Unauthoritative Pronouncements

Yesterday morning I typed up a little post agreeing with Marco Arment about many of his feelings regarding Apple Music. Specifically, the lack of specificity about what was setting off those feelings. It’s not really required that people cite every little annoyance they’ve had with Apple software in order to express their displeasure.

One part of it concerned someone telling me to file a Radar (Apple’s bug tracker). I did, but I whined about how I don’t really feel like that’s called for when it comes to end users (me) picking up release software Apple ships and promotes for public consumption (Apple Music). The Radar process itself is odd, go poke around if you’ve never filed one before, and you don’t really have any idea if you’ve filed it correctly, or if anyone will check it out. Someone may check it out in six months and close it. It’s opaque.

Jason Snell saw my post and replied.

@joesteel I'm getting really tired of "file a bug ticket" being the default response to criticism of Apple UI problems.

— Jason Snell (@jsnell) July 27, 2015

Things escalated quickly with an ensuing conversation involving many people, including Michael Jurewitz, who works at Apple and is certainly in a capacity to speak about the process.

@jsnell @iTod @joesteel requests to file radars can often feel dismissive, but that’s not the goal. Outside reports are absolutely important

— Michael Jurewitz (@Jury) July 27, 2015

@jsnell @iTod @joesteel Radar or GTFO was tongue in cheek and of an era. The main takeaway was getting feedback/problems properly to us.

— Michael Jurewitz (@Jury) July 27, 2015

There were many others that saw what Snell and Jurewitz were talking about and weighed in on it.

At the end of the day, I’m not sure if it’s any clearer what will happen with the Radar I filed, or any future Radars I might file, but I do feel a little better knowing that it’s not completely futile if I elect to do so. It does seem that there’s a general agreement that it’s not a requirement for end users to file one in order to express unhappiness, or disappointment. Which is probably good, since that’s all I really bring to the table.

Anyway, here’s a pug filled with ennui: