[Feedback] What did you do with Amarok?

[Nicolas Will]

On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 20:16 -0400, Jeff Mitchell wrote:
> You're just another whiny user reiterating the same thing that's been
> said a bazillion times on this list ("man, you guys fucked it up"),
> with
> a bazillion direct and indirect insults ("...killer application that
> Amarok used to be") so that we can give the same answer that we've
> given
> a bazillion times on this list ("next time read the release notes,
> dumbass"). With the cherry on top of telling us how we're the reason
> his
> friends went back to Windows.
> 
> Seriously, this is supposed to *motivate* us?
> 
> If you want to motivate us to continue working and making it better
> and
> adding back features, how about some, I don't know, *constructive*
> criticism, or maybe even a "thanks for spending your time and effort
> on
> this purely volunteer project, I know you guys got a lot of harsh
> feedback on 2.0, but 2.1 really improved over 2.0 and I'm really
> looking
> forward to a ton of improvements in 2.2 as well".
> 
> Otherwise, go away.

Nice!

I'm guessing that your frustration as a developer is just as great as
ours, as users.

Mainly the criticisms from users were not as insulting as you are
hinting, at least on this list. Many tried to be constructive too.
Sometimes criticisms are a form of (very twisted, I agree) thank you for
a great work, past and present.

Your knee-jerk reaction, however, is not very much constructive.

Yes 2.x will be great. Yes your work is important and will produce
something that stands apart.

But yes, 1.4 gave your users a feeling of comfort that is now gone with
2.x.

And yes, most distros, not just Ubuntu, went to 2.x by lack of support.
And no, a single app will not determine a choice of distro.

Did the development team screw-up? Yes. Not with the application, its
features and functionalities, but with communication and transition.
Well, shit happen, we'll all survive, but the reaction is in line with
how your user-base loves your product.

Finally, when you work on something, be ready to accept the positive and
the negative comments. The positive feels good, but the negative feels
at least twice as bad when you are as involved as you are, and you
remember it longer. But users tend to remember the "go away" comments
too.

Nico