With the rise of social networking services, a disturbing trend has emerged. Whenever Facebook changes their design or Twitter has a glitch (or removes a feature), users erupt in a spontaneous worldwide ragegasm.
If the change was intentional, they’re pissed because nobody consulted them. If it’s a bug, they’re pissed because it isn’t being fixed fast enough. Half of them are probably just pissed because their friends are pissed and they don’t want to feel left out.
Few of these vitriol-spewing angerballs seem to realize that the companies behind the products they’re pissed about are made up of actual people, and for the most part these people genuinely do not want to make their users unhappy. What’s more, thanks to the nature of social networks, many of these people — real people with real feelings — actually read this hate-filled asshattery and are affected by it.
When Twitter goes down, they’re not playing a cruel trick on you. When they change or remove a feature you like, it’s because they thought they had a good reason. Maybe they’re wrong. By all means, speak up when these things happen, but don’t be a dick about it.
As a developer, nothing makes me happier than going out of my way to fix a problem for a user who brings it to my attention politely. On the other hand, when a user implies that I’m a moron and makes angry demands, I’m not exactly going to feel motivated to respond to that person’s concerns. And it might just ruin my day.
Comments
Nothing to see here, move along
Hey man, I’ve followed your blog for years.
Believe it or not, during college, your site was part of a study our university administered to the MIS students for some graduate student’s research in 2003 (or 4?).
Something like, “Okay, pick a blog from this list to look at and we’ll monitor your concentration while you read.” It’s been a while so I don’t remember exactly what it was about, but I remember that your site, with nevblog.com coming in second, had the highest observed markers of interest or concentration. It was some tech blog aesthetics study.
Anyway, since then, I’ve always dropped in to check your progress out from time to time. Just thought I’d drop by this time and formally say that you’ve done some nice work. You never disappoint. Take care Ryan.
Chris
Re: Nothing to see here, move along
That’s kind of awesome. Thanks for the kind words.
Hope you are not confusing yourself or others...
… as seen on twitter twitter ;)
Re: Hope you are not confusing yourself or others...
Pshaw, that wasn’t vitriol. I really do think the world would be a happier place if people didn’t waste time (theirs and mine) trying to do jobs they suck at.
Vitriol has a use
I’ve come at this post WAY late, but since Facebook just recently did it again, I think it’s appropriate.
Vitriol does have a single use: Teaching lessons.
Facebook has a history of making updates to their site that show they care very little about their customers data and privacy. The latest update was supposed to increase privacy, but due to thoughtless bugs that obviously had not been tested, or maybe even though of, it decreased privacy. In fact, at this point, there are still things you can’t disable properly without removing t from the view of your friends as well.
Yes, the developers are human, and so are their managers, testers, and other co-workers. But they have failed AGAIN at treating their customers (and their data) with the proper respect. Sitting back and saying ‘Oh Facebook, you really shouldn’t do that’ will do nothing to force them to amend their ways. The vitriol, on the other hand, has made them take notice.