[mythtv-users] Feature request. MythVideo folder browser.

[S. Baker]

Jason Lee wrote:
>J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
>
>> bad enough to implement it.  While occasionally developers see a 
feature 
>> request and say "hey that's a great idea" more often than not, it's 
read 
>> as "here's another person wanting me to spend hours working on 
something 
>> I'll never use".  Apparently none of the folks writing code for MythTV 
>
>Which is fine, but, as another poster pointed out, requests by 
>non-developer users need not be greeted with such snide and curt 
>responses.  There's absolutely no gain for anyone in that.
>
>-- 
>jason lee
>Steeplesoft -- http://www.steeplesoft.com
>README.txt  -- http://jason.theleehouse.net
>Bosco       -- http://bosco.sourceforge.net

This issue comes up again, and once again set off by an un-helpful
reply by Donovan.  It would be a lot more useful and friendly to 
mythtv users to keep a list of requests, so that developers have
a target to shoot at, users have a place to see that at least someone
else may have thought of what they were thinking of, and even a list
of things that won't get implemented, because they don't fit the
desired model for mythtv.  These lists should be prioritized by
the lead developer (think project manager). At the very 
least point the user to the code, and give some pointers.  
Giving them a 'I know everything already, and am going to ignore you'
attitude is not helping the project at all.  I give an example:

I have been a developer for a long time.  I thought that a good
way to get started with mythtv would be to install it and play
with it a bit.  Next step:  give some ideas for development, and
see what people thought.  I immediately got a response from 
Donovan that I considered pretty rude (go read it and judge
for yourself).  It is probably the primary reason I just haven't
found the time to take the next steps:  find a small project
to work on (can't do that 'cause there isn't a TODO list anywhere
to be found).  Next, possibly help out in adding some testing
capability to the project, as well as code clean up (a task I don't
mind doing occasionally).  Finally tackle something major.  Possibly
add some system-engineering to the project eventually (one of 
my current jobs).

Look around at other big open source projects.  How many of them
have a feature request list? A bug-tracking system?  How many 
have a release plan, or at least a list of required issues
to be resolved before the next release?  

It is still likely that I will work on MythTV, but as I said
above, my motivation is pretty low right now.  It is a great
effort, and has come a long way.  Discouraging users and
developers from contributing  in _any_ way does not help
propel the project forward.

S. Baker