Re: (after a respite) Does this fit as a description of LiteStep?

Antoine W. Campagna wrote:
Thanks for your response. I'm enclosing comments.
> 
> 
> Were you having eye problems ?

Yes. I suddenly lost much of the vision in my right eye. Branch vein 
occlusion: One of the three arterioles (little arteries) supplying blood 
to my eye collapsed so no blood could get through. Vision cells, being 
often nerve cells, died without blood supply. Meanwhile the pressure in 
my eye (swelling actually within the eyeball itself) continues to rise.

I'm part of a huge National Institutes of Health (NIH) study trying an 
experimental treatment involving sticking a syringe into your eyeball 
and shooting cortisone into your eyeball. An interesting experience.
> 
> I think everyone here still welcomes
> you and will continue to do so since your messages are inspiring
> (although long).
> 
Yes, my posts are long.

Mostly because this business is important, and while we all have become 
accustomed to short pithy email, we also spend a huge amount of time 
cleaning up the messes that were caused because someone misunderstood a 
one-sentence email someone else sent. Overall, I find it to be an 
excellent investment.

Part of the reason is that I do want people to think deeply about these 
complicated and interrelated issues. If the goal is to re-energize the 
LiteStep community, attract some fresh faces (fingers?) and figure out 
how to respond, if at all, to Ubuntu, Aero and OSX; and if the result of 
not figuring it out is that this community cruises in a long and slow 
decline, we had better be careful that we do understand what is going 
on, we understand one another, and consider the options carefully!

> Yes, I think you right on it with this text (but I read only quickly).
> 
Good, I hope to get others' reactions as we go along. I just have to 
keep saying it in different ways, "If this community is worth saving 
(assuming the many who say so know it better than I do) its worth some 
quality head time to work through the choices and implications of those 
choices."

> I don't think it would fit correctly as an Ad text though, it is way too
> long. People want short texts nowadays.
> 
I tried to make it clear that this was not ad copy. What we are doing 
now is trying to figure out *What* we want to say, and to *Whom.* We 
really shouldn't say much of anything to any new large groups of people 
until we develop a fairly precise consensus (not unanimity) about where 
the community is now, where we want the community to end up, and how we 
expect to get from here to there.

I'm not a programmer. (obvious, huh?) I have worked with many from the 
initial architectural stages through the debugging processes, though. If 
I were to pick a bumper sticker to say to programmers what I'm trying to 
get at it might be "All code is bad code if there's no goal." Of course, 
you could also argue that no code is bad--the "every journey begins with 
a single step should be understood as saying "walking in any direction 
will do."

I have heard just about every programmer with whom I have worked 
snarling and snipping and growling about how in writing good code for 
(fill in the blank with project name), you have to first undo all the 
garbage and sewage that is hopelessly embedded. I think this will 
resonate with at least some of the community here.

As to the length of ads, Well, partly. The length and construction of 
any copy will depend on the medium. Some white papers, for example, are 
  clear attempts to influence others to buy some package. Why aren't 
they advertising? (if it walks like a duck. . .) If you pick up just 
about any serious computing journal you will find lots of examples of 
very long copy about some very specific and highly specialized product.

(I won't bore you with details, but just trust me that I do understand 
advertising. . .)

> I agree with Wendy that a website designated to users "New to LiteStep"
> would probably be a good thing. With nice and big graphical stuff on the
> front
> page, some impressve screenshots, a direct link the the most recent
> installer (with one or two good themes included).
> Plus a page with a convincing text written by Roy, a page with features
> and/or comparisons, a page with many screenshots with direct link to the
> themes used and a page with links to all other LS related websites.
> 
> And now that I am thinking about it, new LiteStep installers should start LS
> on top of explorer (hiding it) as soon as the install is
> done. Explorer would be deactivated after the next reboot (I no lnger
> like rebooting and I think it is probably the case for many others).
>
Here is an interesting example. Please know that I am *not* picking on 
you or Wendy or anyone (yet). But from what I have read so far, and what 
I have seen within the community, I would suggest that any attempt to do 
this as the first step will probably only stick another nail in the coffin.

