We need more of this.
Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
91–100 of 194 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#92Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclaimer: My Epic experience is around a decade old. I never saw a riot, but I definitely saw providers who hated Epic when it was installed. As in people literally screaming at the top of their lungs at IT nerds. I saw a few contributing factors: 1. Epic supports making all the technically-mandatory-but-not-mandatory-if-you're-in-a-hurry data actually mandatory, so providers have more typing and less ability to ju…
>technically-mandatory-but-not-mandatory-if-you're-in-a-hurry :/
We should be very liberal with accepted inputs. I call them "Fuck It Buttons." There are lots of cases where you want a "Fuck It" button to just go around all the data entry and get an answer or move on with minimum info. Warn that the data isn't complete and we're using defaults, and don't just make output look the same as a complete workflow, but let them go through, nonetheless. Health care is just one example, but "Fuck It" comes up in every industry.
This is the UI/UX equivalent of knowing which hills to die on.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#94The Robodebt scandal in Australia didn't spill over to violence in the streets, but it came close. Robodebt was a debt collection system introduced by the Federal government to recover supposed overpayments of social security. It was flawed at every level, including software design, and resulted in nationwide protests. see https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6037228/robo-debt-cen...
Similar but worse, the Horizon scandal in the UK where bugs in Fujitsu stocktaking software sent post office workers to jail and ruined lives because administrators took the software's side when it found accounting shortfalls https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56718036
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#95Old school RuneScape is an mmorpg where each game update goes to a vote, and if it doesn’t get 75% approval the updates are not worked on by devs and don’t get released. The community feels a strong ownership and connection over the game. So much so that when the development company (Jagex) makes a wrong decision, it’s common for users to “riot” in game. They go to a specific world, at a specific town, place down spe…
Usually I hear bad things about Jagex, I’m surprised they have a system in OSR where they don’t make changes without user approval
Some changes do get into the game without player approval. The idea behind them is that some changes are necessary for the long-term integrity of the game (in-game economy, gear balancing, etc). They are always controversial.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#96There was a case more than 20 years ago of a similar revolt against a Canadian hospital's automated drug dispensing machine that would only let nurses withdraw the exact dose of medicine a patient needed in a short window around when patient was supposed to take each dose. It was so bad it got written up into an academic article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/016224390202700...
That reminds of that Star Trek episode “Critical Care” where people only get the resources allowed by an AI overseer. How does this even pass an early review?
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#97Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#98There was a case more than 20 years ago of a similar revolt against a Canadian hospital's automated drug dispensing machine that would only let nurses withdraw the exact dose of medicine a patient needed in a short window around when patient was supposed to take each dose. It was so bad it got written up into an academic article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/016224390202700...
> they resented features that controlled their time and their autonomy Of course. Nobody likes being controlled by software. The computer is supposed to obey us, not the other way around. Software controlling humans is a violation of basic human dignity.
In general, it is restricting autonomy in order to improve consistency and quality.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?
#99[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/why-doctors-ha... (Archived: https://archive.ph/PlnQl )