Rethinking the Ubuntu Community in Terms of LaunchPad

[Nathan Haines]

On 12/18/2014 02:59 PM, Gustavo Silva wrote:
> @Nathan,
>
> Hello, nice to meet you!

Likewise, ¡mucho gusto!

> My email was not vague nor content-less.

Well, I disagree.  I'm sure you had some interesting ideas in mind when 
you wrote the email, but they weren't in the actual email.  So I 
appreciate *this* email because after the first half you are very 
specific and that makes a lot more sense.

> Forgot to mention I agree with
> all suggestions in that blog post and they should be implemented, for
> the sake of many small projects connected via Launchpad. I think you
> will understand now what I mentioned by "outdated".

The blog post doesn't make any sense.  Email notifications can be 
managed by one's email client.  Bookmarks are handled by one's web 
browser.  As far as UX is concerned "modern" is not a feature and "looks 
outdated" is not a bug.  (Specific suggestions on the other hand *are* 
useful).  I'm not watching an hour long video about building communities 
because I doubt it has anything to do with a developer tool.

> Besides, LP plays a very important role for themselves,
> apparently, so they should try to make it better.

Why?  How?

> "What is urgent about the opinion of non-developers who don't have a use
> for Launchpad?"
> This was a bit unnecessary IMO for many reasons. But, I'll guess my
> english and email wasn't very clear. I hope that I've replied to you
> before. Even I, as a non-developer, have a saying, I think. And I don't
> think it is attractive to cooperate in a project that is connected over
> a out-dated, non-practical nor simple platform. Oh, and it's entirely
> public, which totally drives away profitable projects. But, their
> (Canonical) loss if they want to think like that.

It is a valid question that I would love to hear an answer to.  Why, as 
a non-developer, do you have a say in the tools the developers use? 
This would be like me having a way in what kind of pen you use to write 
with in every day life.  (LAMY brand fountain pens are very economical 
but very well made and pleasant to write with, btw.)

> "And once we have a set of tasks (not vague concerns), we can all work
> together on them."
> Since you put it that way:
> - Proper notification system that doesn't fill your email inbox with too
> many emails;

Either you want to be notified when a bug is updated, or you don't. 
Your email client will allow you to filter notifications into folders.

> - Make it more user-friendly;

This is not a specific concern.

> - Create the possibility to create bookmarks/favourites in order to
> quickly jump into a specific project (needless to say, without having to
> save them on your browser);

If you are a team project member, you have your bookmark in the form of 
your list of teams.  If you're not, you use your browser.  This doesn't 
sound like something worth developing as a separate feature.

> - The edit of Blueprints doesn't make much sense, unless the creator
> decides to post a full article and specifications. In a way, LP doesn't
> help much to discuss anything, technical and non-technical. It is
> confusing and you have to read a gigantic wall of text with your
> attention over 200%.

Launchpad blueprints aren't designed to discuss anything.  They're meant 
to track concrete goals which have already been discussed by the 
developers--probably via email.

> - There is no formatting options and there should be - old-fashioned
> bold, italic and underline. Not a complex thing though. I personally
> don't find that useful.

Why should there be formatting options?  I don't find them useful 
either.  But since actual bug reports are email-based (which does not 
support formatting) and only archived on LP, I suspect that there 
shouldn't be formatting options.

Specific issues can be discussed and debated on their merits.  For 
instance, I find the idea of bookmarks useless.  But maybe a Launchpad 
developer might think "well, maybe we could let users "follow" a project 
without being a project member" and that would be a lot less work. 
That's why being specific and not vague can be really helpful, even for 
non-developers.

-- 
Nathan Haines
Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/