Bert, you have somewhat answered your own questions.
I?ll continue and start with this: ?human desire is never satisfied.? There will always be people with ideas and suggestions to make any product or service better. Making many tweaks here and there will only band-aid a product. Eventually the product will become more cluttered (bloated) and less useful.
The goal is to find a happy medium of what features gets put into an upgrade, or new version of software. It could also mean a separate product, or service is created to keep from cluttering-up, or losing usability of the original product. This takes time and skill because a developer or company will have to listen to what customers are saying, and not saying. This user board is a prime example. Again, this takes skill because a developer must know how to filter out the complaints and hear the suggestions (problems with a product or service).
In my humble opinion, a happy medium would be a repeated problem, complaint, suggestion, or idea from a group of loyal customers, not just an idea or suggestion, from a single person (unless something completely new is going to be created). Even if a person?s logic makes sense, a feature request or enhancement should still be based upon a group (customer base) idea or suggestion, which will in turn make a product useful or enjoyable to use.
I say this because a product could turn out with more gadgetry features in it, and perhaps, does make sense, but are not what the majority of the group is wanting at the time. I had to learn this the hard way. Of course, now I have much appreciated wisdom.
There should be and expect a lot of ?No?s? customers. This is to keep the sanity (reality) with the happy medium once it?s found. It could also vary depending on how large the customer base is, as you pointed out with Microsoft. Each company?s happy medium is different. Apple is the best example of this, in this day and age.
I would have to understand a customer base in order to know which deployment (quick update patch, click-once web download, etc.) approach I would use. Of course, either way, I would still have to provide some assistance (Tech Support) to them.
Also, all developers are not alike. You are blessed to have your developer to be top-notch, Bert. Certain developers have different skill sets, and work very differently, as the same with doctors. But, developers who think alike do have a special ability to join forces to create something quite radical (shall I mention Bill Gates and Paul Allen, or Larry Page and Sergey Brin).
One shouldn?t make preferences for every single feature, but one should make preferences for useful features that a group (customer base) is asking for.
Bert, I hope I answered your multi-question post? I?ll be clearer if needed.
Keep in mind folks, while I?m designing a new Letter Writer for Amazing Charts. Bert has been and is one of the doctors advising me. I can?t express in words of how blessed I am to know and work with an awesome person. I?m not saying this to kiss his behind, but I?m saying this because he really is a cool cat! He?s been helpful to me a great deal. Keep bringing those questions my way. I?ll do my best to answer every single last one of them.
If I don?t respond to your post right away, don?t worry, I will get to you.
