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If companies dropped everything when a handful of people whined about an interface change in an application, website, or anything of the like, there would never

If companies dropped everything when a handful of people whined about an interface change in an application, website, or anything of the like, there would never be any updates. This isn't a ringing endorsement of Skype 5 for Mac, but companies can't be held hostage by a few people who don't like change.

jv22222 16y ago
That thread was going since before the official release when in beta phase. Presumably the idea of beta testers is to help shape a better product?
- knowtheory 16y ago
  Sure, but what you get out of the process can vary widely. Enough bitching from users on a minority platform can cause companies to outright drop that platform (not that i think that's likely in this case). Other people only listen to the positive feedback (which can be useful). But the outrageous tantrums being thrown on this thread are just ridiculous and counter productive. I doubt they were even cathartic from the poster's end.
trustfundbaby 16y ago
So do you just conflate all criticism into the 'whining' bucket? A lot of people on that thread were very specific in their feedback. Both pointing out their grouses and what could be done to fix them, so I disagree with your unkind characterization that they were just a 'few people who don't like change' The least Skype could have done was post a simple "Thank you for the posts, we are evaluating all your feedback" Too much to ask?
- bruceboughton 16y ago
  I suspect Kylekramer is reacting to the inflammatory HN headline.
  - kilian 16y ago
    ...Which also happens to be the inflammatory thread topic on the Skype forum. Grandparent: There might be all sorts of good intentions, criticism and suggestions in the thread, but if you start out with "new skype = FAIL", well, you're going to have a hard time framing that as constructive.
iconfinder 16y ago
Yeah, just like Digg didn't listen to their users.
knowtheory 16y ago
The push to talk functionality really is handy though. That was the reason i installed the beta. I did reach a point about 2 weeks ago where the benefit of push to talk was outweighed by the extremely shoddy UI, specifically with regard to window focus. Thankfully the newest beta makes sure that when you flip back to Skype the text input is always the active UI element in your chat (as opposed to the title for whatever god awful reason). The UI still takes up a huge amount of space, but it is at least usable now. Not being able to tear video out into a separate window is still very frustrating however.
- comron 16y ago
  Not being able to tear out video, or even worse a screen sharing session is very frustrating. Screen sharing someone's 1920px wide screen in half of the Skype window makes screen sharing unusable.
wyuenho 16y ago
As much as I would like to embrace change, Skype 5 for Mac is not change I can believe in. Besides the usual complain of everything being too big, I fail to see what a COMPLETE redo of the UI has anything valuable (read significant enough for a drastic total change) to offer me. First of all, what does the barely 3d cover-flow view of my contacts suppose to help me with? Even if I maximize it to screen-size, I can only see 9 contacts (1 fully, 8 partially) at once, and they are all resampling of Icons of what 128x128 pixels? Form and function FAIL. Second, what happened to conversation history? If I click show 6 months, I can't go back to show 1 day. Dead end workflows are always awkward. Lastly, why in the world is there so much spacing? There's like 100px of completely blank paddings everywhere. The icons and fonts are already ginormous. Making the window so much bigger doesn't make me more likely to use it. The UI design makes no sense whatsoever. It must have been done by an automatic random UI design decision maker.
- micampe 16y ago
  > The UI design makes no sense whatsoever. It must have been done by an automatic random UI design decision maker. Disagree. The UI reflects how I've seen most people use Skype (and other IM applications, iChat, Adium, MSN, …): always keep the conversation window open with all the contacts you usually chat with; ignore the contacts list.
mableflapster 16y ago
I normally agree with you, but this is such a drastic change for the worse. I was excited about the new features, but so turned off by the UI, I downgraded. There will be more negative feedback once it is out of Beta, assuming they don't make drastic changes.
- andrewcurioso 16y ago
  It is out of beta. And no, they didn't make an drastic changes.
alanh 16y ago
This isn’t a Facebook redesign or even #NewTwitter — the latter was overwhelmingly welcomed but of course some holdouts criticize all change. With Skype 5 for Mac, I haven’t heard a single soul say anything positive about it.
- micampe 16y ago
  Here's the first one, then. It has some flaws, but I think the new UI is an improvement. And definitely it has been for my mom. Her reaction: "This is so much easier, I didn't understand what the other window was for."
siddhant 16y ago
This is change of the bad kind. The interface looks horrible, to say the least. I had hopes that they'll stop burning the CPU fans in Skype 5, but apparently it has gotten worse. It baffles me everytime I see the CPU usage spiking up like crazy whenever I do a video call. Skype is an indispensable tool for a lot of people, including me. All I want is it to get better. But Skype 5 doesn't really look like a step in that direction.
eykanal 16y ago
I agree with you; tech companies with few enough staff as is can't respond to every complaint. However, note that the first post in that thread was Nov 4, 2010. That's over three months ago. By this time, they definitely should have at least posted something indicating they've heard the user response.
cowmixtoo 16y ago
Oh no.. universally, everyone thinks Skype 5 is a total cluster f.

