Bug 201772 - Slogan reflects poorly on the application capabilities
Summary: Slogan reflects poorly on the application capabilities
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: digikam
Classification: Applications
Component: Website (show other bugs)
Version: 1.0.0
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Digikam Developers
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-07-28 14:34 UTC by Fred Albrecht
Modified: 2017-12-14 23:01 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 5.8.0


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Fred Albrecht 2009-07-28 14:34:07 UTC
Version:           0.10.0 (using KDE 4.2.2)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

digiKam currently uses the following tagline :
"Manage your photographs like a professional with the power of open source"

This implies that digiKam is a second rate player. It's for professional wanabees. 

As someone who has been doing photography for ages but who has been a professional in film and video (in advertising and with 10 years at Canal +, I know this will say something to the main digiKam guy - yes I'm French too), I don't want to have my image processing software to be a mere likeness of some hypothetical commercial thing that's supposedly better merely because it's expensive...

Make this "Professional quality open source photography processing software", which it *is*. Stop underselling digiKam. For us photographers, it's by far the greatest tool out there. Granted I still process my RAWs with BibblePro but I manage and mostly retouch everything with digiKam and almost never use Gimp. Fspot or the Google thing are just cute toys compared to it. 

That is all.

So pretty please, remove that silly slogan.
Comment 1 caulier.gilles 2009-07-28 14:44:41 UTC
Well, it's simple : we need a slogan to promote software.

Just make a proposal to replace current one (:=)))...

Gilles Caulier
Comment 2 Fred Albrecht 2009-07-28 18:09:59 UTC
Well I suggested something along the lines of
"Professional quality open source photography processing software"

since apparently what was apparently important was :
- Professionalism
- Quality
- Open source

So, sticking to English (to be understood by most users) and still sticking to the above concept, here are some ideas in no specific order in hope that they will spark further ideas in others :

1 - "An open source tool for professional photographers" (might intimidate beginners, but then it *is* a high end tool)
2 - (drop the "professional" thing, which nobody cares about anyway since professionals starve) "High end photography management - and it's open source !"
3 - "Full featured Photography Management - Open Source"
4 - "Your Photos - Your Data - Full featured Photography Management - The Security of Open Source" (note "security" instead of "power" or "convenience" or whatever... because that's a major "selling point" especially with digital images. Will they still be yours in 10 years ? With open source they will. With closed source... maybe, maybe not.

Those are merely ideas. I like 3 & 4 most (ok, I like 4 most). OTOH they tend to show digiKam as a proper piece of software instead of a wanabee copy of some sort of second grade "pro" thingy, which is what it looks like now.

And to Gilles, feel free to write to me in French if you feel like it. It seem to me like dk really has an image problem. That people actually recommend F-Spot (which has some qualities) instead of digiKam really says something (ok one is Gnome, the usual default, but still)
Comment 3 Ioannis Gyftos 2009-09-10 17:01:36 UTC
Greetings,

I always thought of the slogan a bit 'weird' but I couldn't put my finger on what made me think that way until I read this.

I fully agree with the original proposal by Fred Albrecht.
Comment 4 Julien Narboux 2009-09-10 17:14:13 UTC
I vote for 3 or 4.

my 2 cents,

Julien Narboux
Comment 5 Andi Clemens 2009-09-23 14:46:11 UTC
Uhh the 4th suggestion is a little bit too long?

I also think the current slogan is a bit weird, but to be honest, I'm not convinced of the above suggestions either.
Since English is not my mother tongue, I will not make a suggestion here, I'm just bumping this report to make people aware of the problem again.

Any further suggestions?
Comment 6 Fri13 2009-10-04 22:14:11 UTC
Seems that there is some kind problem with the "like a professional" part. Like it is saying "You need to act like a professional" or means that user would not be a professional but just trying to be such.

First maybe we need to understand what means "professional". It is not matter of skills but just about payment of job. Professional gets paid from what she or he does. Amateur does not get paid, but can be as good, or even better than professional on same job. Question is always only about payment.

The slogan does not say that "You are not good/skilled enough". In contrary, it says "You are good/skilled enough as anyone else". It gives courage 

The digiKam is designed for everyone. Not just for those who are professionals. Professionals should have enough knowledge already to understand that they are not best ones whit greatest skills. But that they have always something new to learn and develop their skills. 

digikam is marketed for normal users and hobbiers, all kind amateurs. They need to know, that there is software available to manage their photos like professionals can. It simple means that they have possibility to use software what gives them a "hitech software". What gets developed for them by free and open way.

The open source is not just somekind "tag" what you can add to software. It is as well the "heart" of the software direction. Too many times there is used "open source" by bad way just by tagging it to product without giving anykind information what it's real meaning is. Too many times the "open source" is tied to security as well. Like it's good side would only be the security (no malware, no backdoors and stable). The Open Source has just more philosophic meaning than just marketing and it would be nice to get people to understand, what power it has.

