<br><div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>Scott Sharkey wrote:<br><br>I agree that we should not start out rude, and too many times we do see
<br>that on the lists. In my opinion, it's never OK to be rude, no matter<br>what the provocation. However, Just as often I have done exactly as you<br>suggested, and pointed them at the FINE manual, or web page, or
<br>where-ever, and gotten back "But I just need you to tell me the answer,<br>I don't have time to read all that"... or some variation. I usually<br>ignore that person after a couple attempts to be polite. My mother told
<br>me not to say anything if I can't say anything nice...<br><br>My point was that we, as we bring newbies into our community, should be<br>setting their expectations properly. It should probably be part of the<br>"welcome message" they are sent when they sign up for the list. And
<br>anyone who introduces a new member to our community ought to be telling<br>them a variation of ESR's advice, and we ought to make that a priority.<br><br>How many times do they post a question here which was just answered not
<br>hours before by someone else, asking the same question... Just look at<br>the number of times someone came in and posted "We're loosing our free<br>Listings feed... what are we gonna do?" questions, when even a brief
<br>review of the current list archives would have told them that there were<br>already N+100 answers to that question on the list...<br><br>It's a two way street, and as the "experienced users" we should be
<br>patient, and tolerant. But we should also be educating them on proper<br>behaviour in a open source community.<br><br>And as for user interfaces, and making things accessible to newbies... I<br>100% agree. Too often open source has a huge disadvantage because we
<br>design interfaces to accommodate every single crazy option possible,<br>which makes our interfaces overwhelming and confusing. We really need<br>to start designing a "simple" interface that does most of what a newbie
<br>needs, and an "advanced" interface for the experienced guys. No<br>argument there.<br><br>-Scott</blockquote><div><br><br>I agree with the idea of setting a users expections properly at the onset, I think the best way of doing so is with a better "on boarding process". Don't ask me what, because right now my brain is rather fried with other things. I'll get to it right after I fix that sink my gf has been bugging me about for 6 months.
<br><br>However, I think a clear argument CAN be made for separate interfaces for configuring things. The network setup control panel used in most flavors of Linux is a great example. Almost any newbie user can configure a network setup with little heartache. Advanced users know where the config files are and edit them by hand. The X GUI on Linux is the very embodiment of the concept. Drag and drop rather than a line of instructions. Other operating systems (and wise Linux developers) take advantage of a concept known as the "advanced options" tab.
<br><br>I personally feel the interface on MythTV is non-intuitive and I always radically modify it after an install. i find Mythtv-setup even worse. I'm not slamming the developers at all though - the interface works very well once you understand what it's asking you. But we've all seen the look of bewilderment on the faces of our "non-techie" loved ones when they see this set of screens. It's simply a case of an interface designed by people who already deeply understand the software.
<br><br>One weekend, in a galaxy far far away, when my gf is out of town, I intend to create a set of mock up screens showing my ideas for a better interface. I'll share them with the MythTV team and community and perhaps it will spark discussion.
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