[Gimp-user] Noise-non-noise

[David Southwell]

On Tuesday 02 October 2007 10:05:51 Sven Neumann wrote:
> Hi,
>
> while your explanation of non-destructive editing is all fine, I still
> think that your postings to this list are nothing but noise. This list
> is about using GIMP. The users who are interested in development know
> very well that everything you asked for is already on our roadmap. You
> can even get a sneak preview today by looking at the GEGL project. If
> you want to help, we need more people working on the code and we also
> need people experienced in user interaction design and usability. I
> don't think though that we need more people pointing out the obvious
> flaws in GIMP. We are all very well aware of them and you are just
> stealing our precious time.
>
>
> Sven

Sven people ask these questions and they are very relevant to users. Every 
contribution is noise to someone.. Either because they are not interested in 
the topic or because they know the answer or because they do not happen to 
like the style of the contributor or his/her views. In a list one gets to 
choose what one reads and what one ignores. Its value lies in the fact that 
one persons noise is another person's music.

There is no obligation upon you to read my contributions..others clearly do 
and I get numerous responses both on and off the list. It is the dialogues 
that keep people interested.

Users need to be able to trust the information obtained from this list. George 
Farris's question is important, An understanding of the role of 
non-destructive editing in image-making is something that every digital 
image-maker needs. and his accusation of falsity was IMHO quite 
inappropriate. My response was not to skilled developers who know that but to 
users who do not understand its place in the scheme of things. 

My contribution are not designed for your reading - or the reading of any 
developer. If they do not already know what non-destructive editing is then 
they are probably developing in the wrong arena. My contributions are 
intended to provide honest information to users who are interested in what 
gimp has to offer and what can and cannot yet be achieved. They are also 
intended to encourage people to use Gimp appropriately. 

To be very direct my belief is that developers need to concentrate on 
development and demonstrate confidence in the result by not encouraging the 
notion that they seek contributors to exercise some form of self censorship 
for fear that developers object to honest dialogue - or are unable to select 
their choice of music from the noise.

Thanks again for what you do

David