Re-design without community buy-in will kill you

Undertoad · 11-02-2011, 11:49 PM

Fuckin -- man, it's too late in the day to write this properly, but--

Google Reader redesigned and they, like, fucked it up in multiple ways, and everyone is steaming mad. I'm part of that and this is what started me thinking about this.

Digg 4.0 is considered a gigantic failure in the history of link-sharing communities.

Fark lost the respect of a lot of readers when, after their redesign, one of the admins wrote the haters off with a "you'll get used to it" attitude.

Partly, the Internet is fickle. But there's something more deep about all this, and I think it's something we understand better than the rest of the Internets, in general --

This stuff is IMPORTANT to us, we have an EMOTIONAL connection to it. It is a different kind of social, but it is social, and we are mankind, ever social in nature as we are.

I have not said in a while, but I will say again: if the Cellar is ever down, just keep checking it. Hardware, software, troll or spammer, whatever troubles may occur, I believe we can keep them at bay. This place is important to a lot of us, and I feel a responsibility, far larger than the tip mug, to keep it as a community for as long as possible.

11-02-2011, 11:49 PM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Re-design without community buy-in will kill you Fuckin -- man, it's too late in the day to write this properly, but-- Google Reader redesigned and they, like, fucked it up in multiple ways, and everyone is steaming mad. I'm part of that and this is what started me thinking about this. Digg 4.0 is considered a gigantic failure in the history of link-sharing communities. Fark lost the respect of a lot of readers when, after their redesign, one of the admins wrote the haters off with a "you'll get used to it" attitude. Partly, the Internet is fickle. But there's something more deep about all this, and I think it's something we understand better than the rest of the Internets, in general -- This stuff is IMPORTANT to us, we have an EMOTIONAL connection to it. It is a different kind of social, but it is social, and we are mankind, ever social in nature as we are. I have not said in a while, but I will say again: if the Cellar is ever down, just keep checking it. Hardware, software, troll or spammer, whatever troubles may occur, I believe we can keep them at bay. This place is important to a lot of us, and I feel a responsibility, far larger than the tip mug, to keep it as a community for as long as possible.

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