linux mint, mate, panels: change desktop folder location

if you don't want mate to use the $HOME/Desktop folder as the folder it actually shows on your desktop, you can change which location it uses.

i couldn't find anything by searching for this until i remembered that mate is a successor of gnome2.  so, i looked up how to do it for gnome2 and it seems to be kind of the same:

here's how to do it with gnome:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/17752/use-any-folder-for-your-ubuntu-desktop-even-a-dropbox-folder/

so, just go to your home folder, click "view"->"show hidden files", then click on the ".config" folder and then open "user-dirs.dirs" and change everything there.

alternatively (thanks anonymous),

1. gedit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
2. change the value of XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="/insert/path/here" and save it
3. killall nautilus