Ohhh been there ! Executives and managers always think we need a share button ! This will bring in the traffic they say ! I asked would you share this ?? Ja of course they say... Then I asked them when was the last time they "shared" ANYTHING via a share-button, not just this-thing... ANYTHING... They all fell silent. We still don't have a share a button :)

That was porn, wasn't it?

Hahahaha I re-read my paragraph and it does sound a bit like that!

I wish it was - then there might have been some engineering challenges related to scale, but sadly no, it was a mobile web app for getting small % discounts at stalls at a niche event.

Seems like a thing you acctually would want to share? Instead of copy pasting the url which is almost impossible on smart phones nowadays...

It was an info page similar to a terms and conditions page, nobody wants to share that.

Ok explains your comment.

Nah, there's plenty of sex-positive Twitter accounts that share a lot of porn in the most social way, to the actual living people that follow them, have conversions about it and sometime even meet up in real life.

I was thinking credit score myself.

It was the empty space that was bothering them.

No it wasn’t because without it the paragraph content below would move up. (It was on mobile so there’s not a lot of space anyway)

Their insistence on the button was a combination of “my application designs are flawless, and should never be questioned”

and

“I read an article 15 years ago that said put a Facebook button on everything, everywhere because Facebook”

It wasn’t even a “ah ha, I got a discount at this cool store” it was a share button on the info page .... it’s like putting a share button on the terms and conditions page. It’s stupid. Nobody wants to share that.

Ah yes, I get that, definitely been in that situation before, ugh sorry.

Were you working for Cirrus Cybernetics Corporation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYsng5_5h3g

Share and Enjoy!

> But I know how much it sucks writing software that no-one wants

To be honest it does not. If you are business-driven person it does, if you are more into the craftsmanship this is a dream scenario. Suddenly a lot of freedom is granted with the lack of users :)

I think there is a big difference between being business-driven and lack of users.

> So I showed them the data and told them I was right.

I think we should do this more often. Measure the performance of our managers and confront them with the data.

Making the uppers look stupid is a dangerous move in the corporate world.

Exactly my thoughts when reading the original comment. In his case he was already handing in his resignation, so he didn't care too much. Someone who isn't willing to risk their jobs should be careful while proving a someone else wrong as not to offend / publicly shame the other party.

Yes, but very satisfying.

I once implemented caching middleware complete with logging of request times so we could see which calls would benefit the most from caching. We never turned it on. A few months later our system is on fire so the investors send a guy to babysit us and improve things. He starts writing a profiling tool. He won't listen when I tell him that I've already done it, just ignores me. I got so frustrated that I log into the production system and turn it on manually for about a minute. Email him the resulting log. He makes a histogram in excel (doesn't mention me) and there was much rejoicing. (And we started caching requests and lo, the servers did cool.)