How Do We Stay Informed?

[GoremanX]

nono, we're totally wrong.

Mr. 1-post extraordinaire "silvershoes" has made it very clear that anyone who asks for this is a spoonfed crybaby

And official beta-tester "afx" says it's useless for us to be kept up to date on current development, there's no purpose to it

I guess I'll go watch that one webinar... again.

[afx]

nAnd official beta-tester "afx" says it's useless for us to be kept up to date on current development, there's no purpose to it

I never said that.

I said it would have been useless to know about the acquisition beforehand because it would not have changed a thing for the user.
But you conveniently keep on ignoring that because it does not fit your view of the world.
Just like you ignore that I said communication could be better.

cheers
afx

[n00b]

Now, please don't kill (me) the messenger
- but words from Corel on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/CorelAfterShot ... 7488174243
https://www.facebook.com/CorelAfterShotPro

Sounds as if Corel (Jeff Stephens) is working on tutorials - and are also well aware of the value of communication, dialogue, feedback, bugreports etc.

I hope so. Guess I am some kind of "Software as a relation" type of person

[GoremanX]

I never said that.

I said it would have been useless to know about the acquisition beforehand because it would not have changed a thing for the user.
But you conveniently keep on ignoring that because it does not fit your view of the world.
Just like you ignore that I said communication could be better.

I didn't ignore it, your statement just makes no sense.

I would've loved to know that Bibble was still being seriously worked on and wasn't being abandoned (as many Bibble users, including myself suspected).

It would've been great to know that an upcoming version of the software was going to completely rework the way colours are rendered.

It would've been very useful to know that the catalog feature was going to be crippled and reworked from scratch, then I would've stopped using it in the way I did, which is incompatible with the new catalog. All my previous efforts at maintaining my catalogs turned out to be a waste of time.

It also would've been handy to know that existing XMPs processed in Bibble would no longer look the same in AfterShot. Then I would've been creating TIF files of all final pictures as they were edited, rather than having to wade manually through my immense collection and trying to turn each edited file into a TIF in Bibble before I go and accidentally ruin the XMP with AfterShot. This has been wasting endless hours of my time, and I'm still not done.

Your claim that "it wouldn't have made any difference" is ludicrous. That statement sounds more like the kind of propaganda that a corporate suit would chant to his minions in hopes that they'd believe it and spread it to the customers.

The point is, if the way customers were handled during the acquisition is indicative of the way we're to be treated in the future, then my hope for an interactive Corel-led AfterShot Pro community seems rather bleak

...I wonder what names the ubiquitous "silvershoes" is saying about me in his head now... that sure was tactful, signing up for one single post just to call me names.

[GoremanX]

Now, please don't kill (me) the messenger
- but words from Corel on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/CorelAfterShot ... 7488174243
https://www.facebook.com/CorelAfterShotPro

Why would I shoot someone who brings good news? It may seem like I'm ranting for the sake of ranting, but I'm legitimately interested in seeing Corel do these types of things. The subject of this thread isn't "Why do corporations suck at keeping us informed?", it's "How Do We Stay Informed?"

I guess being told ludicrous things like "a preannouncement would not have changed anything", and being called a spoonfed crybaby, might have coloured my responses a bit.

[marbly]

GoremanX, I agree with you.

[n00b]

Why would I shoot someone who brings good news?

You never know what happens when you enter a thread like this

I also consider the signals from Corel good news, since I am very much in favor of companies (and government agencies and other organizations) with an open and networked approach. It should go beyond communication, focus groups etc in the classic sense, and be about dialogue with users, and the open, agile, “fail faster” etc. way of working, resulting in better products. That's why I posted the “Keep coding, but let the evangelism and dialogue begin!” thing on Facebook, with high and positive expectations to Corel.

[pesto126]

Yeah.. well.. the proof will be in the pudding. It's one thing or a company to talk about communicating.. quite another for it to follow through. there was a lot of backlash when Corel took over PSP from JASC who ran a wonderful forum with lots of coporate involvement... we all know where that went.

