Every startup tends to have an invite process nowadays but when Dropbox was released, there was no migrating period. Not only was it one of the true cloud apps that simply fit in with a user's work flow due to integration with some file managers but it was an example that both addressed your original question:
is it better to try to have flexible software that adapts to the user (assuming they know what they want), or to have software that implements a really good way of doing things and have the user adapt to that?
...and yet depending on your needs and the features you used, the overall concept is solid enough to either fall as part of your first or second statement. Something that can't be quite done for concepts like gmail unless you bring up such things as certain features. But if you're bringing up certain features, it makes using the sum of the whole a pretty flawed example because then you are bringing into place a scenario where an application slowly and incrementally updated itself in order to become the "as well received" concept that it is.
That is tantamount to talking about the recurring reminders of a task manager rather than the actual concept of a task manager that would either be a flexible software that adapts to the user or a software that implements a really good way of doing things that have the users adopting. You don't really have to sell yourself short on your point. I thought your original questions were pretty clear and I'm known for being poor at communicating. All around the place is not my style though unless that's where the points was going.
You can't expect a reply that doesn't go all over the place when you expect me to both provide some better example and yet at the same time hint that I am trying to break down your example. It's also flawed to self-rate what you feel is a topic that is hijacking a thread and a topic that isn't. At the very least, only the OP can decide that or a mod interjecting. (though this does not mean the mod has the right to decide, only that they have the power.) We're all biased towards continuing the trail of posts that interests us so of course given the chances of a conversation being stopped, we would rarely personally admit to hijacking a thread especially if it's our posts that are being brought up.
Just my last 2 cents: I think asking for realistic is very impractical and somewhat arrogant. Not from a developers' point of view (since the realistic idea will get tested eventually) but from a conceptual point of view, you can't assume there's a theoretically better way of working already and that this theoretically better way will not match up to people's desired ways of working. It's begging for a chicken or egg scenario and it would be much more problematic than answering your first two questions.
is it better to try to have flexible software that adapts to the user (assuming they know what they want), or to have software that implements a really good way of doing things and have the user adapt to that?
...and yet depending on your needs and the features you used, the overall concept is solid enough to either fall as part of your first or second statement. Something that can't be quite done for concepts like gmail unless you bring up such things as certain features. But if you're bringing up certain features, it makes using the sum of the whole a pretty flawed example because then you are bringing into place a scenario where an application slowly and incrementally updated itself in order to become the "as well received" concept that it is.
That is tantamount to talking about the recurring reminders of a task manager rather than the actual concept of a task manager that would either be a flexible software that adapts to the user or a software that implements a really good way of doing things that have the users adopting. You don't really have to sell yourself short on your point. I thought your original questions were pretty clear and I'm known for being poor at communicating. All around the place is not my style though unless that's where the points was going.
You can't expect a reply that doesn't go all over the place when you expect me to both provide some better example and yet at the same time hint that I am trying to break down your example. It's also flawed to self-rate what you feel is a topic that is hijacking a thread and a topic that isn't. At the very least, only the OP can decide that or a mod interjecting. (though this does not mean the mod has the right to decide, only that they have the power.) We're all biased towards continuing the trail of posts that interests us so of course given the chances of a conversation being stopped, we would rarely personally admit to hijacking a thread especially if it's our posts that are being brought up.
Just my last 2 cents: I think asking for realistic is very impractical and somewhat arrogant. Not from a developers' point of view (since the realistic idea will get tested eventually) but from a conceptual point of view, you can't assume there's a theoretically better way of working already and that this theoretically better way will not match up to people's desired ways of working. It's begging for a chicken or egg scenario and it would be much more problematic than answering your first two questions.
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