[mythtv-users] More feature requests

[Scott Rowe]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org 
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of J. 
> Donavan Stanley
> Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 8:46 AM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] More feature requests

<snip>

> *sigh* the novel unique, *visionary* ideas are RARE.  
> Spouting off a list of "I wants" or "wouldn't it be cool ifs" 
> is not quite what one would call a contribution.

That's UAT. If User A wants a feature that's already there, then the
documentation needs work, or a UI isn't clear. If the feature isn't there,
then that gives the visionary ideas on where the product should go next. It
is a contribution (maybe not what you want, but like I said, someone's
keeping track.)

> While there may not be 
> >people exclusively devoted to each of these roles right now, 
> someone is 
> >performing them (Isaac, Jarrod, Axel, et al, remove all 
> those hats and 
> >take a bow.)
> >  
> >
> 
> That's right, that's why I suggested ways to actually 
> contribute instead of making feature requests.  But hey, it's 
> a lot easier to "contribute" 
> by list of your visionary ideas than it is to spend all day 
> trying to come up with the exact steps needed to reproduce a 
> bug or writing up documentation isn't it?

If a user doesn't have the expertise to code, then they probably don't have
the expertise to write documentation. (Or the documentation they produce
might be of questionable value.) Same thing for the steps to reproduce.
Maybe it takes talking to the person reporting the bug to better determine
what the circumstances were that led to the problem. Maybe the user doesn't
have the ability to determine what's relevant ('Gee, I was recording a show
on a Wednesday, could that be the problem?') 

> While I wouldn't mind the toys, I don't list any OSS work on 
> my resume and it only gets casually mentioned in interviews.  
> Working OSS projects is a big negative to lots of potential 
> employers if you're an engineer.  
> But then again, it'd be Isaac getting the toys not me since 
> I'm just a bit player.

Sure, some companies frown on it- keep looking. You'd probably find that
working for a company that values and appreciates OSS work is a better fit,
anyway!! 

> 
> >So where is mythTV in that process? I'd say close to the end of that 
> >list of steps. We've seen the flood of newbies who are encouraged by 
> >the HOWTOs and such, there are at least three companies 
> commercializing 
> >myth, and developers are being called by hardware 
> manufacturers to demo 
> >myth. Not that the 'end' means anything- it's an iterative cycle 
> >feeding on positive feedback.
> >  
> >
> There's also lots of companies that are or soon will be 
> selling MythTV based products.  They are the ones that'll 
> take these feature requests as market research and do 
> something about them.  But spouting off a list of feature 
> requests, calling it contributing and then complaining when 
> none the developers (who are working for free and get nothing 
> in return for more users except more feature requests) don't 
> jump right on it is just silly.

I know it's frustrating, but it's all in the mind set. If it's not your
itch, ignore it. As to the original poster complaining, he (or she- not sure
about S. Baker, if a she, my apologies) said:

	> I didn't get much response from the last email 
	> I sent about feature requests; perhaps it was 
	> because it appeared in the archives as though 
	> it was a reply to a different topic?  Is there 
	> something that has to be included in the email 
	> to make a new topic start?

Looks like he's just looking for validation.. Good idea? Bad idea? Already
there, but not sure where it is? Point 1. is already in CVS (apparently),
point 2. seems novel, and point 3. seems logical. So the user is saying
'sorry, I'm not sure how the list works, here's some ideas I had.' Seems to
me that if the person is thinking about regular expressions, it might be a
person interested in / capable of actually coding it. Maybe the person was
just asking if anyone would be interested in it so that they would know if
it was worth their time to code it. (I'm not saying this is so, just
positing a possible scenario.)

-Scott