User-driven software quality labelling

Background – enraged software users to form a new political party? In his Circuits column of February 28, 2002, David Pogue of The New York Times reported about the several hundred emails he had received in response to an earlier column about "Lousy tech support". He quotes 12 of them, enraged users who testify about: simple tasks that fail, online help that does not help, online help numbers that get erased by software companies being drowned in complaints, and the Boston Tea Party as a model for how a new "support party" may be formed. David Pogue sums up his feeling with these words: "Clearly, there is enough anger in these messages to merit a Web site, a book, a political party. Just tell me where to sign."