Or just be smart: hide power options under power user tab/button/whatever. Not-power-users gets simply design and most useful tools (for them). Power-users gets powerful tools.
The problem is that every user thinks they are a "power user." So if you put a bunch of options behind a screen that says "power users only," the effect is kind of like building a treehouse and then tacking on a sign that says "NO GIRLS ALLOWED" -- the girls will climb the tree just to see what it is you're hiding from them up there.
>The problem is that every user thinks they are a "power user."
That is definitely not true, and is the kind of thing one will only say if one has not actually interacted with ordinary users. Having had a fair amount of experience with teaching ordinary people to use computers, I can say that by far the biggest problem that they have is underestimating their ability to figure things out, while overestimating the damage they are likely to cause if they get something wrong. This is why the most important lesson to teach kids about computers is that as long as you have backups, almost any mistake can be fixed with a clean install.
Long story short, if you put your power user settings under a red tab labeled "Advanced", 99% of the non-power users will never even notice them.
This is the most sage comment I have read here in some time. I constantly have to remind my parents, "Don't worry, the likelihood that you irreparably damage this system by clicking some button one time is approximately 0."
It may sound like a minor detail, but if you specifically select the colour, red (which obviously is not part of your colour scheme), it's almost assured that they won't touch it. And by putting the "advanced" button in your settings page instead of having its own tab(it should open in a new Window preferably), you're almost guaranteed to scare more than 99.99% of the users since you've indirectly hinted at the fact that "if you screw up on this page, we are not responsible, and we know you will almost screw up", without even saying a single word. Design and colour is a very powerful non-direct communication tool.
Of course, along with the normal people, there are exceedingly stupid people for whom you need to have a warning text.
And I thought this was just me... these days I would like to call myself a power user, but I remember back in the days of dial up internet and napster... I'd click the "Advance Options" just so I knew what was there
I never even look at settings if I don't have a specific goal I mind. I just can't be bothered. I often try not to use unusual settings because people will not have anticipated it, and things will break.
There's much, much, much more in being a power user application than just some advanced tools. The whole UI has to be redesigned with different expectations in mind.
