Are rants constructive?

Question

This should BE THE PLACE for people to rant.

How big are your empathy muscles if you want to answer UX questions? Are you a good listener? Why do people feel reluctant to complain to designers about their awful experiences?

I can't help but feel like I can't ask questions about the user experience here without an over-zealous attempt to close my question.

How can we learn anything if people don't complain?

Why haven't we taught our moderators empathy? Since when is talking abstractly punishable? People are trying to enforce their view of UX which is completely wrong. It's not about you. It's about the user. Let them speak.

Answer 1

Tyler, this site is part of the StackExchange network, which is made up of many dozens of sites. Many of these sites have an even more open and discussion-prone nature than ours (Parenthood.SE, Skeptics.SE just to name two examples off the top of my head). Yet, all these sites abide by the policies set by the network. The network is created and optimized for Questions and Answers, not for rants and discussions. StackExchange doesn't just provide communities with a place to hang out and do whatever they like with it, the different sites aren't autonomous. While there's a degree of freedom we enjoy as a site, we all have a "federal government", which lets us use its facilities in exchange for abiding by its rules and serving its business goals. Even if we wanted to make the site open for rants and discussions, it's not up to us to decide.

It also wouldn't be a good place for this, since every bit of UX on SE is tailored to provide an environment of quality Q&A, which is very different from a debate club.

Talking abstractly is not "punishable", it's just not in line with this site. People don't close your questions to teach you to know better, it's not a punitive measure of any kind. It's just meant to keep the site dedicated to its purpose, it's no more than routine maintenance and cleanup.

On a more general note, and following your recent questions here and on the main site: people on this site are thrilled to have newcomers who are enthusiastic and passionate about UX, so it's great that you're here and we'd very much like to keep you here. But take a moment to look around, RTFM, and get the spirit of things. It will give you a much smoother start.

It's awesome that you're suggesting changes, many changes have been implemented on the site specifically following community suggestions like yours. New changes are being implemented daily. But understand that we're part of a much bigger system, which is extremely good at what it does (IMHO). Also, it's totally community-driven, so most things here are the result of much deliberation and discussion.

Answer 2

This should BE THE PLACE for people to rant.

No, it shouldn't. There are thousands of places for people to rant. You can rage on Facebook, shout into Twitter, make a tumblr called F'ing Loud Machines, but this is not and will never be a place for rants. The internet is not at a loss for places for people to post angry rants.

Why do people feel reluctant to complain to designers about their awful experiences?

If you have a question about encouraging users to feel comfortable expressing negative feedback, well, ask that question. It's totally unrelated to the two questions you just asked and had closed. But before you ask please look up Acquiescence Bias and Social Desirability Bias, in fact just look up Response Bias; there's lots of information on this topic so look around before asking.

How can we learn anything if people don't complain?

By people taking those complaints and turning them into constructive questions. But this is entirely tangential to your argument...you have a point if we were talking about user feedback; users need to be free to complain to give feedback on a product. This is a site for designers to ask questions, not for users to give feedback.

People are trying to enforce their view of UX which is completely wrong.

Enforcing the rules of this site have nothing to do with "enforcing their view of UX". It has to do with the general rules of this network; questions and answers about a topic, asked an answered constructively. We as a community shape our own site and determine how to interpret and enforce those rules for ourselves but...you're not making a compelling argument to change them. You're ranting. And no, rants aren't constructive.

Also your last post was closed by normal users, and both posts have been heavily downvoted by the community, not just moderators. Don't try and make this an "us vs them" thing. I've seen that a lot on Stack Exchange and it's a useless, divisive argument made expressly to attack others. It's not going to win you any arguments or any friends.