Meredith: “…when you try to click through to the Odeo page for the podcast, you get this screen (?!?!?? it’s not exactly descriptive of what the problem is and it kind of makes you feel like it’s your fault)….How many negative experiences does it take for a newbie to be turned off to something?”

Only too true. I’m especially irked at that error message–I’m sure it was some software developer’s half-baked attempt at wit*, but it comes off as condescending (perhaps even insulting?) to customers. And I admit I never took a marketing class in my life…but is that really the last taste you want to leave in an already-frustrated user’s mouth?

Dorthea: Resilience helps, and a lot of that resilience only comes with experience. I have those types of web 2.0 toys crap out on me often enough that I know it’s their fault, not mine. In fact, lately I’ve started wondering if some of this “permanent beta” business has just become this week’s trendy excuse for not bothering to make the site work properly before you launch it…that sort of behavior is certainly within those sites’ rights, but I’m also perfectly happy to do what Meredith’s doing and take my business to the competition.

This “error message” is another one of those cases of developers too witty for their own good (or more accurately, thinking they’re wittier than they are). And yes, while perpetual beta is all well and good, some of these services have been out there long enough that “perpetual beta” sometimes sounds more like an excuse so they don’t have to bother to make the thing work properly. Which is fine, we don’t have to bother to use their services either…

And what you said Dorthea–it takes a certain level of confidence in one’s skills to navigate the morass of half-baked, semi-stable services out there. We have the confidence (and the patience), but how many non-geeks will put up with that level of instability?

Yours,
Eric

Eric Mortensen
Director of Content
eric/a+/blip.tv

I wonder sometimes if a major difference between those of us who get along fairly well with technology and those who don’t is how deeply we personalize tech problems. If you assume you did something wrong when something falls down and goes boom, you’re not going to experiment and you’re not going to learn, because you’re too afraid that boom means the end.

Whereas I (for example) cuss a bit, mess around to see if I can make it better, and shrug and solve the problem some other way if I can’t. Stuff breaks, that’s life; the thing to do is cope. If we get THAT lesson across in Five Weeks, we’re doing very well indeed.