News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask HN: Why do non-techies simply not "get" the idea of a wiki?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Why do non-techies simply not "get" the idea of a... by mikeyur on Tuesday January 27, 2009 @05:19AM (#451894)
I agree that you should force them into making the change. You won't make the most friends doing it, but it'll be less of a hassle.

You need to take the 'facebook approach.'

A lot of people HATED the new facebook design when it originally launched. I'm sure you remember, there were groups with millions of members saying "bring back the old facebook" and complaining about everything.

Months later everything has calmed down, for the most part people like it and the change needed to happen. Facebook needed to make the change to implement new features, design elements, etc.

They'll be mad at first but eventually get over.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Why do non-techies simply not "get" the idea of a... by blasdel on Tuesday January 27, 2009 @10:17AM (#452181)
They needed the change so that they could kill the insufferable profile-widget apps.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Why do non-techies simply not "get" the idea of a... by JabavuAdams on Wednesday January 28, 2009 @12:49AM (#453391)
History looks backwards, but decisions have to be made looking forwards.

How do you distinguish the case where you do something unpopular, refuse to change it to conform to your users' wishes, and are wrong?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Why do non-techies simply not "get" the idea of a... by mikeyur on Wednesday January 28, 2009 @02:32AM (#453477)
It's a gamble you have to take. Facebook has enough users and enough people depend on the platform that they can make a change (not too drastic) and not many, if any people will leave.
[ Parent | on HN ]