The second reason certainly sounds infuriating, but it's odd that the reviewer had access to an OS update that you didn't. In general, a crash on the latest OS update is a good reason for rejection because you're going to have to fix it sooner or later anyway. Better to fix it now rather than have to come back to it later.
“These options are usually visible, but can be hidden as a group, such as......, or individually disabled, such as when a full-screen app can't be minimized. ...... A title bar should be visible, but can be hidden in an immersive app like a game.”
Either way, this wouldn’t be in the top 1000 reasons for someone to request a refund for a game on the store so why is Apple even concerning itself?
And, if it's something people want so bad that you'd allow it for non-published applications then you clearly need to solve it by enabling or offering some sort of replacement for published applications.
That's true, but how do you fix a bug you can't reproduce with an unreleased patch you can't acquire, which is probably the same for the general public?
There has to be some flexibility here.
Throwing a rejection because of a bug that can only be reproduced on an unobtainable minor patch release doesn't seem to fit with that guideline.
But if you're trying to close a window that you didn't want to open, you probably want the red button not the yellow one.
If what you're trying to do is move a page from its own window to another window, you can drag its tab. But that's not possible if you have "Show tab bar" disabled in the view menu, the tab bar will be hidden for windows with a single tab.
Alternate workaround if you find yourself accidentally opening things in a new window by accident frequently: instead of right clicking and picking from the menu, command-click on the link to open it in a new tab. If you have a 3-button mouse, middle click will do this as well.
I don't love this either, it's my biggest complaint about iPad's multitasking system.
Hold cmd and keep hitting tab if you need to cycle through multiple things, but if you've just done it the hidden app should be the first one.
Doesn't handle multiple windows gracefully (if the app has another window not minimized it won't do anything, just switch to that window as normal). But if you have an app with a single window and you've minimized it, this will pop it back up.
Alternatively, you can access the whole dock directly with a keyboard shortcut using ctrl-F3 (add Fn if needed depending on your keyboard setup).
bingo! thanks! :)
If you tap the command quickly it should happen immediately without even bringing up the app switcher, and if you hold cmd and tab through the app switcher it does the same thing when you let go:
Video recorded on Big Sur beta, but I'm sure this behavior isn't new.
I still have the “open in new window” item there when I long-press a link. It now does absolutely nothing if I hit it by accident. Which feels inelegant but is a lot better than “oh fuck I just made another goddamn new window when I wanted a new tab”.
This is the only winning move.
Is it the App Review process’s role to be the arbiter of what is and isn’t good UI?
Should it be the App Review process’s goal today do this?
No, it should be the Human Interface Guidelines' role to be the arbiter of what is and is not good UI.
> Should it be the App Review process’s goal today do this?
Yes. Who else is going to do it? Apple doesn't want half-assed, misbehaving apps on their store, so they enforce it at that level. It's unfortunate that such a small detail hung up an update, but a deliberate change was made to the app to remove fundamental functionality that should exist, for no reason that I can tell. Sounds like this is exactly what the process is for, and it sounds like it worked.
Then why are there so many half-assed, misbehaving apps on their store?
I don't think people's primary complaint is the rules (although for some it might be). Most people complain about the arbitrary enforcement. Whenever rules are enforced selectively & without rhyme or reason, people get angry -- especially when it's a situation where someone is trying to make money on your platform, and your arbitrary enforcement determines whether they're allowed to do that or not.
When it comes to standard OS conventions, like the minimize button, yes. I hope they would also reject a missing “Quit” menu item. Hurts accessibility to not follow standard conventions.
Although Chrome's nonsense with ⌘Q, and Adobe's messing with … everything … indicates that you can misbehave on a fundamental level as long as you're a sufficiently powerful actor.
Apple certainly sees their role as being some sort of QA gate, and this would fall under that to some extent.
As their customer, that's part of the reason I prefer to use some of their products, yes.
