22204 - "About:Skin" option in the Help drop down menu.

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: Help Documentation, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Robert O'Connor]

Can a menu choice on the Help menu be inserted under the existing "About"
option for an "About skin"?

Purpose: Many big design firms will jump on ship at a chance to display their
skills if they are given credit for their work so that people can be impressed
and visit their site if they like the design work they see. (examples
Shockwave.com, NetObject Fusion themes)

Some will probably put Easter Eggs around the UI for themselves, but can the
browser be built with an "about:skin" option in the About Menu so that it looks
for a page that is packaged in a fixed standard location within the skin
directory structure, in which designer can give credits to the skin design
crew, revision date, etc.

Comment 1

[Eli Goldberg]

Assigning to Help menu owner.

Comment 2

[verah (gone)]

Accepting bug; I will have to research this one after the holidays. Thanks for
the suggestion!

Comment 3

[Peter Trudelle]

Adding 'skins' keyword to appropriate bugs en masse, sorry about any 
mistakes...

Comment 4

[Peter Trudelle]

Should this bug be targetted for M16 as part of the skinnability push for B2?  
Could you please set the target so we know whether to expect it?

Comment 5

[Peter Trudelle]

Mass-adding beta2 keyword to all skins bugs.

Comment 6

[verah (gone)]

Peter, this is about giving credit to designers who come up with skins. I'm 
hesitant to put it in the Help menu, since it's not Help (and because there have 
been *many* requests to add various "abouts" to the Help menu). Is there a 
prominent place where designers can be given credit for skins, along the lines 
described in this bug?

Comment 7

[Peter Trudelle]

Well, that is where Windows apps seem to put their 'About' items.  I don't 
really have any opinion on this, I just want to ensure that it is planned and 
tracked properly.

Comment 8

[Eli Goldberg]

I admit I don't personally understand why this necessitates an additional Help 
menu item. 

(e.g. we don't have a separate "About this Theme..." menu item in the Mac OS 
about menu, nor does Microsoft devote a separate Help menu item for the desktop 
theme currently in use.)

This information could be placed just as easily (and where a theme-switching user 
will see it) in the Preferences pane.

Moreso, I'm not convinced personally that adding an "About <theme>..." would 
definitively increase interest in Mozilla themes. 

Since I'll readily admit I'm not familiar with this area, I've dropped a line to 
Arlo Rose, who was the lead visual/UI designer and for (and driving force behind) 
Kaleidoscope --- which has attracted hundreds (thousands?) of themes, to see what 
his opinion is.

Comment 9

[Eli Goldberg]

CC:ing Ben, since I think he was designing the Prefs UI for skins.

Comment 10

[verah (gone)]

I'm setting this to a later milestone so we can get it off the M16 radar. 
Someone should remove the "beta2" keyword -- can I do that?

Comment 11

[Peter Trudelle]

Taking this off the skins radar entirely.

Comment 12

[Eli Goldberg]

I discussed this with Arlo Rose, who pioneered themeswitching at Apple in the 
mid-1990s, and who has been the key designer behind Kaleidoscope (provides Mac 
theme switching, one of the most popular shareware apps on the platform), which 
has several thousand themes available

His experience is that big design firms would not have any interest in doing 
application themes, whether such a menu item existed or not, unless they were 
paid sizeable chunks of actual money (as are many of the designers featured on 
Shockwave.com)

Thus, I suggest that this be resolved as WONTFIX unless we have hard evidence 
that adding such a menu item would in fact attract designers (e.g. a top designer 
who has stated that they'll do themes if we insert such a menu item.)

Comment 13

[verah (gone)]

I talked with Michael LaGuardia in product marketing, and he told me that there 
are plans for a fairly splashy page, accessed through the UI, where skins and 
skins producers will be showcased. In light of this I think the "About" in the 
Help menu is unnecessary. Marking "wontfix."

Comment 14

[Eli Goldberg]

Verifying as WONTFIX.