A basic value that everyone seems to agree on is respect. How this is defined may vary from person to person, but the notion of its importance i universal (as far as humanly possible, at least). No one wants to spend time with people who constantly are being disrespectful, and to show a real lack of respect just once could put a real dent in a relationship.
Why then, do companies, services and applications continuously disregard this all-important value?
Just the other week, Last.fm used its monopoly-like status to force users to pay. It’s not about the money - it’s about only charging users in certain countries. Last.fm may have its reasons, but the message they’re sending is that international users are worth less. It’s also about the fact that users already are a source of revenue. By contributing their music habits - scrobbling - users provide Last.fm with massive quantities of data, to sell to the highest bidder(s). (I actually deleted my Last.fm account as a protest.)
On an even grander scale, entertainment companies continue to treat their customers as criminals by using onerous DRM schemes. See the Spore fiasco. Or the Sony CD protection scandal. Or the non-playable BioShock. Or the… you get the idea.
The idea of respect also extends to user interfaces. Every time you force someone to go through an arduous sign-up process, present crappy error messages (as seen on The Daily WTF), or overload your site with ads, you are being disrespectful.
In the long run, every form of dissrespect will cause frustration, badwill and a lost customer/user/friend. Don’t let this happen.
