"I would value your views" rant

[bunn]

It's your dratted website. I know nothing about Wire EDM or shims. Frankly, I don't care if all the shims in the world fall into a black hole and are never seen again. I don't know if your customers want their shims displayed horizontally or vertically, nor do I really care if they find your rightbar case studies more compelling if they are italicised rather than bold.

JUST MAKE YOUR MIND UP!!!

I suppose it is nice to be listened to, but sometimes it is also nice to be given definite instructions...

Comments

[chainmailmaiden]

I just had to Google 'shims' after reading this, as I too had no idea what they are. I'm still not entirely sure, though 'bits of metal' would seem to be about right, although one site did offer them in non-metallic materials too just to confuse me.

I suspect the people who know about shims and Wire EDMs (whatever they are) and visit websites to purchase them, would be exactly the type to let you know (probably in a very nasal tone of voice) that you have displayed them upside down or back to front.

Guidance from the experts would not seem to be an unreasonable request.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

A shim is basically just a thin bit of something you stick in to make something else fit properly.

I'm surprised that you might want to look at them a particular way up.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's not so much the orientation of the individual shim. It's more: should it be : shim shim shim shim
or
shim
shim
shim
shim

Actually, it won't just be shims, it will be all sorts of other metal cutout things. I just find the word 'shim' amusing (and easy to pronounce, unlike, say, Microfluidic Components).

Really the problem here is getting myself to care about what could be described as the Shim-Buying Audience. I guess someone has to care about shims, but it just doesn't seem that compelling a subject! (It's better than oil trading though. There is no subject that is more boring than Oil Trading to write about.)

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Use Ladyofastolat's "second thoughts" test: if stuck between two piles of hay, make an absolute, irrevocable decision to plump for one of them. If you then think "I wish I'd gone for the other, but it's too late now" then change your mind. If you don't, don't.

In this case, put the shims in whatever direction comes to hand, dress it up with some fake jargon to justify why that is the only feasible way to go, and see what happens. If they don't have strong views, then your jargon should put them off complaining. If they really object they'll say so, at which point you can claim some brownie points for overcoming your straw men.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm going to just template something out for them. Problem is I know that they will then look at it for 2 weeks then come back and ask for something else!

Still, they are paying by the hour, so...

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Frankly I'm surprised someone wants a website about shims, usually in my experience they're made up of some 'stuff' laying around unused, eg creatively adapted packing/oddments.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not just shims. They do meshes and filters and scalpels and springs and things as well.

I believe they would like to be the people that, say, Ford will call if they need a million shims for the new Focus or something like that (actually, probably not actually Ford. Probably the people that Ford called to order half a million windscreen wiper motors would call them to order a million shims. Or something like that).