I don’t know if it’s that 2.0 apps are any more or less personal than anything else is; I certainly don’t feel like GMail is all that personally known with the devs. I think it’s more of an ISV thing.

I do think it’s an interesting thing with Web 2.0 App’s though. They have SO many users and all of those users feel like they have the direct line.

But you are right that it is a problem with independent developers as well.

The point I made to him was that the “2.0″ apps that are around now are offering unprecedented access to their developers. For instance you and Scott are commonly interacting directly with your users in your forums. I think this directly leads to incorrect expectations (perceptions?) with the users. I’m not saying you should stop doing this, but I do think it’s the cause of it for both feedlounge and many other app’s coming out now.

Matt, what you’re describing is no different than what independent developers have always handled. I’m sure that Brent Simmons can talk about all sorts of stuff in the early Ranchero days. Ready access is both good and bad, and it’s not the nature of Web 2.0 apps that makes this happen: it’s just the increasingly-personal nature of the Internet.

But I like Alex and Scott, so it’s all good.

By that I mean that with unprecendented access to developers, users would do well to put themselves in the developers’ shoes too, not just use it as a good chance to complain. Empathy should go both ways. But you’re right, promoting that idea is tricky.

The point I made to him was that the “2.0″ apps that are around now are offering unprecedented access to their developers. For instance you and Scott are commonly interacting directly with your users in your forums. I think this directly leads to incorrect expectations (perceptions?) with the users. I’m not saying you should stop doing this, but I do think it’s the cause of it for both feedlounge and many other app’s coming out now.

Think about it, if you have a problem with your Mac or WindowsXP, you have no direct line of communication with Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, so you are more willing to take some of the bad with the good and not worry too much about the bad. However if you do have a direct line to the developer(s), it is more likely that you are not only going to mention any gripes you have, but you’re also going to get bent out of shape if you don’t see immediate attention to your gripes (or if you feel other things are getting more attention then your gripes).

It’s not realistic on the users part to expect you to deal directly with every single complaint immediately. Unfortunately, users are seeming to expect this, and I don’t really know how to counteract any of it, but I think it’s something that if users just realized it, it could help greatly.

It would also help if companies, like Google in particular, would quit it with the “perpetual Beta” which has basically lead us to a time where users no longer really understand what the Beta stage of development really is, but that’s a whole other story.