Before we talk about designing web sites and strategies, I believe we 
should be clear about what we want to accomplish--what will be necessary 
to get the LiteStep community up and growing and producing lots of new 
work that pushes way beyond our current envelope. (I can talk the 
lingo/argot as well!<g>)

Just as an example. If we want to say to people "come join our community 
because you will then be able to put your coding skills to the best 
possible use in taking back control of your desktop" we should *not* be 
talking to people who don't code. Another way of putting it might be: A 
million people have not bought the new iPhone because they were 
interested in customizing their workspace.

On the other hand, if we want to attract people who know enough 
programming to at least WANT to break into XP and Vista in order to fix 
some of the obvious blooming broken parts, we really do not want to 
start the conversation by saying "you too can individualize your 
computer workspace. Did you know that you can make some amazing gadgets 
to do little useful things--without real fear of breaking your computer?"

I hope you get my point. The right message to the wrong people is the 
wrong message. (another aphorism for you)<g>

> Also, just a thought. Some websites in the links sections of many websites
> are no longer online (eg. Loose-screws) and it would probably be better
> if it would be cleaned up. (it gives an old and outdated feeling)

Agreed. I cannot tell you how frustrating it was to search for LiteStep 
themes, download them, then discover that many did not work (the OTS 
issue). It's not often that during the installation of a software 
package the installer pops up and says "using this is a big mistake."

Of course, I then looked into the configuration files of the "default" 
theme and of many others. In many of the themes I have gone over the 
theme creators' comments say "go to loose-screws. . ." get this at 
"loose-screws. . ." "be sure and upgrade this module, just go to 
loose-screws and type in . . ."

No matter what we end up doing, we really will need to either clean up 
the themes out there, or come up with another set of tutorial/default 
themes (and a new installer utility that doesn't send you to. . 
.loose-screws.net!)

By the way, when you do go to loose-screws you find (thankfully) mostly 
links for industrial fasteners. It could have ended up much worse.

> 
> Antoine
> 
Thanks, Antoine.

I would encourage us to discipline ourselves a bit to think through the 
options. How and to whom do we present ourselves?
(1) strictly end-users who want cool desktops with little twirly things 
and lots (never too much) fluorescent blue, green, and red on black
(2) novice programmers who want a sturdy platform on which to play 
around with their desktop, gadgets, themes, etc.
(3) special interest groups who want finished/polished themes to make 
available to their members to advertise their cause "save the whales" 
desktop themes,
(4) experienced coders who want to create something that isn't one tiny 
piece of a tiny piece of an insignificant program embedded deep within 
some firmware to do something no one really cares about--hey!--remember 
when coding was *fun*?!?
(5) graphic designers who want to put something in front of people that 
will actually help them in their creative process, rather than what 
group 1 wants
(6) serious futurists who believe that computing is not just 1s and 0s 
in a box with wires and a screen (think: Steve Jobs lite)

I could go on and on (I did in the post to which this refers).

Point is, if you try to do all of these simultaneously what you end up 
with is, well, what LiteStep is now. Something that almost gets folks to 
where they want to be, maybe.

It's not a matter of quality. It's not about excluding anybody. But it 
will be about some people's cows being protected right away, and others 
left to roam for awhile.

If everyone agrees with everything I have said, let's just wrap LiteStep 
up real nice and have a hell of a wake. You can't be passionate about 
absolutely everything. Each person to whom we will get an opportunity to 
tell about LiteStep and the amazing community isn't going to sit around 
until we get to #43 which is the exciting prospect.

I have been, and will continue to be gentle. That's who I am and want to 
be. But I also don't want to lead a bunch of folks who might otherwise 
produce some really amazing and innovating stuff down some bunny trail. 
That would be a tragic waste of creative energy and valuable 
time/attention.

So, who are we a few years down the road? What do the pod/magazine/big 
name web site reviewers say about LiteStep? What non-computer-as-tool 
journals even mention the LiteStep community, and what do they say? What 
will be the things that no matter how hard we plan and prepare and plot 
our course, we will continue to exasperatingly attempt to explain for 
the 49 millionth time to someone who isn't really listening now, either? 
and when they get off line, will we really care they don't get it?

(and see, Antoine, even when I start with comments interlaced, I still 
manage to develop a good rant at the end).

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