Regarding people more likely to express an opinion when they dislike
something, yes, I agree completely. I guess it's reasonable to assume that's
what Gene meant to say.

However, regarding praise versus criticism, your point that "most people say
little to nothing at all if everything is 'just fine as it is but isn't
exceptional in any way'" is all well and good, but I think it's just as true
to say that "most people say little to nothing at all if everything is 'not
very good but isn't particularly bad in any way'".

In other words, if things are more or less acceptable; only just a bit better
or worse than people expect, would like, or are used to, then they won't say
much, if anything.

But I do think that people praise improvements just as much as they complain
about things getting worse. Internet support forums are not the place to look
for that praise, however - and the clue is in the name - people don't look for
support when they like what they have; they look for support when they have a
problem.

Praise is for more likely to go directly back to the suppliers / developers,
so aside from the "satisfied customer" quotes you see on a lot of websites,
such comments simply don't get publicised on the Internet to the same extent
that the complaints on public forums do.

None of this means it's okay to ignore the people who are saying "this is a
change for the worse", though. Developers can do what they want, but if it's
not what the users want, who wins and who loses as a result?


Antony.

--
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Well, I shouldn't really tell you this, but... no."


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