Pass the lubricant | Hacker News Reader

Pass the lubricant

joestump.net

So let me get this straight, some guy wrote a app that was full of bugs and is pissed because on his third time submitting in a short period it's taking a little longer. Sorry I really have no sympathy here.

I disagree; In agile software development, there is an argument that deployments should be "one-click" fast. Having to wait 6 weeks for a bug-fix is an abomination to release early, release often types.

One-click deploys isn't about fixing buggy code. It's about getting features out rapidly, getting feedback early. Part of this has to be a really robust testing & regression approach.

Plus. This is a device. There are higher standards on the output. People are going to get annoyed if they're updating their app every second day to get it to work.

One-click deployment does not mean developers should be releasing code to customers straight out of their build directories.

Agile doesn't mean releasing an application is testing an application. Your users aren't your testers.

I'm sorry, when I read this rant I read someone who didn't do his homework in the first place.

In his defense, doing a proper alpha/beta test is really hard with the iphone, as distributing applications through channels other than the app store isn't exactly easy, to say the least

I heartily applaud and encourage Apple to spend their manpower on reviewing apps that are either new to the store or are updated with notable new features.

If Joe Stump is so concerned about the good name of his app being ruined by 1-star reviews then why doesn't he remove it from sale using the control panel on iTunes Connect? Or add some comments to the app information? Instead he seems quite content to continue charging money for it.

Frankly I find his attitude distasteful. He seems most upset that his Apple connections didn't lead to him receiving a "get out of jail free card" after he failed to learn his lesson about the value of QA.

Yeah, I was wondering if you need Apple's approval to pull an app, too, but that seems very unlikely.

I agree, I read this and I just didn't see how developers were "being raped." The users? Yeah, they got screwed.

It's one thing when AT&T leans on Apple to prevent a Google voice app, which somehow AT&T feels threatens them. Or even the hazy definition of porn that is applied to other apps, I suspect Apple is completely within their rights but I can understand some of the developer outrage. It's entirely different when developers want to cash in quickly and put out buggy and inferior software quickly and hope to be one of the "made a couple million in a month on the iPhone" stories. If you don't want "one star reviews" then don't submit one star software. And since when is it Apple's job to identify these defects? If anything, Apple is doing it's paying customers a service here.

You don't get too many chances to screw up in front of your customers without it having an impact.

People, at least try to come up with a descriptive headline. This one is about as informative as "LOL WTF".

If you're in contact with that person alert them that their adsense account may be at risk, adsense has flagged the page for review or ban (PSAs appearing).

Best to either change the tone of the page or yank the ads...

What's the problem?

The adsense text classifier caught too many F-words; it now looks like porn to the machines. AdSense doesn't deliver porn ads or serve ads on porn, or otherwise vulgar websites.

Interesting. I wonder why people expect their rants to be ad-supported anyway.

That will make for another good rant when he'll try to contact Google about it and get no response :-)

Is it possible to resubmit the app under a new name? It seems like this would be an easy end-run around the 1-star reviews and dead-end approval process.

Perhaps, but not if you're trying to push out an update to existing frustrated users. Also, I've got a feeling that once Apple saw what happened Thing Would Not Go Well.

Just kind of a sad story all around, I guess.

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