Extra Zotero directory within AppData\Roaming

dstillman

This discussion was created from comments split from: Zotero 5 in lab environment issue.

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Could you clarify what is the point of having an empty intermediate directory for profile location? I mean 'Zotero\Zotero' in 'C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles\'.

adamsmith

I think it's a side effect of the Firefox framework Zotero uses. Does it cause any problems?

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It doesn't, but it does not make sense either. I am going to flatten the structure so wanted to know if there's any hidden point.

dstillman

It's from Firefox, but it's also a standard Windows convention. One is the organization and one is the product. In our case they just happen to be the same. It's not impossible that there could be another product from Zotero that would create a second subdirectory named something else.

In any case, I'm not sure why you'd change this — you'd just make it different from the documentation and from where an uncustomized build would look, for no reason.

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> One is the organization and one is the product. In our case they just happen to be the same.

This "happen" is unfortunate, because if you actually followed the convention, that would be something like "Digital Scholarship\Zotero". No confusion, no unnecessary questions.

dstillman

I'm really not sure why, over a year later, during which time no one else has brought this up, you still think this is some major source of confusion.

Zotero is its own project within CDS, and it's also the name of the software in question. Again, there could be another piece of software from Zotero with a different name, and that would also go under the first "Zotero". We don't coordinate development with other CDS projects, and we're not going to start sharing file installation paths and risking conflicts because one person is unhappy with the path to the profile directory.

I assure you that adding the name of a business entity that almost no one recognizes to Zotero's profile path would not result in less confusion.

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> I'm really not sure why, over a year later, during which time no one else has brought this up, you still think this is some major source of confusion.

May I have the right to reply when I please? May I have the right to decide what is relevant to me and what I found confusing? Thanks.

> Zotero is its own project within CDS, and it's also the name of the software in question. Again, there could be another piece of software from Zotero with a different name, and that would also go under the first "Zotero".

It directly contradicts what you said earlier, i.e. "one is the organization". There is no organization here.

> We don't coordinate development with other CDS projects, and we're not going to start sharing file installation paths and risking conflicts because one person is unhappy with the path to the profile directory.

I did not ask you to do anything. I know very well that the makers of moronic decisions are most stubborn.

> I assure you that adding the name of a business entity that almost no one recognizes to Zotero's profile path would not result in less confusion.

Oh yeah, let's have Zotero/Zotero then. What I can assure of is that there is no such moronic double names in any Windows software that I ever met.

dstillman

It directly contradicts what you said earlier, i.e. "one is the organization". There is no organization here.

Yes, there is. The organization is the Zotero project. The Zotero desktop app is one of its products. They're not the same thing, and there are different places for them ("AppVendor" and "AppName") in the installer we inherited from Firefox. This isn't complicated.

I know very well that the makers of moronic decisions are most stubborn.

You've been a Zotero user since 2008, so I don't know what in the world you think you're doing here, but this is incredibly inappropriate. Further posts of yours will be moderated, and anything else like this will be deleted before it's posted.