Re: Kickstarter was not successful... but it did help things...

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,
On 11/23/13 12:33, Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
> On 23 Nov 2013, at 08:48, Gregory Casamento <greg.casamento@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm in agreement with this. I've been saying this for many years. I would like 
> > to call for a consensus on this matter. Are there any dissenting opinions to 
> > changing the default look?
> Yes!
me too!

However, I dlo like Fred's comment: essentially, we should have no "hard 
coded" theme, no "preferential" theme. That will make everything easier.

> Show me the theme you want to switch to, and then we can talk about it (I'm 
> easily persuaded if something makes sense).  I would have thought that an iOS 
> style theme might be popular.
> But until we have at least one fully working alternative theme to switch to (or 
> better, a number of themes to select from), discussing switching is nothing but 
> a waste of time.
First we need to come up with a good theme! and you will find that 
nobody wll agree on which one is best.
> Actually, even the argument that the *default* theme puts people off is really 
> nonsense ... if people see something that puts them off, is is what they *see* 
> that puts them off, not whether what they see is *default*.
>
> Put screenshots of GNUstep looking 'sexier' on the website.  Make them more 
> prominent than the existing theme by all means (eg. put them first and bigger). 
>  To find out which works best (ie is most popular) we could have some sort of 
> click-through or download counter.
The gnuste website has already themed screenshots, just check. Not just 
the theme, but we need to blog, show activity, etc. Instead, we just 
discuss and do little (also because at the end it is not so important).
> I've just been reading a book 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman and 
> one of the things I was struck by was the psychological research measuring the 
> tendency of people to avoid risk to the extent of avoiding changes from an 
> existing state even when, in any other context, they would think the new sytate 
> was better than the old one.
>
> Whatever you intend, as long as you talk about changing the default theme, 
> people will read that as replacing/getting-rid-of the current look (rather than 
> supporting equal alternatives).  While I know that's not what you mean, it's 
> counterproductive as it will always produce opposition from anyone who likes 
> the current theme, and even from people who might like a new theme better!  IMO 
> you should simply provide/advertise at least one good new look rather than 
> 'threatening' a change.
Very sensible. The first thing to do is to offer a valid alternative. 
Actually, not one, just more. As people have different "goals" for 
GNUstep, so they have different needs in their themes.
Once you have several themes, well maintained, working and advertised in 
special pages on gnustep.org, gap or etoile, then you will see that this 
discussion is actually moot.

> Build and advertise at least one good new theme.
+1

(and to that, you need them :) )

Riccardo