Personally, I generally dislike product tours.

On the other hand, I think it's interesting to compare the dislike in these comments (and elsewhere) to "RTFM" culture. What's the primary difference? That you can read the manual or use the product at your discretion? e.g. `ls` doesn't forcefully open the man page when you run it for the first time?

(I'm aware of the goomba fallacy and that these are likely two different groups of people - I still think it's interesting!)

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wffurr 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You nailed the primary difference. If I want to just use the tool I can do that; if I need to learn how to use a complex feature, I can consult the help or do a web search for a how to.

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esafak 2 hours ago | parent [-]

That works if you know the feature exists.

	▲	layer8 33 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The best software help used to have a complete list of all features, with comprehensive explanations of all of them.
	▲	wpm an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That's why UIs that don't bury everything behind inscrutable squiggles and modals are great. First thing I do in a new app or new web service is click all the stuff, try and get a lay of the land and understand the UI metaphors. It's much harder to do if there is a twee, condescending guided tour "hyuck hey there champ didja know the gear icon that says Settings next to it is where you can change some settings?" stopping me from doing that, and names hidden behind hover popovers and crappy monochrome SVGs of....shapes to serve as icons. I am very unlikely to need every part of every tool, app, or service I use. I need to do one thing with it right away, and I need to find my way there and experiment to see how it works. I don't give a shit if I can have it waft my farts if I'm trying to compress a gif or something, the fart-wafter button just needs to be clear so at a time when I go "huh what does this do" I can figure it out non-destructively to see if I'm interested. If you need a big popup saying "We just added the Fart-Wafter! Want to know how to find it?", you've failed, utterly.

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christophilus 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The difference is TFM doesn’t pop up in my face without me asking for it while I’m trying to do something basic.

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ranger207 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, I can read about the parts that I want right now. If I open a video editor to splice two clips together, I don't need to know about input devices. If I want to do that, I can go read the manual for that at that time.

Plus, there's no way I'm going to remember whatever the tour tells me by that time anyway. To actually learn the product you need experience to lock in what the manual says

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collinmcnulty an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s the difference between taking a shower and getting caught out in the rain.

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snackbroken 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The dislike stems from two (and a half) reasons:

1) Push vs pull. As you identified, ls doesn't stop you from doing the thing you wanted to push the man page on you when you don't need/want it. ls just does the thing you ask. man also just does the thing you ask. The product tour is a sign that the developer doesn't understand consent and is trying to get the user to do what the developer wants, not what the user wants.

2) It's infantilizing. The product tour assumes the user doesn't know what they want, and doesn't know how to RTFM to learn how to do the thing they want to do. It treats the user as having no agency.

2.5) It's a tacit admission that TFM sucks and R-ing it isn't a productive use of your time.