Collect and improve bad application descriptions in kde.org/applications/ and Discover
Open, Needs TriagePublic

Description

According to stats.kde.org, kde.org/applications make to 44% of the views of kde.org.

The problem is that a lot of application descriptions are not descriptive or too short. These descriptions are critical since they are used by google to find relevant search result and in Discover. The description are fetched from the AppStream files.

So let's collect here the list of applications that need better description and try to improve/rewrite them. I can take care of uploading the new description.

List of problematic short application descriptions (ones listed on kde.org/applications):

  • KDiff3/Kompare: need to have different descriptions
  • GCompris: a bit more elaborated concerning which games it includes?
  • Kolf: perhaps something like golf simulator game?
  • LSkat: referencing that it's a german-specific card-game.
  • KRuler: could have a more catchy description
  • Kamoso: should reference the camera effects it includes, and the fact it's referring to webcams
  • Calligra Sheets/Stage: include the word "editor"

List of problematic long application descriptions (those shown for each individual application):

I also saw that games.kde.org provides better description of the KDE games than kde.org/applications/game. We will also need to copy these descriptions to the AppStream files for the case that they are better.

(Moved tables to respective subtasks so as to not overflow this one:
Short descriptions: https://phabricator.kde.org/T12810
Long descriptions: https://phabricator.kde.org/T12811)

ognarb created this task.Nov 4 2019, 11:14 PM
ognarb updated the task description. (Show Details)Nov 4 2019, 11:25 PM
thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Nov 25 2019, 3:40 AM
thiagosueto added a comment.EditedNov 25 2019, 3:52 AM

I will think of some proper descriptions later.
That said, I have three questions:

  1. All descriptions (including short ones) come from appstream?
  2. If we change them, are we changing only the website strings and not the appstream descriptions themselves? Sorry this question was already answered in the task description. But then a new question arises: appstream file description is handled by the documentation team, no?
  3. Will those changed strings be translated again, since appstream strings are already translated?

I will think of some proper descriptions later.

Thanks for working on this! It's a very impactful way to contribute.

That said, I have three questions:

  1. All descriptions (including short ones) come from appstream?

Yes.

  1. Will those changed strings be translated again, since appstream strings are already translated?

Yes.

Why should cervisia change from CVS? It's exactly what it is. It's not a generic interface to a generic content versioning system, but the interface to a specific one (CVS, which is Concurrent Versions System, but I bet that 90% of my colleagues would recognize it only be the acronym).

Ah, my bad. I mistook the acronyms and remembered them incorrectly.
For some reason I remembered CVS was content versioning system, but what I was thinking about was actually VCS, version control system.
CVS is one of many different VCS. Will remove my suggestion accordingly.

thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Nov 25 2019, 2:47 PM
thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Nov 26 2019, 5:05 PM
thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Dec 4 2019, 9:15 PM
thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 29 2020, 1:13 PM

I'll start working on the lengthy descriptions in a few days.

thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 11 2020, 2:10 PM
thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 11 2020, 2:21 PM
thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 11 2020, 2:30 PM

Added Docs as a subscriber since if I'm not mistaken appstream descriptions are Docs stuff too.
Moreover, I'd like to ask: where are those descriptions located (which files, where in Phabricator etc) so I can send patches to change those?
Never sent a patch before, and I'd prefer doing it through the Phabricator web interface if possible.

While not a description issue, another goal could be to have consistent screenshots on the website. I don't know if there are any outdated ones but I have seen multiple styles at least. Some show the wallpaper beneath, some don't. They also show differences in quality and size.

Added Docs as a subscriber since if I'm not mistaken appstream descriptions are Docs stuff too.

Uh, afaik not exactly, no.

Moreover, I'd like to ask: where are those descriptions located (which files, where in Phabricator etc) so I can send patches to change those?
Never sent a patch before, and I'd prefer doing it through the Phabricator web interface if possible.

If you manage to do many changes, it would be better to do it through git directly, also because you need that to merge the changes. Moreover, a few repositories are on now managed by our gitlab instance (invent), so while phabricator would work for reviews, it does not make sense to use it for them anymore.

Added Docs as a subscriber since if I'm not mistaken appstream descriptions are Docs stuff too.
Moreover, I'd like to ask: where are those descriptions located (which files, where in Phabricator etc) so I can send patches to change those?
Never sent a patch before, and I'd prefer doing it through the Phabricator web interface if possible.

The description are located in AppStream files: find -iname "*.appdata.xml" to find the files in a repository.

While not a description issue, another goal could be to have consistent screenshots on the website. I don't know if there are any outdated ones but I have seen multiple styles at least. Some show the wallpaper beneath, some don't. They also show differences in quality and size.

+1 and we should also decide if we want to add border shadow or not. The specification also specify a recommended size

Ideally, all image screenshots as well as videos should have a 16:9 aspect ratio, and should have a width that is no smaller than 620 pixels.

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/chap-Metadata.html#tag-screenshots

Added Docs as a subscriber since if I'm not mistaken appstream descriptions are Docs stuff too.

Uh, afaik not exactly, no.

Should I remove Docs then? Also, is this managed individually by each application?
Since

The description are located in AppStream files: find -iname "*.appdata.xml" to find the files in a repository.

Yes, each app's description (and other relevant metadata, like screenshots) lives in that app's own repo in its .appdata.xml file. So there will be many patches. :)