Artwork Quality (was Re: Sound themes)

[Máirín Duffy]

Matthias Clasen wrote:
> Jon invested a significant amount of work in a comparison of OS
> background images, and sent the document to this list. Is that
> participating in the process ? I guess not. But it was an attempt to
> influence the outcome of the process for the better. 

Actually, I would have to say that it was not participating
in the process, at least not until two weeks ago. You see,
if I didn't read planet GNOME, I never would have seen that
document before he posted it to this list two weeks ago. It
was posted to his blog months ago and was never shared with
this group and the blog never hit planet Fedora.

> I don't agree with this at all. Conversation should not end. What must
> end is the divisive 'us' vs. 'them' mentality. The conversion about the
> goals and visions for the desktop and its art should continue. And I
> will defend the freedom of anybody in my team to criticize the art, just
> as everybody else is free to criticize what vt we choose to run X on.

I don't think anyone takes issue with criticism so let's
shelve that point right here. (Although it would be nice if
in the cases where it unprofessional, that it could instead
be polite and professional.)

I think people take issue with the fact that essentially we
are hearing, "this doesn't fit with our vision" when there
is no way anyone can know of or what that vision is since
it's never been articulated anywhere. Also, "I don't like
it" (or worse) without any explanation of why. It's nice to
know you do not like it but there is not much that can be
done to improve it based on "I don't like it." I've taken
studio art classes before where the professor laid down
ground rules to forbid anyone from saying "I don't like it"
without giving at least two specific points of critique to
help the person improve their work or at least understand
where the critiquer was coming from.

~m