Clicking These Down, Here
15 minutes ago
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Don't make improvements
Don't you hate it when you fire up your computer and discover they've “improved” things behind your back? My e-mail service was improved recently. Apologies and more improvements soon followed.
Blogger improves things so well that people can't operate their own sites. Once that happens it's really easy to change to a new service. What the heck, of you've got to learn something new anyway.
I'd complain about Facebook changes, but I've never become a member. The only way to win is not to play.
I'm trying to look at improvements from their point of view. There you are, working day in and day out for some computer company. You want to improve things. This is the Internet where innovation moves at break neck speed. All the other geeks would laugh at you for keep your site the same 3 months in a row. You live and breath this technology stuff and assume we all want these improvements.
No we don't. Most of us want to fire up our computer and find things just the way we left them. From our view point, one day we knew how to send an e-mail or post a blog, the next day, we don't. All that energy and time invested in the old way of doing things is gone and lost forever.
It's not that we hate all improvements. We don't mind when something like storage gets increased from 2 gigs to 87 thousand terabytes That's like discovering your mechanic tweaked the engine in your car and it has a lot more horsepower and better fuel economy. No problem. What we hate is major changes to the way the site works. It's like getting in your car only to discover the steering wheel has been moved to the backseat -and is now a banana.
If you've got change that stuff, do it Charles Darwin style: very very slowly over a long period of time.
-Sixbears
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That's part of the reason why I always use OpenOffice, even when I can use MeSsOffice, because they haven't changed the interface for OpenOffice for as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteThere is another option, though; if they want to make a radical change, go ahead and do it as something completely separate. Remember Microsoft Bob? OS/2? If not, I don't blame you, but those are good examples. (Of course, I thought Bob was incredibly lame and OS/2 rocked, but whatever...) They were radical departures from what Microsoft had before, and people didn't like them, so they went into the dustbin.
I'm a big fan of Open Office myself, for the same reasons.
DeleteVista convinced me to go try Linux. If I had to learn something new anyway, might as learn something that worked, and was free.
No memory of Bob. Guess I'm not alone.
I feel the same way; I think most people do; but who cares what we think.
ReplyDeleteThose that do will have a sound business model, won't they?
DeleteI've given up on trying to understand what Blogger and the rest are trying to do. Why they can't leave shit alone is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteBlogger seemed to make their changes overnight. Sure made posting fun for a day or two until I got it all figured out!
The older I get, the more I resist some of the changes in my little world!
Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky. :)
DeleteI don't really mind change. It's inevitable things change: you get older, your knees start to creak, your eye sight "change" ie gets worse(that't the inevitable bit!) Winter changes to spring (well, hopefully)...that's good. It's change for the sake of change that gets me. It does not improve things, they are just changed. Why? What's the point?
ReplyDeleteYou often see the words "new, improved" No, it's not. It's more expensive, or there is less weight, or the packaging is pink instead of blue. Rant over now, I am feeling better!
Glad you got a good healthy rant in. Much of the changes look like change for the sake of change and those improvements often aren't.
DeleteOr how about that stupid little barking dog and the paperclip guy that MS used to 'help' you? Now getting rid of those was definitely a good improvement! Change is never easy, but I guess it keeps us on our toes.
ReplyDeleteYou know was working on that silly little barking dog project? The woman that we now know as Mrs. Bill Gates.
DeleteMr. Clippy had to die.
Change is usually done so that some useless slug can make change. Soon they will all be getting a new occupation...ie Hunter Gatherer...
ReplyDeleteThey'll have plenty of competition from those who already know how to hunt and gather.
DeleteDitto all of the above.
ReplyDeleteI seem to have struck a cord here.
DeleteI have found most changes are just someone who is removed from the real world trying to justify their title and pay.Or trying to sweep away what the former boss put in place.a change to show off.Havent we all seen it in the work place? The internet is just a geeks office we play in.
ReplyDeleteThere often seems to be a huge disconnect between the designers and the users.
DeleteI hate change and I love change, depends on what is changing. Now people who make changes when they take over have to do that to just to prove that they were needed.
ReplyDeleteChange for the sake of change seems like a huge waste of time and energy to me.
DeleteThis kind of crap is why I de-googlized myself online. I left Blogger and changed my email carrier. I was sick of the changes whether I liked them or not. Also, google just got more and more invasive with their alleged "security" bits...to where I couldn't sign into any of my accounts from my i-phone without practically giving a damned DNA sample.
ReplyDeleteSo hey....away, away...
They made it easier to change than to stay. What were they thinking?
DeleteI went to GNU Linux right when Microsquish went to win95. Talk about changes, like youtube,I still ain't got the new format figured out. The changed Facebook to timeline and I quit. They changed blogger and it gave my Linux OS fits so I moved the blog over to another site and now I got two blogs to post on. on any given day one of them will let me post. I hated Gmail till I found out of the X format there. I'm still looking for a better mail though as gmail is just spywares.
ReplyDeleteThe main gripe I have on any of the changes is that no matter the change noone follows the three click rule. And that is if I cant find it in 3 clicks, it doesn't exist. If you follow that rule in a web business, you'll do fine. Most don't, and it costs them.
You got in early.
DeleteHave you looked into fastmail? I've got it for one of my accounts. Got the minimum pay plan to get rid of the ads.
3 clicks, you got that right.