Last night I posted a link outlining my annoyance with being bothered by apps that prompt—some would say nag—users to “Rate the App.” I received quite a few tweets and emails from developers explaining why they do it.

For instance, these tweets from Wil Shipley, a developer I have a lot of respect for:

We got REALLY boned with negative reviews until we added a “please rate” pane, which I hated having to do.

Went from 3-ish stars to 4.75-ish stars in one week, though. That’s life or death for a company like mine.

As long as the App Store has this much power, and ratings especially, we need to encourage positive reviews.

I think what bothers me is that the popup reminder to rate the app takes me away from what I’m trying to do. And if I do rate the app, it continues to ask me to rate the app. That’s annoying.

There has to be a better solution from Apple to encourage users to rate apps that works for everyone. Users should rate apps and give feedback to the developers so they can make the app better for everyone.

As with most things in life, there are two sides to every story.