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I've run into a few cases in which bug reports were closed as where I really feel that the design process should be rethought.

Is there a way to say, I understand you think this is not a bug but I think you should reconsider? After all Jeff keeps saying he was against meta till he saw the light; how can we shine the light in his eyes?

I'm guessing that removing the tag is inappropriate...

A prime example of this is Migrated questions lose their accepted answers. I had some questions migrated from SO and haven't followed up on them since; why do they show up as having no accepted answer? It makes no kind of sense.

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I despise the idea of using terms like status-by-design and status-declined in front of the user (you know, US!). This really flies in the face of everything that good customer service is about. Could you imagine sending food back at a restaurant and having the chef come out and say "it's supposed to taste like that, just eat it."

While there is no actual appeals process, I never hesitate to vote/answer/comment on declined feature requests. Perhaps if enough momentum builds Jeff will reconsider.

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    +1 cough meta.stackexchange.com/questions/915/… cough – Jon Seigel Apr 29 '10 at 15:41
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    Who is the better chef, the one saying "this is the way I cook, if you don't like it, get lost", or the one lying in your face about how valuable your feedback is and that it will most certainly be taken into consideration, while absolutely zero will ever happen? I'd much rather have the honest feedback. – Pekka Apr 29 '10 at 15:57
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    @Pekka - only one of those chefs will remain in business. – user27414 Apr 29 '10 at 16:35
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    @Jon B I don't mean the chef saying literally "get lost." There are friendly ways to do that. I'm just saying, to me, feedback on feature requests is part of running a transparent, user-oriented community. Would you really prefer inaction (or "we'll think about it") to an honest status-declined when in fact it has internally been declined? – Pekka Apr 29 '10 at 16:44
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    @Pekka - it doesn't have to be status-maybe or status-thank-you-your-call-is-important-to-us. My point is that simply stamping status-declined on something is like saying status-bite-me. Especially on issues like the one Jon Seigel linked to, where there is overwhelming community support. It would be nice if there was a way the SO team could respond more diplomatically to these. – user27414 Apr 29 '10 at 16:50
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    @Jon B now that I second completely. A bit more explaining why something gets declined, and a display of some appreciation (or consideration) for the energy put into all these feature requests would do well, absolutely. I thought you meant the act of declining requests in itself. – Pekka Apr 29 '10 at 17:04
  • I doubt voting up closed (or resolved) questions has any affect, my guess is they only look at questions with no resolution tags. – Motti Apr 29 '10 at 17:38
  • "Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It's about saying NO to all but the most crucial features" codinghorror.com/blog/2004/10/just-say-no.html – Jeff Atwood May 1 '10 at 10:36
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    I also think the type of users who have the self esteem to handle someone saying no to them like an adult, are HEALTHIER users. They understand (constructive) criticism and are not internalizing every request they make. Those users who are driven away by the occasional "no" are not the kind of users you want anyway. – Jeff Atwood May 1 '10 at 10:37
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    @Jeff - Are we talking about software development and users, or business and customers? I'm not advocating saying "yes" to everything, I'm suggesting a more customer service-like attitude. Aside from the peer review nature of SO, people are not here to receive constructive criticism from you. You are receiving constructive criticism from US. A little grace and humility would be appropriate. – user27414 May 1 '10 at 11:05
  • @jon There are no "customers"! There are only peer community members. You can say no to me, I can say no to you. Or we can work together. – Jeff Atwood May 1 '10 at 13:37
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    @Jeff - I'm disappointed and surprised to hear that that's your attitude about your users. As much as I would love to have a more in depth discussion about the business of running a site like this, this isn't the right place so I'll just stop here. – user27414 May 1 '10 at 14:39
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You can "appeal" by opening a feature request to change the existing design.

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    But such a request has already been closed, won't the new one be closed as duplicate the minute it's opened? – Motti Apr 29 '10 at 17:39
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    @Motti: Bug reports are closed as by-design. A feature request is not the same as a bug report. Now if a feature request is status-declined, that's different. In that case, there's no real appeal possible. – waiwai933 Apr 29 '10 at 23:31
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No

I mean, you can bring the topic up here on Meta, but Jeff is unlikely to change his mind unless you bring a pretty compelling case.

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I had some questions migrated from SO and haven't followed up on them since; why do they show up as having no accepted answer? It makes no kind of sense.

Ok, so why don't you associate your account, retain ownership of the questions, and accept an answer?

What's stopping you from fixing it?

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    -1 because you're answering the question he referenced, not the question he was asking (which involved appealing status-declined). – user27414 May 1 '10 at 14:40
  • @jonb I actually answered both.. go check! – Jeff Atwood May 1 '10 at 19:47
  • I did associate my account, however I don't frequent meta very much (my guess is that I'm in the majority) and didn't follow up on my migrated answers (which I didn't know where migrated). I think the data which would tell us if this "by design" feature is the correct behaviour would be to look at the migrated questions (which had accepted answers) and see how many of them 1) Have no accepted answer 2) Have the same accepted answer as they had in the original site 3) Have an accepted answer different from the original site. If #3 outweighs the other two then it's the correct decision. – Motti May 2 '10 at 7:07

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