Why are users so fond of complaining?

I have been actively involved in the GNOME project for a long time. Over the years, I've seen and heard a lot of criticism and praise, but there's one I've never figured out. If a feature in your project is deleted, someone will always complain. Sometimes a feature is replaced by a better scheme, sometimes this function is improved, sometimes it is completely deleted.

In my opinion, there is always enough reason behind every adjustment. However, people are complaining. And these gnome enthusiasts will write blogs, add comments to Bugtrackers, and show their objections in the mailing list. People always complain. Oh, miss before, everything is better than now, before those beautiful features are also .... People just keep complaining.

Every once in a while, another function is replaced, improved or deleted, and the scene goes over and over again. We are accused of being a user interface Nazi, a user who was a fool's developer, who didn't listen to the user's views, or any other criticism like this. No, I'm not going to list the links to these words.

I recently read a chapter in the monarchy, written by Machiavelli 500 years ago. It basically sums up some strategies for acquiring, stabilizing and strengthening power in a brutal political environment. This is not only a very interesting reading, but there is a very good topic in the article called People should avoid being despised and hated. One of the following clips is wonderful:

Most people will be happy with their lives unless their property or honor is touched. --Machiavelli

This and the main contents of this chapter basically tell you the idea that you will be safe only if you don't take anything from people and disturb them. Interestingly, this principle applies not only to material possessions but also to conceptual property. So when we go back and look at the comments of the unhappy users, we find that they are basically telling you that they are not happy that we took what they had before. What's even more interesting is that they don't care if it's replaced by something better, or if it's the first thing that's actually wrong.

I also found an excellent explanation in Robert B. Siodini's "influence" book, which he summed up as a scarcity principle.

As opportunities become more scarce, we are losing our freedom, and we hate to lose the freedom we had. Whether the freedom of choice is limited or threatened, the need to defend freedom makes us crave them more than ever. So, when scarcity is more serious--or anything else--that prevents us from using some of them before, we will revolt by making a wish or trying to occupy more than before. --Robert B. Siodini

Because I understood why people reacted this way, I finally smiled at the back of my chair and read these interesting comments while eating popcorn.

On why removing features makes arranges unhappy