[wp-testers] Re: wp-testers Digest, Vol 31, Issue 59

[wp-tester at spamex.com]

I have a saying with my software development team and my Websites:

"Compliments are nice. Complaints are better."

The way we improve is by having people tell us when they have  
difficulties. Cheers and kudos are nice for the ego, but they don't  
actually contribute to the process.

I posted an issue with a piece of OSS software in another forum  
recently, and the mod called me an a****le.

My statement was even more urbane than this one. It was posted in a  
sincere effort to improve the process.

I'm a professional software engineer and I manage an international  
software development system.

I've been designing major-league C++ software for a couple of decades.

Web design is a hobby for me. I do LAMP/XSLT/WML/XML... yadda, yadda.  
That link I mentioned earlier is a concrete manifestation of a lot of  
it.

I'm pretty aware of many standard best practices. I'm working on  
improving the CMMI for my current organization.

I'm aware of the difficulties of distributed development and of the  
issues therein.

I am also aware that I am a n00b in this community, but I have quite  
a lot to bring to the table, as anyone who clicked on "Meeting  
Search" in the site I designed knows.

Discouraging complaints is a very, VERY bad idea. Take my word for it.

Some of the complaints will be screamed and mixed with invective. I  
get it all the time in my day job.

It can get tough to sift out the gems; but it's completely worth it.  
I NEVER turn down complaints.

Chris