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Date:      Fri, 17 Apr 1998 08:03:15 -0700 (PDT)
From:      "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu>
To:        Don Wilde <dwilde1@ibm.net>
Cc:        freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: What else goes with it (was Re: New name?)
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.980417075145.273A-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu>
In-Reply-To: <35376EF9.5121678D@ibm.net>

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> Jason C. Wells wrote:
> > This is a question of applications that run on the platform. There is a
> > good point here. Why does Joe User want to run FreeBSD?
> > 
> > The website has a link on the front page to "applications". Then it
> > takes the user to a blurb and then the ports collection.
> > 
> > Hmmm ports.... What is a port?

** Major snip assuming most folks are following somewhat closely

On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Don Wilde wrote:

> This is so incredibly important and pertinent to -advocacy.

> YES! Unfortunately, it appears to be automagically generated from the
> actual ports collection. Those _useless_to_a_BSD_newbie descriptions are
> part of the .DESCR file in each port. What we need to do is talk to the
> -ports committer about that.

Is there a method by which _all_ ports maintainers can be asked to beef
up their descriptions? For example, "KDE is an integrated destkop much
like CDE," presumes a knowledge of "desktop" and "CDE". This is not so
bad. But _every_ KDE item has the same exact description. This is poor.

Now consider this. We need not rely on the ports maintainers to provide
a decent description. I am certain that if a user of a certain
application, say POVRAY, was dissatisfied with the description, then
that person could write a new description and mail it to the POVRAY port
maintainer. 

I can bet that the port maintainer would not mind if someone helped out!

The descriptions improve. The community gets involved. The maintainers
don't get swamped with a decree from Jordan to beef up their
descriptions. 

Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

If many folks can agree with this idea, then I will make a new post
calling for action. 

What say the community?

Have fun,	 | Stop warning me about the latest virus. Learn more...
Jason Wells	 | http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html


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