Behavior makes me cry

[Evan Platt]

At 01:11 AM 3/6/2008, Marek Matulka wrote:
>On 05/03/2008, Evan Platt <evan at espphotography.com> wrote:
> >  You get more flies with honey, or something like that. These people
> >  threatening to ditch Pidgin if this change isn't fixed is just
> >  amusing. You aren't costing the developers any money, but like I
> >  said, you're entiteled to a 100% refund should you decide to 
> uninstall Pidgin.
>
>I see your point - no one is paying for it so developers shouldn't
>care about users.

No, don't put words in my mouth. That is NOT what I said. What I 
said, to sum it up, is if you want something changed, for something 
you aren't paying for, ASK NICELY. Since you said you wrote software, 
put yourself in the developers shoes. And yes, I realize you weren't 
one of the people who said this, but which are you more likely to 
listen to and act on:
A: "Fix it. It's a stupid change, I don't like it. If it's not fixed, 
I'm dropping your software and going elsewhere."
B: "Hey thanks for the update, but there's a new feature I don't 
like. For the meantime, I'll go back to the previous version. Please 
consider changing this back to how it was, and let me know if you do."

>I used to be a core developer for freely available
>software (while ago) and I know it works. I have never said to the
>user "if you don't like my software, uninstall it".

While I don't believe the developers of Pidgin have said that, 
there's cases where you do. Certainly when you aren't making a dime 
from a customer, it's much easier to say "Please, just uninstall our 
software." And even with paying customers, there's a time when you 
don't want them as customers. When they take much too much time and 
you end up spending more money supporting them than you make from 
them. Just ask - who was it, Sprint?

>And if you have read my replies you should know then I don't want to
>uninstall Gailm - I really like it. I just don't like the new way it
>plays with input box - and that's why I would like to have it as an
>option. I understand why it was introduced, I have read carefully all
>points, why developers prefers a new behaviour and in most of cases I
>agree with them.

You're preaching to the choir. Yes, I've read your replies. Yes I 
understand you want it changed. I'm not a developer, just a user. But 
again, it's open source. And I think someone posted their suggestion 
on a fix for it yesterday.



>But still I would like to see the new behaviour as an _option_. Do you get it?

Yep, but again, I'm just a user like you.