I just thought of a great metaphor to explain why no-one should be sad when someone asks for improvements.

If you are a jeweler and set a diamond, and someone ask for a change there is a certain sadness involved. You did your craft, and the person was not satisfied as with it as it was. But software development is not like diamond cutting, even though the Phoenix is a gem of a board.

Software development is more like cooking. If you serve someone a dish, and they ask for seconds, this is not sad - it is the best compliment a chef can get. If you write a novel , and someone asks for a sequel, again a great compliment. They want more.

No piece of software is ever really finished. When you comlete a dvelopment stage, and people start asking for a further stage, it is just like asking a cook for seconds. They love what you did and want more.

What would be bad at this point , what every develper fears is a bunch of people screaming "I can't get in..." . "It won't let me...".

That people are asking for improvements - not bug fixes tells you how great the board really is. It is in a way better that the other compliments, because it is unconcious, selfish, and therefore guaranteed sincere.

One other WX note -- Holli, if you're around, I just noticed that the TT TV header still points to the Contingency Plan at WX.

I just thought of a great metaphor to explain why no-one should be sad when someone asks for improvements.

Gar, not to be too Carly Simon, but my post wasn't about you. It's about my issue. It irks the shit out of me when I do something that was requested, when I asked people to try it and play with it before I am ready to let it go public and it is only after I go public with something, or the day I do it that people jump all over it with criticism and want modifications. It's my issue as acknowledged in my post, but your response to it seems as if I needed to say, ftr, it's not about you or anyone here.

That being said, of course I have things that I'd like to see different with the software to suit my personal needs. But I don't feel compelled to ask for those changes today. Or maybe even this week. Or maybe at all. As a human, I have the great capacity to modify my own behavior to suit some of the things I'd like to see changed.

explain why no-one should be sad when someone asks for improvements.

Moreover, I'm entitled to my feelings and please don't tell me how I should or should not feel.

Maybe John will have insight into that. I'm sure it's to do with font sizes in the style sheets.

Personal style sheets are on the phase two wish list. Mozilla does let me override as far as typeface goes, but I'm pretty sure Jon hardwired the font sizes in the style sheet.

Yes, as noted, the style sheet gives a specific font size for text in the posts. There's a certain amount of argument about this, but I think most usability gurus would say that it's better not to fix sizes.

Some browsers won't let you change the size if it's set as a specific number.

The policy where I work is to always use relative sizes, like

font-size: 150%

font-size: 60%

As the text in people's messages is governed by one line in the style sheet, it would be very very simple to just remove the size declaration entirely, which would leave it browser-default size and liable to resizing with your preferences and/or font size buttons/menus.

[edit] I could do it, but how long is Jon B away for? I don't want to touch anything if he's coming back tomorrow, you know.

Oh, and if we're doing the dance of Feature Requests, I would actually like COMM and Bureaucracy to be in my Message Centre. My brain doesn't make a distinction between Site Tools and other threads, it just want to get at its favourite threads easily.

John, I think Jon is not going to be back until the end of the month.

Kat - it was a general post. I shouldn't have used the "should" word. Of course you can feel anyway you want. And of course there is nothing here people cannot live with or even joyfully adapt to.

It is just that - the software world is different. And people spot things in real world use they don't in testing. And I really wasn't answering you (though I am now) It is just that your post sparked in my brain a new way of looking at *how* software is different. And I felt the need to explain - because I though it was a neat way to look at it.

ita, I'm sorry but I think I missed some replies during the switchover to Phoenix. Can you reiterate how you want the batch o' quotes file to be formatted for the random Buffyquote generator? If I do comma separated will that be a problem with commas in the quotes? Would semicolon separated work better?

Nilly just sent me a big batch of quotes which I can send right away.

Hec, don't know how much detail you have, but the layout that we have now is:

• character name 50 chars
• season
• episode
• quote

Season and episode are optional, but nice. Commas are okay.

Read New? Oh! I didn't even realize it was there.

<edit> It works. That is so, so cool.

(Will it scan for the sidebar-ed threads, too, like COMM and this thread?)