Gary Pikula wrote: > It is largely the same story with the gimp user group forums. Everyone > is used to phpbb forums and the software in use seems incomplete. > (generic error messages for any registration error, inability to edit > previous posts, etc...) I recommend changing to phpbb as it is pretty > much industry standard for open source projects. In usual cases the > developers also participate in forums with users on the main site, so > move the forums to the main site. > > The average user has never used a mailing list before as well and > feels uncomfortable with them, take that into more consideration. While I agree that average users probably would prefer a forum, I wonder how many of the developers would prefer it. If they don't like forums, they aren't likely to view them very often, and if not, then all you have is a bunch of users whining to each other. It is in many ways best to meet developers on their own ground. Especially if they are strapped for time as it is. It might not be bad to have a user-to-user forum however where simple support questions can be asked or answered. I personally find mailing lists a pain, and I agree that most people on the user end find them to be so. I have joined some mailing lists and gotten spam right away (not this list, fortunately, but you never know before you join it). I know because I use a different address for each mailing list. Also, if you are a user with a 1 time issue or question, subscribing to a mailing list is overkill, whereas signing up for a forum is easier and you don't get the mail volume. To the people who like mailing lists: what mail client do you like to use that handles mailing lists well? I would like to use one that lets me watch or ignore threads at least. That's probably the biggest gripe with them at the moment. > This has created 2 major problems. > > 1. TheGimp is no longer comparable to photoshop or corel. I recommend > putting together an extremely detailed feature list of both products > and comparing them and how often they are used. For example there > seems to be no equivalent for photoshop's brush selection tool, and > other tools in that same category. It seems this problem was created > from not taking in information from people that are used to photoshop. GIMP is not photoshop and doesn't have to have direct equivalents, although I think that the team could do a better job of learning the strengths of photoshop and figuring out what those capabilities could look like in the GIMP. Not blaming anyone here...I think all previous replies have it right. There simply aren't enough knowledgeable developers to go around. > > 2. Multi-window interface: If you haven't noticed the UI team has > gotten a significant amount of theGimp mock ups with just one window. > I have heard it is possible to change the gimp into one window, but it > doesn't seem possible on Windows. Outside of the Gimp community this > is by far the most complained about thing since with something like a > browser window being open makes the user have to manually bring all of > the windows to the foreground. > > Please do something to get in touch with users, I could never honestly > ever say theGimp could be a replacement for photoshop ever if this > continues. I like the multi-window interface. Doesn't work too well on windows, but then, I never found the gimp experience to fit too well into windows. Works much better under linux window managers. I think that the developers along with the UI team will work out a good solution anyway, so why bring this up? It may not be good now but work is underway. By the way...I think users want to know that the developers see eye-to-eye with the users about the current shortcomings of the GIMP. If the users think there's something that needs to be resolved, they don't necessarily need developers to drop everything and start coding it. I think they just want to see someone agree with them and that it will get addressed when the time is right. _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list Gimp-developer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
