Real-world appdb

Thu Feb 10 04:49:47 CST 2005

Hi again ;-),

[...]
> 
> -------------------------------------------------
> As an Application database member you enjoy some exclusive benefits like:
> 
>      * Ability to Vote on Favorite Applications
> -------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> I am logged in, thus a member, thus I should be able to vote, if there 
> was a way to do so, but I don't see it.

[FIXED]
I send a patch that adds a link to voting help from the fron page.

> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> 
>      * Access to the Application Rating System. Rate the apps that 
> "Don't Suck"
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------

[FIXED]
Removed in the same patch as the rating system (with/without windows)
has been removed some time ago.

> OK, here we come to the crux of things. Visual FoxPro is the top voted 
> application? Then why is WinZip first on the Gold List?
[NOT FIXED]

As said before the main page has to be rethought. The applications you
see are the top-10 most voted gold application and the top-10 most voted
silver application. The fact that this list is not so interesting is
because:

1) people don't know/knew how to vote or bother to do it
2) the Gold/Silver/Bronze rating system is quite new and maintainers of
top voted applications like FoxPro didn't rate their application yet
3) even in a perfect world where user would vote and application
maintainers would rate, this list still doesn't make too much sense as
an application once Gold has not too much interest to be voted for. We
could maybe reset the votes when an application goes gold (I'm not sure
about this).

Anyway we might choose to show other applciations (or no applications at
all from the front page).
Another idea that comes to my mind would be to show a random application
each time in a table.

[...]

> > 
> >>1.4b) more importantly, I do not know what the responsibilities of a
> >>"maintainer" are-- much less a "super maintainer". 
> > 
> > [FIXED/NOT FIXED] These informations are shown after clicking on the
> > button. But we discussed the possibility to add a "?" sign near the
> > button that will bring you to the related help page.
> 
> Yes, so they are (after you reassured me, I clicked the button). On the 
> whole, I find the information good, but not very detailed or complete.

[FIXED]
I sent another patch this morning. Mouse-overing on the button says
something like "click here to know more about maintainers". And when
arriving on the next page you have less details about being a maintainer
but you are provided with a link to the maintainers guidelines help page
wher you can know all about the duties of an application maintainer.

[...]

> OK, that's a good alternative, but this should be mentioned in the 
> Maintainer's Guidebook (if it isn't, haven't checked yet), since I 
> wouldn't have known to do that if you hadn't just told me, and even had 
> I thought of it, I wouldn't have known it was "OK to do".

[FIXED]
This has been added to the maintainers guidelines.

> Yes, I saw that in the explanation of maintainer duties and privileges. 
> This doesn't so much reassure the users, though (i.e., they will not 
> know that their comment will be "mentioned" to the maintainer unless 
> they have read the maintainer's information notes. A note to this effect 
> that an "average" non-maintainer user will see as well might be useful.

[FIXED]
When you send a comment you should (since some days) see a green message
saying "message sent to [LIST OF EMAIL ADDRESSES]" so that you know that
the maintainer and other people in the thread received your comment (but
you are right, you don't know it beforehand)

[...]

> >>A Wine FAQ at the forefront of the appdb, or even linked to each
> >>application's overview page might be nice, too
> > 

[FIXED] The Help and documentation link that is always visible on the
left menu contains faq and help topics.

> Naturally I am. I wouldn't be a very good and responsible member of the 
> FOSS community if I wasn't (and it's important to me to be a good and 
> responsible member of the FOSS community). I haven't started the text 
> yet, though (a bit short on time), and I have a technical problem in 
> that I don't know how to format or submit the text when done (or at 
> least drafted). I keep hearing "submit a patch", but I really don't know 
> how to do that for non-code text or HTML (I don't know how to do it for 
> code either, but I assume that if I could code, I *would* know).
> 
> But OK, now that I think of it, a couple of people have submitted 
> documentation updates in the past several weeks; I'll check through my 
> email and see how they did it.

That's fairly easy.
1) First follow the instructions of this page about getting the latest
appdb from cvs: http://www.winehq.org/site/cvs (replace cvs -z 0
checkout wine with cvs -z 0 checkout appdb)
2) The modify the files on your local computer (you might want to test
it using apache and php on your local computer). For the faqs, the file
is /help/appdb_faq.help
3) Create a patch using cvs by following the informations here
http://www.winehq.org/site/sending_patches
4) Send the patch in an e-mail with a title like "[AppDB] improving FAQ"

If you need more help, don't hesitate to ask (me).

> 
> 
> > 
> >>1.7) Descriptions are really not very useful, for several reasons.
> > 
> > This should be fixed by maintainers.
> 
> Fair enough, but what about all the applications that do not have 
> maintainers? They remain in disarray until someone steps up, if someone 
> does? If the appdb needs a "spring cleaning", somebody has to make a 
> start, and if there are no maintainers available to do so, does it then 
> not become the responsibility of the admin (if there is such a beast)?

Yes, me and other fellow administrators are cleaning a lot of entries
every day. But that's a huge amout of work. We'd prefer to see a huge
amount of maintainer to step out.

[...]

> Yes, that's true. But now we're coming to another important issue: 
> Publicity. Who really knows about the appdb (meaning in terms of Wine 
> users)?
> 
> You need the user community to step up, and in a (very) big way, 
> participating both as users and maintainers, but how are they to even 
> know that they should do so?
> 
> What would really help here is the equivalent of a "Grand Opening" bash, 
> complete with marching band. Maybe I should see if I can submit 
> something to OSNews (they seem to take all kinds of ...stuff... which is 
> often consdidered much less useful, if the user comments after many 
> articles are to be believed), or some similar missive. What I'm thinking 
> of is widely-announced news that these resources are available, and 
> making people aware that they can contribute to them (and should), no 

That would be great. However I'm not the one who can say if the appdb is
ready for such massive publicity. Maybe someone else will give you more
input on this.

[...]

> Yes, of course I will do that; although Wine self-destructed on me two 
> days ago, so I have to reinstall everything I did have running, but at 
> least I can document it this time around.

great !

[...]

Thanks,

Jonathan
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