[wp-testers] for clarification

[Dawnne Gee]

Matt's right: in many ways, this is not the forum for discussion of whether
or not we "like" the Write page, and I apologize to the group for fomenting
part of that largely off-topic discussion. I hope, however, that the
discussion is taken to heart as representative of this particular
user-group's loyalty and appreciation for the platform.

 

There's an old adage: "90% of the work is done by 10% of the workers". A few
spins on that, and they all hold true:

 

90% of the joy is found in 10% of the work.

90% of the loyalty is tendered by 10% of the users.

Similarly, 90% of emotional investment is invested by 10% of the users.

90% of the product is used by 10% of the consumers.

And more tellingly: 90% of the consumers use 10% of the product.

 

Coding for the 10% (the ones with 90% of the loyalty and emotional
investment) is extremely important. That 10% are typically the voluntary
evangelists, recruiters, troubleshooters, and support technicians. As such,
the pleasure/confidence/loyalty of the 90% tends to be directly drawn from
the pleasure/confidence/loyalty of the 10%.

 

Coding for the 90% (the ones with 10% of the loyalty and emotional
investment) almost always limits, confounds, and to a limited degree rejects
and belittles the 10%. As such, the pleasure/confidence/loyalty of the 90%
tends to become inversely proportional to the pleasure/confidence/loyalty of
the 10%. More to the point, coding to the subset that uses only 10% of the
product significantly alters the algorithm for ROI. I do hope it's a
positive number for 2.5, but would point out that A LOT of companies folded,
and a lot of good programs have faded away over the years due to catering to
the 10%.

 

Like so many of the esteemed opinions on this list, I'll not only continue
to use WordPress, I'll continue, happily, to encourage my clients, partners,
and friends to do the same. And for a select few, I'll even help them
migrate their Blogger and TypePad crap like I've been doing for the past
seventeen months. I'm looking forward to a lot of the upgrades, changes, and
fixes in WordPress 2.5, and have even set aside time on my calendar to run
the upgrades and testing on the blogs I directly manage, with the exception
of a couple of blogs where the changes to the Write page literally doubles
the time-to-post in my workflow.

 

So, I'll be even more excited about the potential return to usability
standards in 2.6. But you have my appreciation and support for what you do,
developers. Thank you for helping lift blogging from the mere commonplace
and elevating it to a form of Art.

 

And yes, I realize the thanks alone is not sufficient reciprocation.

 

Peace.

 

~synth~