Not necessarily as an arbiter of good vs. bad UI, but if they have some clear and explicit UI requirements that are generally agreed to be the baseline UI requirements for an app to be accepted into the App Store, I am all for those requirements to be actually enforced.
They aren't asking for some arbitrary and vague things in terms of UI design, like "the flow of the app should be intuitive and cohesive". They are asking for very basic things like "your app should be minimizeable". It is a very explicit and clear requirement with pretty much no room for ambiguity.
Yes, obviously it is. If you're asking "should it be?", that's debatable, but I have no problem with that either.
Probably not worth paying 99 USD/year just to make such a suggestion.
Just for those folks who aren't aware that you actually have to pay Apple every year for the "privilege" of having your app submissions rejected for such random reasons -- even if your app is entirely free and non-commercial.
Why didn't you do those things? I've been in similar situations many times and made poor decisions. In my case, I made those poor choices because of poor mental habits and low emotional awareness.
About 5 years ago, I started spending effort to increase my EQ and mental habits. I consulted a therapist regularly for several years, read Marshall Rosenberg's Non-violent Communication, learned meditation at a free 10-day silent retreat, and talked with people close to me about my emotions and mental habits. I occasionally ask people close to me for feedback on my attitude and behavior. All of this effort as paid off. Compared to 5 years ago, I have more stable relationships, fewer and shorter arguments, fewer days lost to playing unhappy mind-movies, and more work productivity.
I urge you to invest more effort in your EQ skills.
EDIT: s/same situation/similar situations/
It took literally 2 minutes to upload the update for immediate release on Steam (previously set up / approved). [...Oh, except it didn’t, because nowadays Apple makes me wait 15 minutes for their unnecessary Notarization upload to complete. 17 minutes is still faster than App Review though.]
I want to spend my limited free time on things I enjoy, such as actually making software. And at a certain point, it does not matter if there are 5 different workarounds for Apple-imposed problems; what matters is that Apple-imposed problems drain an unreasonable amount of free time and energy for insufficient benefit.
Important life decisions (like cancelling a project) are better made based on deep personal values, not as reactions to emotions.
I haven't read Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication. However, from the Wikipedia page, I find "Rosenberg says that certain ways of communicating tend to alienate people from the experience of compassion: 1) Moralistic judgments implying wrongness or badness on the part of people who don't act in harmony with our values. Blame, insults, put-downs, labels, criticisms, comparisons, and diagnoses are all said to be forms of judgment." This rings true to me - you're alienating people by making a moralistic judgement that the top comment cancelled his project for a bad reason and diagnosing him with poor EQ. People are reacting to that feeling of alienation by down-voting you.
How's this for a non-judgy version?
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That must have been really frustrating. I struggle with frustration and anger. Sometimes, I make decisions based on those emotions and then miss opportunities, alienate people, and experience negative outcomes. Things work out better for me when I'm more calm and patient.
About 5 years ago, I started spending effort to increase my EQ and mental habits. I consulted a therapist regularly for several years, read Marshall Rosenberg's Non-violent Communication, learned meditation at a free 10-day silent retreat, and talked with people close to me about my emotions and mental habits. I occasionally ask people close to me for feedback on my attitude and behavior. All of this effort has paid off. Compared to 5 years ago, I have more stable relationships, fewer and shorter arguments, fewer days lost to playing unhappy mind-movies, and more work productivity.
Since you and I seem to struggle with similar things, I think you could also benefit from working on EQ skills.
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I am glad that your journey to raise your EQ seemed to make you feel calmer and more patient, but please take some time to understand why using this discussion to proselytize wouldn't go over well.
The breaking point for me was when the reviewer refused to allow my minor update in because it “crashed” in an unreleased minor OS update that I literally could not acquire at the time. I removed my app from the Mac App Store the same day and haven’t been back.
It is a petty, pointless, and infuriating experience, which wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t abundantly clear how much trash still makes it into the store and how inconsistent they are. I recommend that everyone use the “suggestion” box to suggest removing App Review entirely.