[RFC] X-Content-Rating key for .desktop files.

[Peter Brett]

Hi folks,

There's been some controversy over the addition of an "Adult" category
to the Desktop Menu Specification -- please see previous e-mails [1,2] for
discussion of why it's the Wrong Thing.

However, there is a legitimate desire to include metadata describing an
application's suitability for different audiences.  It's also evident
that there's some subtleties to take into account: rating standards may
differ between different regions and/or rating authorities; and there
may be a variety of levels or types of rating applied (for example,
"Dr. Jo's Interactive Breastfeeding Tutor" and "Japanese Schoolgirl
Tentacle Rape Adventures: Volume 2: The Coming of Cthulu" would likely
not be classified similarly.

I'm therefore proposing a new experimental key for use in .desktop
files.

  - Key:         "X-Content-Rating"
  - Description: A list of strings describing the suitability of the
                 application's content for different audiences.  Each
                 string should be in the form "<authority>:<rating>",
                 e.g. "PEGI:7".
  - Value Type:  string(s)
  - Required:    No
  - Type:        Application

For example, a .desktop file for the iD Software game "Quake 4" might
contain the following line:

  X-Content-Rating=BBFC:18;ESRB:M;OFLC:MA15+;PEGI:18+

Obviously, many games and other applications will not be rated by one of
the official rating authorities, and I don't have a complete solution
for that yet.  Two main possibilities occur to me: distributions could
use their own simple rating systems; or a voluntary rating system for
open source applications could be developed within XDG.

I would appreciate feedback on this proposal as an alternative to having
an "Adult" XDG menu category.

                              Peter

[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.freedesktop.xdg/12788
[2] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.freedesktop.xdg/12753/focus=12783

-- 
Peter Brett <peter at peter-b.co.uk>
Remote Sensing Research Group
Surrey Space Centre