English > Feature Suggestions
What PVD is missing is...
CAD:
--- Quote from: rick.ca on October 08, 2009, 10:38:01 pm ---To be honest, I'm getting rather pissed with the attitude (not just your's) reflected by, "I want to do it my way. Please change the program." I'm sorry—I just don't get it. Nostra seems like a sane fellow. Why would he invest more time in some aspect of the program to appease users who don't even respect the work he's already done?
--- End quote ---
i dont see these (and other suggestions) this way. nostra has super kindly made his program available for us free of charge, but it is the users suggestions helps to make this program great. (btw - nostra seem more than capable to say yes or no to requests.)
these guys are making suggestions, the initial suggestion may not ideal, but it may trigger an idea in someone else to do it another/ better way. it may trigger something in nostra to implement something he hasn't thought of, or even just be something really popular, that others havent thought of. stomping on peoples ideas (whether good or bad) stifles debate and leads to people not participating.
at the end of the day, if nostra wants to implement an idea, he will, otherwise he wont. buts asking for a feature does not hurt anyone and in fact enhances the program as it encourages participation. if it can be implemented without affecting anything else - why not? That will only make the program better and suitable to a wider audience.
like mum says. if you cant say anything nice - dont say anything at all ;D
patch:
--- Quote from: CAD on October 09, 2009, 12:07:35 pm ---like mum says. if you cant say anything nice - dont say anything at all ;D
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I agree most discussions are best advanced by positive suggestions rather than criticism of others' ideas.
rick.ca:
--- Quote ---stomping on peoples ideas (whether good or bad) stifles debate and leads to people not participating
--- End quote ---
Thanks, CAD. I do appreciate you comments. I did indicate I was ranting, but I assume you felt there is good reason to say this even if I wasn't. Diplomacy is not one of my strengths. While I always try, it doesn't hurt to be reminded I need to try harder. But since the things that drive me to "stomp" aren't gong to change, I'll attempt to elaborate on them...
I enjoy problem solving and finding creative ways to make processes work better. I choose to see this forum as a community where people with a particular interest in collecting and managing video information can engage that interest collaboratively. In that context, software development is just one aspect of what goes on here. Equally valid and important are users exchanging ideas and assisting one another on how to use the program to manage their video collection—without necessarily a view to making any improvements to the software. Another is users developing methods to facilitate interaction with other software. Your participation in efforts to do so for XBMC is a good example. People work together to solve a problem. Out of that come some good ideas for improvements to the program. Notice how that engaged nostra's interest, and he did what he could to help.
Given the nature of my interest, I tend to see little difference between, or reason to favour, solutions involving program changes over those involving user adaptation to the program. I may even get some perverse satisfaction from devising a workaround to what might be considered an obvious program bug or design flaw. So if someone identifies a problem and seeks a program change as a solution, I'm likely to suggest an "adaptation" if I see one. Obviously, some see this as being stomped on. This is unfortunate, but I'm not moved to curtail my own contribution because of this sort of sensitivity. I normally present my ideas with the genuine hope they may be of assistance to the poster. Even if their suggestion is a good one, it may be some time before it can be implemented. More importantly (and I think this is lost on some), there are other users reading the exchange—maybe out of specific interest in the issue at hand, maybe out of general interest about how the program works and how they might best use it. With that in mind, I usually like to put an issue in context by explaining how the program can still be used effectively despite the issue. Without this, some posts are potentially misleading (i.e., readers who don't know what I know may think the program is broken and unusable—at least in some aspect), while others create the general impression the program is buggy.
Yes, the tone of my post was harsh, and I'm sorry for that. But the subject matter is a good illustration of what I'm talking about. There's nothing wrong with the program's filter feature. There's lots of room for adaptation—a good thing, considering all the different kinds of user-specific situations they might need to handle. There may be room for improvement, but anything that breaks this already desirable design aspect is not helpful. And, believe it or not, I felt I was being forced into debate at the expense of sharing a number of positive ideas around the subject... First, simply a correct explanation of how filters work and how to use them. Then: creative adaptation of existing filters to different situations, the ability to customize menu captions, integration of the filtering concept with Advance Search and saved searches for an infinitely customizable "filtering" mechanism.
CAD:
--- Quote ---I did indicate I was ranting, but I assume you felt there is good reason to say this even if I wasn't
--- End quote ---
noted - it is just something i have noticed while reading various posts. you are the moderator and seen as an expert, but it seems to me that the way you respond (tone experise etc) stops discussion rather than encourages. also it seems that you sometimes "stomp" on ideas that you disagree with because it is not teh way you do it.
it is ok to disagree with ideas, but given your standing in forum it seems to stop participation rather than encourage. you dont have to respond to every post ;)
however people word requests, they are just requests. it is good to point out different ways of doing something as users may not know all the features etc but requests should be allowed to stand on their merit good or bad. perhaps people will be more encourged to comment if the "expert" hasnt already done it.
giving work arounds /showing how to use program is great - it teaches users the features they may not know about and gets their brains working in different ways to approach solving their particular problem. but equally true is just because the program has a feature that will do a function does not mean it is the best way doing it. allowing open discussion can only make the program better.
rick.ca:
--- Quote ---it is ok to disagree with ideas, but given your standing in forum it seems to stop participation rather than encourage. you dont have to respond to every post
--- End quote ---
Point well taken. I often consider encouraging discussion by keeping my mouth shut, but it seems I can seldom quite bring myself to do it. Or the deafening silence that results overwhelms me. ;)
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