There's been lots of kerfuffle recently about the CPAN-testers. Two people in particular have been complaining very loudly. A tiny number of other people have chimed in briefly alongside them.
Genuine problems have been identified, and either fixed quickly or at least a plan to fix them in the long term has been explained. And yet the loud complaints continue.
I wonder what those people expect. As far as I'm concerned, having half a dozen out of nearly 7000 "customers" complain demonstrates that the sky isn't falling in. Doubly so when you count the number of people who write to testers to thank them for their work. Why, I'd need to take my socks off to count all those who have told me that what I'm doing is useful and that they're grateful for it!
Given humans' tendency to only speak up when they don't like something and to keep schtum when they're happy (just look at any restaurant review site that lets the hoi polloi post!), I think that shows that we're both getting it right almost all the time, and providing a useful service.
Even so, let me reiterate here what I've said elsewhere - if any of you don't want me to send you reports, please email me to let me know.
Given humans' tendency to only speak up when they don't like something and to keep schtum when they're happy (just look at any restaurant review site that lets the hoi polloi post!), I think that shows that we're both getting it right almost all the time, and providing a useful service.
I've seen that argument used to justify all sorts of things that weren't necessarily true.
Re:The Argument From Overwhelming Silence
Aristotle on 2008-09-05T14:24:59
I counted about ten different people explicitly expressing their gratitude in the last couple of days on perl-qa and on use.perl. Even among the very few people who did explicitly speak up one way or another, the complainers, while very vocal (and with valid reasons!), are in the minority.
Re:The Argument From Overwhelming Silence
chromatic on 2008-09-05T17:59:54
I agree. I just don't believe it's possible to draw conclusions about the rightness or efficacy of any particular action based on the idea that silence means assent.
