Thread: Maemo Community Council elections: Nominations open!
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YoDude is offline YoDude
2010-03-24 , 17:18
Posts: 2,869 | Thanked: 1,784 times | Joined on Feb 2007 @ Po' Bo'. PA
#206
In order to save some time before going out yet again, I'll try to respond to a few things in one post.

Originally Posted by mmlado View Post
Sorry for bringing this back.

If we direct the user to fMMS, aren't we doing, how to put it, a little wrong thing in the long run?

Let me try to explain.
User puts fMMS and he's happy, and everything is ok, but in the end at Nokia support they look at the complaints and conclude: "Look we were right, no one needs MMS function, because no one complained that it's missing, so the next device doesn't need it too."
Don't know how corporate world works, so I'm maybe wrong in this, but I think customer support at a company gives invaluable information of what the customers need/want and what should the corporation improve.
Maybe we could tell the user: "Here's the solution and please write to Nokia support that you had this problem and that helpful people at maemo.org has helped, but you would like if this basic function was working without any additional work from a paying customer."

This way the user would be happy, because it works, but Nokia support would also get valuable feedback.
We knew most of what was supported before the N900 was released through the SDK. Perhaps the better way in the future is to look at this more from the eventual users standpoint and post this information at least as soon as it becomes relevant.
I don't mean buried in a thread discussing framastans or whatnot. I mean in a place where other potential new users can easily find it and that forumista's can easily direct them to.

An example would be...

Originally Posted by YoDude
A lot has been said about what step the N900 represents in Nokia's vision of what a mobile computer with cell phone connectivity is in the market. Whatever step it is, the consensus seems to have been that the N900 or its firmware/OS version is not the final step.

With that^ said I believe anyone who is happy with what the iPhone gives them, and accepts the iPhones single task limitations, will be disappointed with the N900 if they switch to it from the iPhone.

Out of the box the N900 will have less software available, more bug related software updates, and a much steeper learning curve...

However.... 3 months later, the N900 owner will be happier with his purchase and their satisfaction will continue to grow as they realize that:

-More and more free applications have become available for the N900 and that they had a say in the development of some of those applications or can configure them more to their specific needs then ones available for sale on the iPhone.

-Each firmware update that they did receive over the air for their N900 actually improved its functionality and didn't cripple its connectivity even further.

-The learning process for the N900 was not painful at all and that they now feel a part of a vibrant, growing community that shares their enthusiasm for the device and its OS and is less concerned with how much time or money they spend in the App Store.
...that I posted somwhere in a thread here first.

In reply to a potential user's post in another forum, I posted that^ info there as well.

With this added:

The above^ also applies to anyone who is considering purchasing an N900 because they think it is the best cell phone in Nokia's line-up.
It may offer more features than any other phone but it is a mobile computer with support for HSPDA and HSUPA DATA connections that also happens to be a GSM cell phone.

Comparing the N900 to devices that are cell phones first and that also happen to run applications and can browse the Internet would not be fair to either device.

...again, imho.
I did this naturally on 10-26-2009, and I did it because I felt that it would be relevent to anyone considering purchasing the then new, or soon to be more generally released N900.

Because of my posts like this, I was tapped on the shoulder by that forums administration to help create a new "Maemo" sub-forum. To be fair I already was a moderator of another sub-forum but the decision and that "tap on the shoulder" came via Private Message. Just as it did when I was first tasked to moderate that other forum in 2003. This BTW, is how moderators are appointed on other forums and not from a request thread or by popular vote.

When I was given the ability to do so, I then pulled all these relevent posts together and "stuck" them in a closed thread that I continue to add to, found >> HERE << stuck at the top of the page on that sub-forum that all new members are expected to read it and existing members can point to when a disruptive post occurs.

~

Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles View Post
Yeesh, talk about grossly misrepressenting my position. I'll remind you that I was one of the original people pushing the council idea as a way to better repressent the unfocused voice of the community to Nokia.

You're implication that I see the council as some sort of Nokia mouthpiece is both unsettling in it's revelation of ignorance and, honestly, marginally offensive.
I'm going to use the ever popular response given around here when "straw" men are built:

You can clearly see from the emoticons that I used, that those statements were made in jest abnd did not refer to your actual position but one that may be interpeted by future, historic debate.

~

Originally Posted by Jaffa View Post
How on earth do you get that strict interpretation, which you then go on to asssign to GeneralAntilles? He's one of the longest standing enthusiasts and, without being a programmer, shows you don't need to write software to contribute to this community. He's also one of the loudest voices of the community and is very well heard by Nokia AFAICT.

I've never seen anything as clumsy in trying to position your fellow nominee as having a position which he doesn't have, whilst trying really hard to not actually say that he - specifically - has that interpretation.

Apart from the general platitudes - about "everyone should be nice" (duh) and "forums can be powerful" (duh) and "the community shouldn't act like a Nokia mouthpiece" (duh), none of which people would disagree with - this is the most sensible thing you say here.

I think you owe Ryan an apology for so grossly misrepresenting his opinion as the core tenet of your piece.

I know you are but what am I?

From past threads like this... >> http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=28164...and others like them you may be able to see why even a 3 year member of these boards perceived that the Council was actively involved in it's administration and not overly concerns with the ground up input from the members of the forum. I can go on to show more posts if you really want to go there but it wont be productive if the purpose is to call each other names or present one another as things we are not.

`
Back to more positive possible solutions...

The reasons engaged newer members will do most of the grunt work naturally I believe is that most will search the past posts of others and actually read past threads completely in order to know more about the people they wish to hang out with, and to learn about the environment they are about to commit time and energy to.

In the process of this research they often can see "the Forrest through the trees" much better than those who actually participated at the time. So again, naturally they will weed this information and possibly post it in a new thread that allows others like them to follow and better come to the same conclusions they have.

If they don't easily see a means to do so or they perceive that their efforts will be met by ridicule or the harsh criticisms of others without constructive help and input, they move on and we all loose.

A lot of this, as I posted before is so much water under the bridge. Look, the SDK for PR 1.2 has been out for some time. Some helpful members have referenced it in threads in order to answer users questions. However, in order to get a fuller understanding of it's implications and to see actual pictures and screen shots members must go outside this forum to independent blogs and what not. Why is that?

If these bloggers are members of our community why aren't they encouraged to post replications in new threads here? They can link to their blogs all they want but in my humble opinion they need to contribute content to this forum as well. In doing so, the forum may "Stick" these reviews and the blogs will eventually benefit from more viewers.
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