If we slice the slogan "digiKam - Manage your photographs like a professional with the power of open source" we can get what it means.

1. digiKam = Softwares name, what gives it's brand a name what people will come to notice when mentioning "digiKam"

2. "Manage your photographs" = Information of what the applications is for. Simply, just managing your photographs. There was reasons why not to use "photos", "images", "pictures" and so on. Those can have much lesser meaning for memories and whole professionality than the "photograph" itself.  

3. "like a professional" = seems to be MAIN problem here. It really does not mean "you are just a wannabe who wants to be as good as professional". It just informs that you can wait from the digikam the tools what you did not even think you need or is there. It has nothing to do with the "you are not good enough". It is not negative, but positive side.

4. "With power of Open Source" = ties everything together. The development, the users, goals and current status. It is like saying "this is a good "way" how to live our lifes".

And the current slogan can be sliced by three ways for different purposes.

1. digiKam
2. digiKam - Manage your photographs like a professional
3. digiKam - manage your photographs like a professiona, with power of Open Source

You can use all three in different context like on tee cup, T-shirt, icon, banner, subject and so on. 

Let me take the new suggested slogans and slice them:

 1 - "An open source tool for professional photographers" (might intimidate
beginners, but then it *is* a high end tool)

Ain't the amateurs good enough to use digiKam but only for pros? So if you do not pay your bills by photographing, you are not good enough?
The Open Source is for good thing or is it just some kind stamp top of it?
I would dismiss this right away because the targeting only for professionals, leaving out the biggest user group, amateurs.

2 - "High end photography management - and it's open source!"

 What is "high end"? If digiKam is "high end", what is then example the F-spot, or Lightroom, a über hitech?. It is not wise to give user expections about the technology itself, but more like what the other users use. It does not matter how long the feature list is, if it does not meet the needs what most users have (=amateurs + professionals. No matter of skills). The "and it's open source" reminds me like "and it's free too!" commercial ;-) 

3 - "Full featured Photography Management - Open Source"

 This is almost exactly the one early slogans what I had. It did not give Open Source and digiKam's spirit for the users when I asked from people. And again it has same problem, what are listed on "full feature" list? Although it says what the digiKam is for.

4 - "Your Photos - Your Data - Full featured Photography Management - The
Security of Open Source"

 Reminds as well from my early slogans. What were inspired around "Your memories" type. But drops badly because "photos" word, the technology mumbo jumbo about "data" (normal users do not want to care about "data"). And the "security of Open Source" does only push to minds that the open source is only about security and not the way of development what makes users to enjoy better results by all ways. (+ too long to be cut from middle, like status quo is)


And in the end, we need to have somekind "twist" on the slogan, because it need to stay in mind of user. It can not just be "here it is" what is someway "washed out". It should have multipurpose and meaning. Somekind wisdom inside it.
Comment 7 Andi Clemens 2009-10-16 17:11:37 UTC
Actually our slogan is wrong for the showFoto application. We don't manage photographs with it... could be a little bit misleading.
This slogan is also shown as a tooltip or general description for showFoto.
Comment 8 Fri13 2009-11-01 11:01:53 UTC
"We don't manage photographs with it... could be a little bit misleading."

Yes, with showFoto it is more editing than managing. Even with that the showFoto allows tagging as well when launched from digiKam. I have other bug report for to make the showFoto to use showFoto icon and not the digiKam one when launched from digiKam. Dont know how easy that is but that is other wish.

The showFoto slogan should be edited to correlate it's features when launched as stand alone app.
Comment 9 Milan Knížek 2011-02-02 19:46:22 UTC
For quite some time too much of my attention has being taken by the startup slogan - actually by the part "like a professional", so I tried to look if it was discussed already - that's how I came accross this wish.

IMHO, the "professional" really seems to do a bad job for digiKam, various people understand it differently.

How about simply skipping it from the slogan so that it just reads: "Manage your photographs with the power of open source".
Comment 10 caulier.gilles 2011-09-03 06:09:39 UTC
*** Bug 281235 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 Andi Clemens 2011-09-03 06:47:40 UTC
I agree, we should definitely remove the "professional" part... the slogan is confusing, it can be misinterpreted and it is too long.
Comment 12 caulier.gilles 2011-12-13 09:07:51 UTC
For me "Professional" is important to "think different..." than other open-source applications (:=)))...

Gilles Caulier
Comment 13 caulier.gilles 2013-11-25 14:39:01 UTC
Definitively, an non issue entry... This is not a bug at all...

Gilles Caulier
Comment 14 caulier.gilles 2017-12-14 23:01:29 UTC
The slogan have been updated in this way with new website published for 5.0.0
release.

Gilles Caulier