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Do user forums sometimes stop software from improving?

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mnemonic:
Isn't another issue around the sexiness of new projects and the dismissing of old ones?  The next idea a developer has is really sexy and he definitely won't make the same awful design decisions he made last time.  While the developer is busy writing an application that will cure all the world's problems, the blossoming user community starts asking for bigger and better functions, especially ones that were outside of the original design.  After enough pestering, the developer has to part from his new, perfectly-architected application and work on the old one to shut the forum dwellers-up.  To speed up the process, he doesn't even want to understand how the original big, hairy mess of code works and he bodges it in with no thought for the architecture.

It works...just.  The forum-dwellers are happy bunnies and then go-away and dream-up new and exciting things the developer can add to the application...and generate a list of bugs with the code the developer bodged in.  The developer then gets sick-to-death of these dwellers constantly asking him to add more stuff to this hateful, badly-architected old code and vows never again to revisit that damn forum again.  Instead, he destroys the forum and sets-up a complex and impossible to use "support ticket" system where these people can never ever meet and exchange their evil thoughts again.  If it's complex enough, he might even be able to avoid ever seeing these issues again and can get on with the new and sexy project.

Maybe I'm wrong though...

Armando:
Isn't another issue around the sexiness of new projects and the dismissing of old ones?  The next idea a developer has is really sexy and he definitely won't make the same awful design decisions he made last time.  While the developer is busy writing an application that will cure all the world's problems, the blossoming user community starts asking for bigger and better functions, especially ones that were outside of the original design.  After enough pestering, the developer has to part from his new, perfectly-architected application and work on the old one to shut the forum dwellers-up.  To speed up the process, he doesn't even want to understand how the original big, hairy mess of code works and he bodges it in with no thought for the architecture.

It works...just.  The forum-dwellers are happy bunnies and then go-away and dream-up new and exciting things the developer can add to the application...and generate a list of bugs with the code the developer bodged in.  The developer then gets sick-to-death of these dwellers constantly asking him to add more stuff to this hateful, badly-architected old code and vows never again to revisit that damn forum again.  Instead, he destroys the forum and sets-up a complex and impossible to use "support ticket" system where these people can never ever meet and exchange their evil thoughts again.  If it's complex enough, he might even be able to avoid ever seeing these issues again and can get on with the new and sexy project.

Maybe I'm wrong though...
-mnemonic (July 14, 2010, 01:51 PM)
--- End quote ---

Sexiness can always be a "problem" (can also be a solution, depending on how you look at it), regardless of the activity or the perspective.

Users too fall for sexiness... They often request new (almost useless) features to counter their natural hedonistic adaptation or because they'd like the software to be simply... "sexier" (sexy UI anyone ?) according to their own standards/vision -- which has nothing to do per se with the actual function of the software.

IMO, if the developer uses/depends on his own software daily, there are less chances for sexiness to have as much influence on development. As a user he might see better improvement of functionalities as an advantage, not a drag. Of course, if he doesn't see the point of such or such improvement in his own day to day use, it might actually be a disadvantage for the other users.

mnemonic:
Users too fall for sexiness... They often request new (almost useless) features to counter their natural hedonistic adaptation or because they'd like the software to be simply... "sexier" (sexy UI anyone ?) according to their own standards/vision -- which has nothing to do per se with the actual function of the software.
-Armando (July 14, 2010, 02:44 PM)
--- End quote ---

I totally agree.  People get angry when a new major release doesn't have a look-and-feel change.  As a result, new major versions of software are often just gui changes due to the pandering of the users.  This can de detrimental when the gui was perfectly adequate in the previous version.

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