jv22222 16y ago

That thread was going since before the official release when in beta phase. Presumably the idea of beta testers is to help shape a better product?

knowtheory 16y ago
Sure, but what you get out of the process can vary widely. Enough bitching from users on a minority platform can cause companies to outright drop that platform (not that i think that's likely in this case). Other people only listen to the positive feedback (which can be useful). But the outrageous tantrums being thrown on this thread are just ridiculous and counter productive. I doubt they were even cathartic from the poster's end.

trustfundbaby 16y ago

So do you just conflate all criticism into the 'whining' bucket? A lot of people on that thread were very specific in their feedback. Both pointing out their grouses and what could be done to fix them, so I disagree with your unkind characterization that they were just a 'few people who don't like change' The least Skype could have done was post a simple "Thank you for the posts, we are evaluating all your feedback" Too much to ask?

bruceboughton 16y ago
I suspect Kylekramer is reacting to the inflammatory HN headline.
- kilian 16y ago
  ...Which also happens to be the inflammatory thread topic on the Skype forum. Grandparent: There might be all sorts of good intentions, criticism and suggestions in the thread, but if you start out with "new skype = FAIL", well, you're going to have a hard time framing that as constructive.

iconfinder 16y ago

Yeah, just like Digg didn't listen to their users.

knowtheory 16y ago

The push to talk functionality really is handy though. That was the reason i installed the beta. I did reach a point about 2 weeks ago where the benefit of push to talk was outweighed by the extremely shoddy UI, specifically with regard to window focus. Thankfully the newest beta makes sure that when you flip back to Skype the text input is always the active UI element in your chat (as opposed to the title for whatever god awful reason). The UI still takes up a huge amount of space, but it is at least usable now. Not being able to tear video out into a separate window is still very frustrating however.

comron 16y ago
Not being able to tear out video, or even worse a screen sharing session is very frustrating. Screen sharing someone's 1920px wide screen in half of the Skype window makes screen sharing unusable.

wyuenho 16y ago

As much as I would like to embrace change, Skype 5 for Mac is not change I can believe in. Besides the usual complain of everything being too big, I fail to see what a COMPLETE redo of the UI has anything valuable (read significant enough for a drastic total change) to offer me. First of all, what does the barely 3d cover-flow view of my contacts suppose to help me with? Even if I maximize it to screen-size, I can only see 9 contacts (1 fully, 8 partially) at once, and they are all resampling of Icons of what 128x128 pixels? Form and function FAIL. Second, what happened to conversation history? If I click show 6 months, I can't go back to show 1 day. Dead end workflows are always awkward. Lastly, why in the world is there so much spacing? There's like 100px of completely blank paddings everywhere. The icons and fonts are already ginormous. Making the window so much bigger doesn't make me more likely to use it. The UI design makes no sense whatsoever. It must have been done by an automatic random UI design decision maker.

micampe 16y ago
> The UI design makes no sense whatsoever. It must have been done by an automatic random UI design decision maker. Disagree. The UI reflects how I've seen most people use Skype (and other IM applications, iChat, Adium, MSN, …): always keep the conversation window open with all the contacts you usually chat with; ignore the contacts list.

mableflapster 16y ago

I normally agree with you, but this is such a drastic change for the worse. I was excited about the new features, but so turned off by the UI, I downgraded. There will be more negative feedback once it is out of Beta, assuming they don't make drastic changes.

andrewcurioso 16y ago
It is out of beta. And no, they didn't make an drastic changes.

alanh 16y ago

This isn’t a Facebook redesign or even #NewTwitter — the latter was overwhelmingly welcomed but of course some holdouts criticize all change. With Skype 5 for Mac, I haven’t heard a single soul say anything positive about it.

micampe 16y ago
Here's the first one, then. It has some flaws, but I think the new UI is an improvement. And definitely it has been for my mom. Her reaction: "This is so much easier, I didn't understand what the other window was for."

siddhant 16y ago

This is change of the bad kind. The interface looks horrible, to say the least. I had hopes that they'll stop burning the CPU fans in Skype 5, but apparently it has gotten worse. It baffles me everytime I see the CPU usage spiking up like crazy whenever I do a video call. Skype is an indispensable tool for a lot of people, including me. All I want is it to get better. But Skype 5 doesn't really look like a step in that direction.

eykanal 16y ago

I agree with you; tech companies with few enough staff as is can't respond to every complaint. However, note that the first post in that thread was Nov 4, 2010. That's over three months ago. By this time, they definitely should have at least posted something indicating they've heard the user response.

cowmixtoo 16y ago

Oh no.. universally, everyone thinks Skype 5 is a total cluster f.