TWJ&W

Did you know that there was a time when people actually read release notes? Not all people read them, but some regular customers did.

Since I became an iPhone user, I’ve started noticing the release notes for updated versions of iPhone apps. The only major software publisher that consistly explains what’s new in a release is… Apple itself.

• Streamlined in-app notifications informing you when a person joins a collaborative document for the first time
• Preserve file format and full quality when adding HEIC photos taken on iPhone or iPad
• On iPad, press and hold the Command key on a connected keyboard to select noncontiguous words, sentences, or paragraphs using a trackpad or mouse

It’s not new that the release notes are an afterthought. Too often, they are written by the developer who has been given the responsibility for actually submitting the software for distribution.

I haven’t been posting. Why? Because I ran into a technical issue that prevented me from connecting to GitHub. Weekend after weekend, I tried to solve it.

I read post after post that claimed to have the fix. None of them helped. I have decent technical skills, but I could not find a fix.

Eventually, I accepted that I was going to have to uninstall (part of) a commercial piece of software. It still took a couple of weeks that get that completely erased from my system.

The most recent time I was considering and being considered for a new technical writing position, I got a surprise. One of the managers mentioned my recent posting on this blog, Technical writers are not helicopters.

That was the first indication I had had that anyone ever read any of this blog.

Even in the smartphone age, writing is still like dropping a stone in a well and waiting to hear the splash. In fact, writing into the void has become more prevalent, at least in terms of the number of people “publishing,” which can mean that fewer people are reading.