[Users] Claws config needs much better documentation

[Holger Berndt]

On Mo, 30.07.2012 22:47, Sitaram Chamarty wrote:

>I'm glad it does a lot of things differently.  And I already said *I*
>will no longer be affected by *this specific surprise*.  But that does
>not alter the fact that it *is* a **bad** surprise.

That's not a fact, no matter how often you try to sell it as one, or
how much markup you use to try to make your point seem stronger. It's
your personal oppinion.

Conversely, you might want to consider to accept the fact that other
people have different oppinions. It's also not really helpful to talk
about "self-back-patting" and "gratuitous chest-beating" when you
comment other users' points of view.

(Yes, you might not have realized it, but the ones that you accuse of
self-back-patting and chest-beating are actually users, just like you,
not developers. They just happen to have a different oppinion than
you.)

On a more general note: It's always nice to welcome new users into the
Claws Mail community. It's also good if they bring up different points
of view, because developers and long-time users might have developed a
certain "organizational blindness" for certain aspects.

On the other hand, newcommers can very well assume that not everything
that works differently compared to their old MUA is a bug. Some things
have in fact been done for a reason.

Also, it can be assumed that Claws Mail doesn't strive to be a faster
Thunderbird, or a better $INSERT_OLD_MUA_HERE. The reason that
$OTHER_MUA does things in a particular way is neither a reason for
Claws Mail to do it as well, nor is it a reason to not do it.

The issue with defaults is similar. You can very well assume that
defaults have not been chosen randomly, but after some consideration.
However, the primary goal is not to choose the option that makes Claws
Mail resemble $OTHER_MUA as closely as possible.

Of course, that doesn't mean that all defaults are perfect, and can't be
challenged. On the other hand, not all challenges are convincing enough
to get the default changed.

Holger

Disclaimer: Although being part of the Claws Mail Team, I don't speak
for the project, but only for myself.