Ok, I’m going to get to Blog City version 4.0 and the relevance to the headline shortly. Regular MakeYouGoHmm readers already know that I tend to delight in taking the twisting, turning fire stairway instead of the smooth, fast elevator. Plus the exercise is oddly refreshing for toiled texters like moi. Workout, workout, workout.

While on the whole subscribe to new blogs topic (see last entry), I also wanted to point out — thank you to all those where the following applies — that I visit many of the blogs/sites where people leave high quality, relevant comments and/or trackbacks here at/to MakeYouGoHmm. Maybe these commenters are people who I might like to read on their own blogs/sites. See what kinds of cool things they are finding or doing on the web.

So one of the easiest ways to get my attention and interest in what you are doing on your website/blog is to leave several high quality, relevant comments on something here at MakeYouGoHmm. Readers can comment on any blog entry made here since day one, nearly two years ago and no matter how old or new the entry might be, there is a 100% chance — at least with the current volume of comments left here — that I’ll personally read it.

BTW, by “high quaity” I don’t mean that you only agree with something written or pondered here, I mean something that is not spammy and is intelligent and well written from any perspective: agree, disagree or ambivalent. I adore a spirited, yet friendly, debate.

I like passion in the comments section and don’t mind people who disagree with something published here. I do not find a comment high quality when the commenter cannot make an argument or counterpoint without resorting to name calling. Calling me — or a guest contributer here — an idiot or some other name doesn’t make one’s point more valid, it makes it less so.

But enough of the bad, let’s talk about the good.

For example, I’ve noticed that Janine has left several good comments lately and I have subscribed to her blog as a result. Janine’s blog is not the type of blog I would normally subscribe to, but that’s certainly not a knock because I like keeping my reading list diverse.

It seems that recently Blog City upgraded to version 4.0 of their software and here’s what Janine had to say about the changes:

I hate change. Don’t do this to old people, we can’t handle it. I really don’t give a rats ass on the statistics of the posts that had the most comments. BFD. Now I have to spend some time here and get answers (all over again) to: Where’s this , what happened to that, hey, I really liked the feature that did such & such…is it still here…somewhere?

Go get ‘em, Janine!

As a software developer, webmaster, and a dozen other hats I am wearing at various times, I am constantly weighing change, new features and usability and yet not alienating users. Before I had read Janine’s blog entry, we talked about this very topic yesterday on my weekly radio show. Talk about timing!

The group consensus seemed to be — in not as direct words as Janine used above — that the program should be usable and user-friendly first and foremost. I commented recently on Technorati’s new beta about the importantce of usability in regards to their search query speed. The CEO stopped by the comment section and replied, letting us know it’s important to them too.

People want efficient programs that do what they want them to do and new features and functionality are nice, but not as important as the main features they use must remain easy to use. They do not like having to re-educate themselves about a program they’re familiar using.

I’m intentionally talking in generalizations in the paragraph above. I don’t fit the mold of everything written. I like change, in fact, I sort of thrive on it. I don’t like stupid changes though, which is where I’d agree that just adding on new features to a program and tearing apart what worked good and users were happy with before is an unwise strategy.

The same could be said about comments. If one has something good and useful to add — something high quality — then do it. If one doesn’t, then silence probably is golden.

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