Taken from GenWebs.net - Webmaster, Technology, and Advertising Blog This is one thing a lot of forum owners, blog owners, website owners, etc do NOT do. And that thing is being open minded. When you are given a sincere suggestion, think about it with all you got. What are the pros, what are the cons? Why would it help? Would it hurt my site? Ask these questions, if they bring up valid points why not consider it? Being open minded is the best choice you could ever make. When you accept people's sincere suggestions right there you have a new member/visitor that will stay on your site. They know you care. I went on a forum, cForums and I thought "hey this site is decent let me check it out." There was a lot wrong with it, and I offered solutions to fix it. But then I found another issue...their administrator Auth. He is very close minded and does a lot of things for the money. Sure, people like money..but he does it in the wrong ways. He also copied another big forum's content/information/rules verbatim and refused to change them. Go look at their board, study the admin, study the board. On your site, <b>do the opposite.</b> This is not a personal attack on the owner, I could care less about that. Just helping you guys know what NOT to do. Stay inspired, open minded owners are the best kind of owners.
Yes I agree with you 110% the way to stick out is be different that is why companies like Zappos do so well. Nobody had ever seen customer service like there's on the internet before. Same with sites like facebook and twitter innovation is the key to success.
I agree with you as well. I think we can all take a look at the critiques we get in life. I know some people aren't into the idea of getting critiques and such on their sites, but I think it's part of the process. Stuff we do needs to be judged to some extent. We need people to like our doings, it's part of our nature.
When you don't know anything and are insecure in your abilities of course it's hard to be open minded. Many of the people you'll meet on the internet in the webmaster community don't know much about the industry and are not all that experienced and yet talk like they are. When you point out that there are better ways of doing things they get all mad and start flinging insults and whatnot. We can't let this discourage us or make us not tell people what we really think. If a site sucks let them know but also let them know why. If you like something tell them why don't just say you like it. People need to stop worrying so much what other people are going to think about them and start having a bit more respect for themselves.
Ahh you hit the nail right on the head. I guess insecurity is the real reason for the backlashing whenever a suggest comes up.