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1. 

   thecaptain, 9 Jun 2003 @ 6:08am

   
   

   users not to blame...not really.

   From my experience as a developper, when users find problems in software and blame themselves its usually at times when they are using software other than the way it was "meant" to be..either by not reading the instructions (if there were any, I try to document, but not all developpers do) or just not "doing it right".
   
   The thing is, if the developper is doing a "perfect" job (its impossible to be perfect, ie: bug-free, but we should aim to be as close as possible), then there should be no way for a user to crash an application by doing something wrong...either the software has a way of dealing with it gracefully or it simply doesn't allow you to use it other than the way its meant to be used.
   
   However, nobody's perfect and no software is EVER bug free...blaming users for this fact is a despicable practice.

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2. 

   Wally Choo, 9 Jun 2003 @ 7:21am

   
   

   Re: users not to blame...not really.

   Of course, there are 100x more incidents where the user blames the software for problems that have nothing to do with the software at all. So don't feel too sorry for the users.
   
   Many users will simply call a software vendor that has a toll free support number or a short "on-hold" time and blame whatever problem they are having on their software. It is often very difficult for support personnel to weed out what may be legitimate problems to report to development.
   
   A user may install a simple utility, then call and say "Hey I installed your software a few days ago and today my fonts are too small!" Well, developers could spend hours trying to duplicate the problem and what probably happened is that someone else changed the font sizes on purpose.
   
   Responsible developers, for the most part, try to concieve of every possible problem that a user may run into. Then they get a user with exactly 17 minutes of computer experience claiming their software has problems.
   
   I think it all works out in the end.

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3. 

   Chris, 9 Jun 2003 @ 9:12am

   
   

   No Subject Given

   As my father always said when I was cussing at the computer...
   
   "You have to be smarter than the equipment you are trying to operate."
   
   Works for software too I think.

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