Be Patient

Take knee-jerk reactions with a grain of salt

The Flickr redesign that came with last year's gamma launch moved members' photo sets from the left side of the screen to the right, a change Champ says was met with the initial response of, "Oh my god, sets have moved, they're on the wrong side, it's all wrong, wrong, wrong." Within a few weeks, however, users seemed to adjust to the changes, and she started getting feedback complimenting the site's new ease of use. Champ says any online community could benefit by taking feedback from the first 48 hours with a heavy pinch of sodium. "Anything that is new and different can be difficult for some people," she says, so gut reactions can't always be trusted. "The feedback you get over the first two weeks is less reactionary and a lot more thoughtful."