Especially if you try to address their core need but their imagination doesn’t extend quite far enough to see how your effort would help, because they love their ideas.
To the first kind, in contrast, I’m happy to answer any question, no matter how silly it may seem, because I can be confident they’ll trust my judgement, that they’ll learn from the interaction, and that the next one will be even better. Just about the only thing I’m sad about regarding those users is that as they grow they start interacting less because they don’t need it as much, as they are able to help themselves.
Now that I think about it, that seems like a good way to differentiate: The good users delight you and demand of you less and less; the bad users drain you and demand of you more and more.
By and large I’ve gotten better feature requests out of looking at patterns of frequently asked questions and turning them into tasks instead of reacting to negative feedback.
Do you just explain or do you start by asking a question?
What I usually go with is _asking_ what they want to achieve. Because usually, the user describes features/functions/forms instead of explaining the business case. And while the user describes a business case (a thing that generates him money/...) it becomes obvious how/why to implement the request.
So often, people forget to just ask and listen.
get paid. Stop this nonsense. You shouldn't work for free it makes you disagreeable (I am the living proof).
> I guess the moral of the story is don’t be a prick to the people you’re asking something from.
This is your salary. That's how you get paid. In power. Power over what? "I am a latex maintainer". I'm not impressed. You're wasting your time. Show me your Ferrari instead.
In contrast, if a user has been rude, entitled, and high maintenance, I may end up not even trying to reply in the first place because I know they’ll just be combative every step of the way, and giving them what they want just makes them demand more, seldom being appreciative. These tend to be users who want something a very specific way and refuse to understand why the thing they are asking for is profoundly selfish and would shit the interaction for everyone else to satisfy their own desire. So I don’t do it.
This has been a bigger sidetrack than I originally intended. I guess the moral of the story is don’t be a prick to the people you’re asking something from.