Really?
Really?
Posted Feb 28, 2004 11:55 UTC (Sat) by ren_123 (guest, #19852)In reply to: Really? by Ross
Parent article: The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story (catb.org)
1) So, if it is free, you have no right to complain about it?
2) If you look at the first five reactions, at the top of this page, I
see some very good comments where UI designers can take advantage of.
Apart from that, his whole describtion of what things went wrong, and
what he did next, is certainly useful for UI designers.
3) yes, being polite does get you better results. However, if the other
party refuses to listen to valid complaints because they're 'not worded
properly' then it becomes a wordgame. You might expect such behavior big
bureaucratic companies, not from open source developers.
4) Ah, he's barking up the wrong tree, so we can ignore him.
5) And before we take his complaint serious, let him fix his own work.
That will teach him.
6) Yeah, raising the bar for complaints is also a good idea.
I'll bet that if you combine the above three points, most users will just
cave in, and pray that the next version has fixed their bugs
automagically. Ever googled for the 'clue train manifesto?'
That whole open source collaboration thing thrives on listening to your
users, and taking them serious.
Posted Feb 29, 2004 21:28 UTC (Sun)
by Ross (guest, #4065)
[Link]
2) Those reactions weren't written by ESR were they? I'm talking about 3) Did I say they weren't listening to complaints? Did I say they 4) He's barking up the wrong tree so maybe he should bark up the right one. 6) Once again you mischaracterize what I said. I said that he chose a
1) Did I say that? I don't think so. What I said was that releasingReally?
something free is not the same as kicking your users in the mouth. Sure
they can complain. I can complain about your post using invalid debate
tactics can't I. But if I said you're an idiot for the way you designed
the CUPS GUI you would probably not take me seriously. And if I failed to
understand why and said "just because your post was free doesn't mean I
don't have a right to complain about it" you should have the right to
laugh in my face.
ESR's rant, not posts on LWN.
shouldn't listen to complaints? I don't think so. What I am saying is
that it is a natural human tendency to react badly to people who call you
names -- especially when they ignore feedback channels and use their
notoriety to call you names in a public rant.
5) I didn't say we should ignore his complaint because of this but he
probably should check his own work for the flaws he's complaining about
before lobbing such a rant to the public.
crappy way to approach fixing the problem if he really wanted to get it
fixed. I didn't say that user's complaints should be ignored if they are
not "properly worded" or fail to "meet the bar". But if someone like ESR
can't be bothered to complain in a productive way there is little hope for
decent user feedback in general. And it makes me wonder if he really
should be one of our "leaders".