Author: Franklin

Beta Feedback should be much easier

Feedback in the form of BETA bug reporting and feature requesting should be EASY on all BETA sites. Everything is BETA and a work in progress when it is first released. One thing I continually notice as I register and try site after site is the lack of continuity in methods to give feedback.

It should be easy to fill out a bug report or feature request. Lately I have found it simply difficult to find any help or documentation. Ok granted if it is in private beta sometimes the web app is just beyond proof of concept. However if the application wishes to ever move beyond its current state feedback from its user base is a must.

For example, on FriendFeed the other day I found a problem with the del.icio.us feed updating correctly. I looked around on the FriendFeed site and could NOT easily find a place for feedback. (There is a link in an older post on the FriendFeed blog.) I opened a second tab and googled “FriendFeed Feedback” and quickly found the google Discussion group.

The point is that was too hard. Way to hard. If I have to search for the place to give feedback I probably will not give any. Unless I just love the app I will not go that far. In this case I blog posted “Are Del.icio.us feeds broken on FriendFeed?” and Louis Gray quickly responded to my post and eventually found the answer.

But I am not picking on FriendFeed. It seems that in the haste to bring out a web app that is the next big thing startups forget the basics. Contact information and Feedback should be no brainers and mandatory.

Toluu another favorite new app of mine is just the same. No clear feedback point.

The point is any new web app public beta, private beta, or even alpha should make feedback quick and easy. I suggest a link at the bottom of each page. At the very least a prominently placed permanent link on the App’s blog to the feedback system.

This may seem like a small detail but should be demanded by users.

Well this user demands it.

Who does this well? Who doesn’t?

Review: Visual Studio 2008 or not

Logo of MicrosoftImage via Wikipedia

This was going to be a review of Visual Studio 2008. I went to a Launch event today in Charlotte, NC. Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Home Server 2008.

Before I tell you about the day. Let me start by saying I like Microsoft technology. The .Net development platform is AWESOME. Plenty of Microsoft haters exist but I am not one of them. I go to MSDN events very frequently. I went to the VS 2005 launch event. Visual Studio is a great environment. The .NET framework is well thought out and extremely powerful. Silverlight is AWESOME.

Today’s event was TERRIBLE. I mean awful. I spent the afternoon and should have learned all about the 3 new products. I sat through 3 sessions and a 4 minute keynote. I have no idea what is new in Visual Studio 2008.

The powerpoint slides were terrible as well. The whole afternoon was a train wreck.

The first Session was about tighter LINQ integration for ASP.NET. I think?

The second session was about Office development. There was a demo about creating custom ribbons for Office 2007.

The speakers were just plain bad. I know they want to sell software but what is new in Visual Studio 2008? How about 1 non-cluttered powerpoint showing a list of the new features.

I am NOT slamming Microsoft or its products. This was a POORLY designed and implemented developer event designed to market their products. It was a waste of my time.

At all the other events I have been to Glen Gordon has been one of the main speakers. Glen Gordon is a great developer evangelist for Microsoft. He was NOT at todays event and it showed. Wow did it show. The speakers read from a script at times, had no repore with the audience, and presented NO useful information.

I have always enjoyed Microsoft events but will not attend another without some assurance it will be better.

This ends my rant about the WASTE OF FREAKING time event I went to.

Are Del.icio.us Updates Broken on FriendFeed?

Are Del.icio.us Updates Broken on FriendFeed? I saved a link on del.icio.us Sunday night and noticed that in had not shown up in my FriendFeed.

I noticed this last week when Louis Gray linked to my post “The FriendFeed Disjointed Comments Problem.” I noticed then that it was not in his friendfeed.

Stay tuned for updates I will try to find out what is going on…

UPDATE: Louis Gray has pointed out that if you delete del.icio.us and re-add it on your FriendFeed it will work.

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Toluu Invites

Toluu the new beta RSS sharing site is currently in private beta. Never heard of it? Check out this ReadWriteWeb article. I have some invites if interested. Leave a comment with your email if you want one.

Update 06/13/2008: Toluu is gaining alot of momentum. The latest enhancements are great. For more about the founder Caleb Elston go here. I have 25 invites. Leave a comment if you want one.

The FriendFeed Disjointed Comments Problem

FriendFeed is great. I like the service but let me describe the Disjointed Comments problem. The aggregation needs to group based upon link. For example, Louis Gray wrote a nice post titled “TechMeme Leaderboard’s Top Ten: Six Months In.” On his FriendFeed alone there are 3 seperate entries to this post. Three places to like or hide and three places to comment. An entry directly submitted to FriendFeed, an entry to Google Reader sharing his post feed, and the post feed itself.

The key to me to satisfy the blogosphere is easily displays all of this activity (liking and commenting) back on the original post. I have already seen an early wordpress plugin displaying inline the FriendFeed comments of the post.

The next step for FriendFeed is to combine/group entries that link to the destination URL. Positioned in the FriendFeed by the last reference. So in other words if Louis bookmarked his post a fourth time on del.icio.us then the whole group would bubble to the top of his FriendFeed.

So once they are grouped together the convesation at least on the Louis Gray FriendFeed is not disjointed.

However, the next problem is me. I liked the post. So Louis had it shared in 3 or 4 places. What if I share it / link it in a couple of places. Google Reader and Del.icio.us. What if people comment on my FriendFeed?

This is conversation Louis might want to know about. So now FriendFeed groups my conversations with Louis’s FriendFeed. This is probably not a big deal if just I share it. But what about when it is shared 500 times?

Ok So FriendFeed does all of that. Great, Huh? Well now the bloggers want more. That wordpress plugin now needs to embed the conversation on the original post. Then maybe just maybe the blogosphere is happy. Well probably not. It doesn’t happen very often. 🙂

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