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The author discovered this once he started a chat room. That is also a lesson: create an easy, low stakes way to let people connect with you (a slack or discord
by gfodor 7y ago
The author discovered this once he started a chat room. That is also a lesson: create an easy, low stakes way to let people connect with you (a slack or discord being a great example in 2019) and you’ll be more likely to get these reports. Partially because they will be less effort for people to write a full big report (mod joining the server) but more importantly people may feel they’re more likely to get immediate help if such a channel exists. (Which may be a burden for larger projects, but in exchange for that burden you’ll get goodwill and the reports themselves.)
- octorian 7y agoMonitoring user conversations about your product is absolutely critical, IMHO. Even if you don't directly interact with them, just seeing their chatter can be invaluable. Often times you, as the developer, will spot clues among their rambling that point to actual fixable issues. Meanwhile, these same clues will get completely filtered out and ignored if there's any sort of "user support layer" acting as an intermediary. Sure, there's a lot of chaff to filter through. As such, its okay if you don't want to be the one interacting directly with the users 99% of the time. But simply paying regular attention to what they're saying is worthwhile.