←back to thread

But what if I want a faster horse?

(rakhim.exotext.com)
1525 points saeedesmaili | 2 comments | 11 Apr 25 11:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.576s | source
Show context
myself248 ◴[11 Apr 25 13:44 UTC] No.43653711[source]▶
I've heard this called the "Tyranny of the Marginal User".

To keep the line going up, platforms have to appeal to wider and wider swaths of a population, eventually lapping at the shores of a population that really doesn't care or want this service. But if you can hook them with some dopamine in a 5-second video, or a quest to rediscover some neat thing that they saw two page-loads ago but is now mysteriously gone from the very same list it appeared in, then you've clawed one additional user into your metrics and the VCs give you a treat.

These people don't care about the service and they're the worst users to cater to, but everyone caters to them because they're the only ones left. Hence, TikTokization.

replies(3): >>43660210 #>>43661598 #>>43662700 #
1. jiggawatts ◴[12 Apr 25 00:33 UTC] No.43660210[source]▶
Thank you for that term!

I finally know what to call these idiotic trends that I've learned to recognise but couldn't name.

The one that grind my gears the most has been Microsoft breaking decades-old Windows paradigms to cater for Linux-developers-on-Windows, which is a very marginal, even actively disinterested group. All this at the expense of the 99.9% of their loyal user base.

For example, VS Code had the opposite shortcut (literally with the arrow keys going in opposing directions) for "go back in search history" to every other editor ever made for Windows... but matching the Linux equivalent.

Similarly, they recently broke "cls" to match the broken(!) behaviour of "clear" in Linux because of basically just one or two Linux users complaining in a GitHub Issue ticket. Windows users weren't listened to, because they're already users, not potential new users.

replies(1): >>43679365 #
2. pas ◴[14 Apr 25 08:53 UTC] No.43679365[source]▶
oh, that's extra dumb, since there's no canonical[1] Linux desktop. that said they should offer shortcut presets, like JetBrains products. changing the default is just whack.

[1] oh, what the hell!? pun unintended, but now at least the name makes sense