determined that 
feature is indeed a myth.
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