Re: KDE PIM marketing

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On 22/02/12 00:05, Carl Symons wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 4:47 AM, Stuart Jarvis <[email protected]>
> wrote:

> Full disclosure...I never stopped using KDE PIM. Worked through
> what it took to get it going. And really like the way it works
> now.
> 
That's good to hear.

> In the beginning, I understood that it was not the final product
> and that there might be issues. We also had a culture--similar to 
> Slashdot--where people seem to relate to snark as the highest form
> of humor. In my view, this contributed (contributes) to the
> impression that things are badly broken.
> 
I find this paragraph highly insulting.  In fact there were a number
of very real issues.  The developers knew about them, but as far as I
can tell, they did not have solutions until the very recent sprint.
In fact even finding the cause was a major task.  Not that they
stopped looking - it's clear from the kde-pim developer list that a
good deal of work was being done, but none-the-less, users were left
in a fix.

> We have what we have _now_. Not sure we can do retrospective
> damage control. I just looked for what we've written before. I
> agree with Stu and then some. We didn't generate anything...we
> edited what we were given. But in what I can find, there's not a
> lot of hype. It's more like only part of the story was being told.
> 
> But then people were given the opportunity to "upgrade" to KMail2
> and it was messy.

In fact if you kept up with your distro releases, you could, and many
did, find themselves forced into that position.  That is the reason
that this laptop is running a version that is approaching EOL.

> I found a set of explicit instructions for Kubuntu. I followed them
> exactly and everything worked right (except one thing that I had to
> research about some resource not being available. Changed the
> location of that resource and success).
> 
> I think that it would be a mistake to say that 4.7 was our FIRST 
> release. It feels a little like rewriting history. Why don't we
> just say what happened? A decision was made by smart, caring people
> to move from KMail to KMail2, because ____________. It was
> ambitious and hard, but it eventually would have been required. We
> tried to keep everything running okay, but that didn't work for
> some people. In retrospect, there was a lot of learning. We
> apologize.

The problems were real, and the efforts of the developers to tie down
the causes were equally real.  The most profitable thing that can be
done now is to admit that.  Problems surfaced that the developers had
not been aware of until KMail2 went "into the wild".  That's the
nature of things, and many people will happily accept that it does
happen, providing that an honest approach is taken now.  Without that,
you/we will simply be accused of yet more hype, and after recent
experiences it will not be believed, even if it is 100% factual.
> 
> Write something similar to words in the sprint story about needing
> to clean house and concentrate on the current system. We understand
> that people might be turned off, but [insert Jos sermon about the
> nature of open source, goodness and light].
> 
> I agree with what Anne has written in another message in this
> thread. The thing that saved me was that explicit Kubuntu page.
> Good, explicit instructions written for everyday users of email,
> not assuming advanced fix-it knowledge. A special topic in
> forum.kde.org that is tracked by KDE PIM experts who can provide
> quick help.
> 
There already is a section of the forum devoted to Kontact & PIM -
http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=215&sid=8f72b8dceea173f5243badfe8ee95fb5
- - (it was removed from Office & Productivity in order to concentrate
efforts).  More PIM experts helping there would be greatly appreciated.

> What should we talk about? Why should people use KDE PIM instead
> of Thunderbird or other app?
> 
I think not.  Those of us who have loved Kontact for years know the
reasons.  The best recommendation will be when we can all get working
systems again and start telling people why it was worth the wait.  The
personal comments from those of us who have suffered on the way will
encourage the rest.

(Aside) Thunderbird now gives me 99% of what I appreciated in KMail
with the added advantage of easily-integrated Google Calendar (I know
it can be done in Kontact, but not as easily), yet I still miss the 1%
and it still calls me back.

>>> 
>>>>> The plan is: 1. Change the wiki pages to reflect 1 (done)

Which wiki pages?


>>>>> 4. write articles to address myths around KDE PIM (eg about
>>>>> memory usage, speed, stability, mail loss etc)
>>> 
I have already voiced my objection to this statement.  None of those
were myths.

> There are probably myths as you describe, but there were also
> comments and specific complaints that were real and damaging to
> people's email systems.

Not only that, but if you check the kdepim developers' list, you will
find that the developers themselves confirm them.  They didn't put in
that amount of effort for myths.

For many people--especially who rely on email--there was a
> breach of trust. We're gonna have to earn that back...Anne has
> good suggestions. I'd add that there should be some intensive
> testing of the migration and the migration instructions.
> 
Assuming no insurmountable obstacles, I'll volunteer to be a tester.

> I also think that we are missing a bet by not including Kolab
> stuff. I don't know diddly about it, but I hear from small
> businesses that groupware is an important capability. And that's
> what they do.
> 
I'd put this as priority 2, after addressing the current issues, but I
would support it.  Currently there is no obvious way for potential
users to assess whether Kolab is useful to them or not, and no obvious
statement of requirements.  I've long thought that it would be a good
idea.

Anne
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