Brainstorming/Guidelines

From MyPaint

These are the guidelines for submitting the feature requests and ideas to the MyPaint wiki. These guidelines were created because many of the brainstorming on the MyPaint wiki is (at the moment - January 2010) a lot less useful than it could be. In particular we are missing the following things for some requests, which are critical to a good feature request.

[edit] Structure

Try using MediaWiki syntax that is meant to create some structure on the page. Do not just use random bold or italic tags to make your request look different than the rest!

The suggestion/idea (when its hierarchical location in the page has been determined) should looks something like this:

[edit] Idea summary/title Author(s): Idea author(s) - if possible as a link to wiki user or add some other contact information Current state: A summary of the applications current state, and a description of the problem it has. To solve a problem, you need to know what it is! It might seem obvious to you when reading this, but does your feature requests cover this area? Note that different persons have different angles and perspective than you. Do not assume that they know why this is a problem, or that they even think the problem exists at all! Explain and explore the problem itself before proposing a solution. Who is experiencing this as a problem and who isn't? Why/why not? Proposed change: An exploration of the different potential solutions that exist. How do other applications to it? What the advantages and disadvantages of each solution? Does it make sense with respects to how MyPaint solves other problems? Does it create new problems? It is also very important to be open towards other solutions. You cannot consider all aspects alone of a solution or problem alone, so work together! Pros: List benefits of implementing your idea in MyPaint. Concrete benefits. Cons: List possible negative consequences. Be critical, no change brings just plain benefits (if nothing else there is extra work).

This kind of form can be generated by using the Idea template.

[edit] Comments/Discussion

Do not comment the request or idea on the same page! MediaWiki supports special discussion pages that are designed just for that. On the top of the page there is a discussion tab/link that takes you to the discussion page for that page. If the discussion page had not been created yet you will be asked to create it. When writing comments try to follow the same structure that exists on the main page. Post replies to someone else's comment by tabulating them using colon (:) characters in front of every line. Do not forget to sign your comments with ~~~~.

Also consider the following guidelines

• Unpolished images are also welcome when trying to present some mock-up functionality. The brainstorming area is not some kind of fancy gallery so every image/sketch is fine as long as it is meaningful for the suggestion.
• No roadmap/priority discussion please, except if you are implementing it.
• If you don't get any feedback, you can try the IRC channel.