Enthusiasts love fiddling with things. They love things with lots of options and settings and being able to configure everything to their liking, or even just to try a different setup even if it’s impractical. Just having the ability to spend hours twiddling with preferences and themes makes them happy.

Enthusiasts also tend to write articles and blog and tweet about what they love. When an ordinary person needs advice on what blogging software to use or what camera to buy, they usually end up talking to an enthusiast because they seem to know everything about the topic.

This is why so many blogs run WordPress on their own sites when they only need something like Tumblr. This is why people end up buying the latest Android phone instead of an iPhone. This is why people get a DSLR camera, instead of a simple point-and-shoot.

The problem is that these people don’t know how to set up WordPress and update it, so it gets hacked by spammers. They constantly have to fiddle with the settings on their Android phone so their battery doesn’t die. And they end up using their DSLR as a point-and-shoot because they don’t know how to control the depth of field and shutter speed and other settings.

There’s nothing wrong with being an enthusiast. There are times when I just want to play with the settings for half an hour to see what it can do. The problem comes when they assume that everyone else should be using the same thing they’re using. The assumption is that their choices are the right ones and anyone else who made different choices is an idiot.

And the enthusiasts are vocal. They’re the ones who will leave a one-star review for your app in the App Store because it doesn’t have a million preference settings and doesn’t work on their jailbroken iPhone. They’re the ones who will blog that your app sucks because you removed a feature that 1% of your users ever used.

Enthusiasts also the ones who will tell everyone about how great your app is after you add a feature they’ve been asking for. They also will spend a lot of money on what they love, and recommend your product or app to everyone who will also spend money. It’s a two-edged sword, and you have find a balance between pleasing the silent but large group of ordinary people and small but vocal group of enthusiasts.