I’m not sure that’s at odds with what mscottveach is saying. To put it in different words, while the amount of feedback might vary, I don’t think the ratio of positive vs. negative feedback varies. It’s the very rare situation where the number of messages that say, “This was good, everything went as planned or intended,” outnumbers the messages that talk about how something went wrong.
Oh, I quite disagree. I’ve often found it normal for people to give positive feedback only or for positive feedback to far outweigh negative. In fact, I’m a little surprised to hear you say this because my experience has often been the opposite—that it can be rare and difficult to get people to give negative feedback or genuine criticism of something!
For instance, when I’ve helped organize parties or social events I’ve IIRC heard almost only positive things, which is not to say that my parties and events were astoundingly good but rather that the norms favor positive over negative feedback there.
Similarly, I recently started up an online ladder for players of a game that I like, and the feedback there has been quite positive as well. I don’t think I did a superb job in doing that—I actually released it months after I’d been planning to—but people tend to give positive feedback on those sorts of projects.
In fact, I’ve thought before that this positive bias in feedback can often be an obstacle to progression, as flawed projects don’t get corrected as easily if people don’t point out the flaws—note also Said’s comment about how it can be difficult to get people to point out even egregious errors in software/web design!
Oh, yes, that’s a good point, and I have updated in your direction. I was thinking more along the lines of things like product reviews and survey feedback, where the user is much more likely to take the time to complete the feedback form if they’ve had a negative experience than if they’ve had a positive one.
Edited to add: I wonder if there’s a distinction between unsolicited feedback and requesting feedback, or giving feedback to an individual vs. feedback to a corporate entity.
where the user is much more likely to take the time to complete the feedback form if they’ve had a negative experience than if they’ve had a positive one.
Sounds like they’re being used as bug reports. Is there usually another way of making bug reports?
Oh, I quite disagree. I’ve often found it normal for people to give positive feedback only or for positive feedback to far outweigh negative. In fact, I’m a little surprised to hear you say this because my experience has often been the opposite—that it can be rare and difficult to get people to give negative feedback or genuine criticism of something!
For instance, when I’ve helped organize parties or social events I’ve IIRC heard almost only positive things, which is not to say that my parties and events were astoundingly good but rather that the norms favor positive over negative feedback there.
Similarly, I recently started up an online ladder for players of a game that I like, and the feedback there has been quite positive as well. I don’t think I did a superb job in doing that—I actually released it months after I’d been planning to—but people tend to give positive feedback on those sorts of projects.
In fact, I’ve thought before that this positive bias in feedback can often be an obstacle to progression, as flawed projects don’t get corrected as easily if people don’t point out the flaws—note also Said’s comment about how it can be difficult to get people to point out even egregious errors in software/web design!
Oh, yes, that’s a good point, and I have updated in your direction. I was thinking more along the lines of things like product reviews and survey feedback, where the user is much more likely to take the time to complete the feedback form if they’ve had a negative experience than if they’ve had a positive one.
Edited to add: I wonder if there’s a distinction between unsolicited feedback and requesting feedback, or giving feedback to an individual vs. feedback to a corporate entity.
Sounds like they’re being used as bug reports. Is there usually another way of making bug reports?