Respecting Your Fanbase

I'm not sure what got me into thinking about posting about this, although probobly influenced by a small few here that I have seen have very little or no respect for their customers/fanbase.

I'm interested in how some of your mentalities about your customers and fans are...

For me, fans and customers have been my fuel since the beginning. Because of this I try to respect them following a few of my own rules (despite some skitso, overly obsessed and sometimes high-grade shortbus material).

1. Ask: I ask my customers and fans what they like, what is most important to them in my software.
2. Truth: An amazing product or update doesn't always come out exactly as intended, especially on an uneducated (which is always the case) guess for a date release. You don't know when your coding interest fluctuates or flatlines for a while, nor do you know what problems you will run into.
However, GIVE THEM A DATE. "It will be done when it's done", is by far the biggest load of garbage you can throw at your fanbase, and although I can't say I have never released that way in the past, it isn't fair to them. Tell them the amount of man power you have, tell them almost everything you can about what is going on with development. People LOVE several small updates every week, as opposed to one larger update every few months. They will lose interest if you pull crap like that, and they should.
3. Patience: For anyone who deals with support, you are fully aware of people requesting help on things such as something they didn't read well enough to understand, something they didn't even look into for a minute, or just to straight out complain immaturely.

I have found in these cases, it's better to explain to them both sides of the issue, detailed and certainly not condescending. All the time I get frustrated and want to tell people, "You're wasting my time, piss off" or even exploit their lack of logic over the internet. Instead, when you continue to show innocence and continue to give mature support, it usually shows them they came by it wrong.
So many occasions I have done this and recieved apologies, and almost every time after, the support requests were done by these people in a much better manner, since usually the previous request was a test against you. Don't fail it; just because these people 'play' games, and we 'develop' games, doesn't make them any less complex than you. Mostly, they just don't understand the work, time and effort it can take, so explain it to them.

I develop by several other personal rules as well for my community, but this post isn't a guide, it's a reference and I would like to see what some of the rules you develop by for your fanbase, and hopefully a small bit of arrogance can travel to the dark side of the moon.

Time

Excellent post.
I'd have to agree - I usually try to put myself in their shoes - to see things their way. It helps to get problems resolved quickly and efficiently.

Good support is very important to me.

What point is there putting a product out there if you aren't going to help people who want to use it? I certainly don't believe in the "you should thank me for being so generous and letting you use this" mind-set. People like that should keep their toys and themselves locked away in their room.

I've found most people tend to appreciate good support, and are more likely to be positive towards you when you release your next product.
Although I'm often a tad surprised by the reactions I get when I fix a bug and post a new release within an hour or so of the issue being pointed out. I'm actually more disappointed (if not a little embarrassed) usually that I've released something which had a bug in it at all.

At the end of the day, I give out, support wise, what I would expect from others... (I know, I live in my own fantasy world of dogs, bones and the ever falling snow).

Actually Brucey, you are a model developer in my eyes. I look up to your support and dedication.

I don't trust fans. Anyone who obsesses over software is not mentally stable, and should be avoided at all costs. Paying customers deserve what they pay for, no more, no less.

I'd hire him in a heart beat, despite not generally being a fan of the overtly altruistic.

I think I would agree not all customers are angels and certainly the `customer is always right` paradigm is junk. Customers are not always right. It's a matter of how you treat them when they think that way.

Everyone is deserving of good treatment and good open sharing about what is going on with your products/development, whether they act like it or think like it at all. Being consistent in that way, despite what kind of people they are, is the honesty that will convert many of the difficult ones to the light side, as Retimer pointed out.

I think you have a point, FlameDuck, about fans. Idol worship is a big distortion and not really to be encouraged.
It's more important for you to guide people to be able to answer their own questions and solve their own problems and overcome their own issues than to set up a dependent relationship where they dote on you or can't live without you. Guide them to find their own way. Really, the way you would treat a customer after software is sold, should be integrated into the software itself. Your software should treat the user with respect and consistent honesty and openness and should guide and help them thoroughly when they need it. Stingy mean limited lacking software is just a reflection of what you think of the people who buy it.