Debtags for defining the minimal age that a program can generally be used

Ben Armstrong synrg at sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
Wed Sep 11 20:06:01 UTC 2013


On 11/09/13 02:01 PM, Holger Levsen wrote:
> On Mittwoch, 11. September 2013, Ben Armstrong wrote:
>> I disagree. If you have tags that state the *intended* age range for
>> software 
> 
> for which culture? Germany? Mongolia? Syria? Iran? US? And then there are sub 
> cultures in between...

You clipped the context, which was central to my point:

>> (as defined by upstream) that's an objective classification.

Upstream decides who to develop the software for. They might aim to
develop software for a certain age range and either fail to make it
actually serve that age range well (a bug in the software) or fail to
recognize cultural differences. That doesn't make it any less useful to
have tags stating upstream's intent. It gives users a starting point for
searching for suitable software.

Supposing I am looking for software for a child of a certain age, 7. I
could start by searching debtags that bracket this age. I could then
look next at software in the category above and the category below. And
finally I might look at other tags, when the software doesn't indicate
an age range. The debtags are useful because they help locate the
software my particular 7-year-old might like faster. They are easy to
maintain because they depend on the expressed intent of upstream rather
than leaving it to us to be the "authority" on which software is
suitable for which children.

Ben


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