[jdev] Jabber Community Site : Call for Help

[Mikael Hallendal]

Julian Missig wrote:

Hi,

> Any decent community site is going to have some kind of bias. I don't 
> think "eliminating bias" should be your top priority. I think "making 
> it easier for people to get started" should be your top priority. You 
> don't need to fear "hiding" other or new clients. If it truly is a 
> "community" site, then people who really care will find out about them 
> one way or another. Clients don't change that much that rapidly.
> 
> I'd go so far as to say that having 4 clients in a list may be a bit 
> much for someone just starting out. I'd much rather have the user go 
> through a quick form where we find out which IM clients (if any) they 
> have experience with and recommending a client from there.

Sounds a bit over the top to try to guess what client would be best 
depending on what other IM clients the user has used. And also, imho the 
usability of ICQ sucks, and presenting the user with something much 
easier to use might be a better drive then presenting him with something 
very similar.

The solution with a form might be a good idea though, since we have a 
lot of different clients on a lot of different platforms.

For example:

1. Are you an experianced [ ]   avarage [ ]    first time [ ]   jabber
    user?

2. What platform are you using:
    Mac OS X [ ]  Linux [ ]   Windows [ ]   Handheld [ ]  Other [ ]

3. If some platform with multiple environments

    Are you using GNOME [ ], KDE [ ] or other [ ] environment...

Maybe something like that.

Not sure that we actually have to point people to the "experianced 
clients" though since people who are experianced with Jabber will know 
about them. Or we could still keep a list of all known clients but point 
new users to the form that only asks for what platform/environment they 
are using.

> For example, I'd only recommend Psi to someone who has heavily used ICQ 
> (in fact, I think most people who still use ICQ nowadays wouldn't like 
> any clients /other than/ Psi). For someone with zero experience with 
> IM, I'd never even show them the possibility of Psi. Just look at 
> hardware web sites--most of them have a selection process where you 
> tell them what you're looking for or what experience you have and they 
> recommend based on that.

Couldn't agree more. A client such as PSI can be great for a hard core 
jabber user but is pretty daunting for a newbie (I personally find it 
daunting though I think I have a pretty good idea about what's going on 
in a Jabber client).

I think the current situation makes it really hard to get into Jabber. 
This is not only a problem with choosing the client, the hardest part is 
still to try to figure out what the differences between different 
servers are.

Best Regards,
   Mikael Hallendal

-- 
Imendio AB, http://www.imendio.com/