paleshadows writes "Pidgin, the premier multi-protocol
instant messaging client, has been forked. This is the result of a heated, emotional, and
very interesting debate over a controversial new feature: As of
version 2.4, the ability to manually resize the text input area has
been removed; instead, it automatically resizes depending on how much
is typed. It turns out that this feature, along with the uncompromising
unwillingness of the developers to provide an option to turn it off,
annoys the bejesus of very many users.
One
comment made by a Professor that teaches "Collaboration in an Open
Source World" argued that
It's easy to see why open source developers could develop dogmas. [...]
The most dangerous dogma is the one exhibited
here: the God feature. "One technological solution can meet
every possible user-desired variation of a feature." [...]
You [the developers] are ignoring the fan base with a dedication to your convictions
that is alarmingly evident to even the most unobservant of followers,
and as such, you are demonstrating that you no longer deserve to be in
the position of servicing the needs of your user base.
The debate raises two interesting questions: If many users find a new
(functionally correct) UI behavior "annoying", do the developers have some ethical
obligation to rectify? Is there something significant to be gained by enforcing a
UI behavior that the developers like but many users hate? The proclaimed
philosophy underlying the new pidgin fork, which is dubbed Funpidgin, is that the
answers are "yes", and "no", respectively. Accordingly, the Funpidgin
webpage says that
"What makes us different from the official client,
is that we work for you. Unlike the Pidgin developers, we believe the
user should have the final say in what goes into the program."
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