Women in Technology

Article:		Myths Open Source Developers Tell Ourselves
Subject:		What doe this project do?
Date:		2003-12-12 08:40:37
From:		anonymous2
While not related to the actual software development, it is related to "things people do just because others are doing them". Please, PLEASE, TELL PEOPLE WHAT THE PROJECT'S GOALS ARE! I have visited countless open source project web sites, only to find the main page is for News, and there are no other pages that say anything about "what this project is". Maybe I would have used it, but I had no idea what it was for. All we need is 1 sentence at the top of the MAIN page, above the news saying, "This project aims to make a tool that does XYZ".

Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.

• Re: What does this project do?
  2003-12-19 09:45:26  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  I've found this to be true of many web sites, as well, many of which I've visited because they are advertised in /. sigs.
  Click on a link, and it takes you to a page that says, "Version 0.0.0.0.0.9 is now out! It fixes the memory corruption bug and allows you to save more of your configuration settings. Download it now!".
  No description of what it does.
  Not a clue.
  And, of course, it has some totally incomprehensible name like "Mordraky" or "Big Sparrow" that also gives no clue as to what it does.

• +1 Insightful
  2003-12-14 03:39:26  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  Oooh, what a giveaway! Where can I put my face?

• What doe this project do?
  2003-12-13 11:27:25  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  Thanks for saying this! This is dead on.

• What doe this project do?
  2003-12-12 12:22:54  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  I couldn't agree more.
  
  That's a typical situation in open source projects.