bscross32

Why does the #blind community factionalize over every little thing? I suppose this is a bit of a moot point nowadays, as everyone seems to be doing it, but at least try not to seem so one-dimensional.

Let's pick apart this little drama fest from the sidelines. First off, if you release a piece of software to the public, people will come to you about it. The form that takes may vary, whether it's direct messages, posts on social media, issues on GitHub, whatever.

You're bound to get positive and negative feedback. If you can't handle the negative feedback, then strongly consider not releasing software into the public. You won't do yourself any favors surrounding yourself with yes men, nor will you by ignoring negative feedback or berating those who leave it.

If you're building some sort of platform, there are certain expectations users will have. They will want to know that you're handling their data with care. If there are doubts about that, then it throws the entire platform into jeopardy as the word will spread and people will be less likely to trust it.

Further exacerbating a bad situation is when anyone affiliated with a project - be they developer, technical writer, UI designer, or what have you - starts throwing tantrums on social media. It is at this point that they undermine the project they represent. Once that happens, it's really difficult to regain a positive reputation.

With a faltering reputation, the truth starts to matter less. People won't care about the validity of the points being made by the individuals affiliated with a given project. They may start making assumptions, some of which may be true, and some of which may be false. In any case, said assumptions will turn to talk, talk turns to rumors, and rumors spread.

On the other hand, developers are not obligated to add features that users of their projects request. They are also not obligated to follow a different timeline or shift their priorities to make their users happy. Negative feedback can be demotivating, and if said product is one that's being written and maintained in the developers' spare time, and distributed free of charge, the end user has very little recourse. They are also entitled to very little, since no money was exchanged.

The TL;DR is cut and dry. Developers need to stop crashing out when users have negative feedback about a project they're working on because it's definitely not a good look, and there are plenty of people out there who would do well to swallow this sense of entitlement they have. So let's just say, there's a certain group of people out there whose software and services I've chosen to avoid, and all of this only serves to reinforce my decision to continue doing so.

Feb 20 at 2:20amWeb
Show threadBrandonFeb 20
@LittleBird @bscross32 If someone tells me about an issue, I usually just focus on responding to it, but I wouldn't like the anti vibers getting mad at me if that was happening to me. I've gotten feature requests I need to understand more before I make them reality e.g. XML support in blind RSS[They want it for eBetting or something.], but sometimes there's suggestions that honestly don't' make sense for my app, and I'm nice about that as well. I just don't want to be trolled over here, that's where my interaction is coming from.
Show threadbscross32Feb 20
@serrebi @LittleBird Yeah I get it. I also get both sides of the viber / anti-viber thing. Look, I've released some vibe coded stuff, but none of it handles your data. I won't ever release vibe coded software that does, unless I've gone over it with a fine tooth comb. And real talk, I don't have the skills to do that, so I won't go there.
Show threadBrandonFeb 20
@bscross32 @LittleBird I believe my users can handle securing a folder. If they can't, they need to pick better location, and get better computer skills. I accepted when I did wrong, and just changed my passwords. It wasn't the end of the world. I'm not creating a messenger though, but if the passwords are hashed now, and end to end encryption is coming later, I'll deal. I can use signal, or whats app when I need private conversations. As for Telegram, they basically said he's a wiz kid, and released a few white papers and that's supposed to be proof.
Show threadWinter blue tardisFeb 22
@bscross32 Yeah, that. Honestly, if you can't handle some feedback, maybe you should look at yourself and where you stand with your own self, and whether you can put yourself in the user's place, etc. One reason I really don't use apps by most blind folks. That probably says something. That doesn't mean there aren't good people and good stuff out there, but the bad sometimes outweighs the good, especially if people code without knowing what in the world they are doing via an LLM or other such means. You have to know your work to be able to react to feedback in time, too. An LLM won't always be there, probably, but who knows. In any case, you have to know how to do what you set out to do, in my opinion.
Show threadBrandonFeb 22
@[email protected] @bscross32 I can take negative criticism if it's not passive aggressive. How do you think I found out about my build spec missing things? It wasn't from my private beta testers, no, it was from a random person who has helped me immensely since then with feature requests. I've asked a few times now to have a conversation in voice, but no one wants to. I'm trying not to surround myself with yes men but they are not making it easy. I've asked for that a few times now, which suggests there is some passive aggressiveness going on from some people, and yes, using AI to state the obvious not a problem things, and then using AI to respond to the response is definitely passive aggressive.. AI will always asume the worlds a perfect standards compliance society if you ask for a security report like that. I could tell it was like that just by glancing at it. Yeah that's not what we are living in.