[afx]

IIt would've been great to know that an upcoming version of the software was going to completely rework the way colours are rendered.

In what sense would that help? Only when you have it in your hands to check it out then you can judge the impact. Any pre-announcement would just lead to to a henhouse of chaos with speculation going wild.

It would've been very useful to know that the catalog feature was going to be crippled and reworked from scratch, then I would've stopped using it in the way I did, which is incompatible with the new catalog. All my previous efforts at maintaining my catalogs turned out to be a waste of time.

Anyone with a working experience of DAMs always maintained that the Bibble catalaogs are not prodction ready, there where warnings all over the place, already years ago....

It also would've been handy to know that existing XMPs processed in Bibble would no longer look the same in AfterShot. Then I would've been creating TIF files of all final pictures as they were edited, rather than having to wade manually through my immense collection and trying to turn each edited file into a TIF in Bibble before I go and accidentally ruin the XMP with AfterShot. This has been wasting endless hours of my time, and I'm still not done.

So you would have done that before having tried AS? Not plausible.
If you need oodles of time for this, then your process is flawed.
If you have B5 catalogs, why not just it the recursive view and send it all to a queue?
If you now tell me you messed up your B5 XMPs on your catalogs, then I have to question your testing methodology. One does not blindly apply a new program to existing data without having it tested properly first on a test data set. Just basic IT practices.

Your claim that "it wouldn't have made any difference" is ludicrous. That statement sounds more like the kind of propaganda that a corporate suit would chant to his minions in hopes that they'd believe it and spread it to the customers.

It is just applying logic.
None of your issues would have been fixed or mitigated by knowing beforehand.

The work that needs to be done is still the same and can only be done properly after having worked with AS, not after some silly announcement.

cheers
afx

[KeithR]

IIt would've been great to know that an upcoming version of the software was going to completely rework the way colours are rendered.

Any pre-announcement would just lead to to a henhouse of chaos with speculation going wild.

No. As has been stated time and time again on the Bibble board, it's the lack of pre-announcements and other official information that generates speculation.

[GoremanX]

IIt would've been great to know that an upcoming version of the software was going to completely rework the way colours are rendered.

...Any pre-announcement would just lead to to a henhouse of chaos with speculation going wild...

wow... that right there explains everything about your point of view. The fact that you really believe that makes any further arguing pointless. The previous poster said it better than I could.

[tundraquad]

...Any pre-announcement would just lead to to a henhouse of chaos with speculation going wild.
afx

I agree.
Look at for instance "nikonrumors.com, .net ...". They speculate on a body, (even giving some specs), 2 to 3 years before the Mfr makes the announcement (by then the technology has changed). And even when Nikon makes an annoucement, the product will be actually available on the shelve with a 6-8 month delay.
How helpful can it be for the consumer?
My definition of "great communication" is when a business listen to and care for the needs of the consumer; work on improving the product according to these feedbacks (forums being a great source of feedbacks); and eventually, make an announcement saying that an update is available and reliable.
At the end, every one should be happy.

Cheerio

[tomsi42]

No. As has been stated time and time again on the Bibble board, it's the lack of pre-announcements and other official information that generates speculation.

I hear that a lot; but is that really true?

It seems to me that no matter what the manufacturer does, there will be useless noise and speculations.

If Corel wants to change, they should look at how Real Software handle releases. RS make a development tool - RealBasic. They release every 90 days* (approx.) and the new featured that are finished (and the bugs that are fixed) at that point are delivered; the stuff that missed the release will have to wait. They do sometime deliver a point release if a serious bug is found after a major release. These point releases show up a week or two after delivery. They also have a public feature request/issue tracker, so it is easy to see what's going on.

*) I suspect they use an agile development process with scrums and sprints. It's the only way to be consistent on a schedule like that (as far as I know).

[GoremanX]

Look at for instance "nikonrumors.com, .net ...". They speculate on a body, (even giving some specs), 2 to 3 years before the Mfr makes the announcement

Wow, that's completely backwards... nikonrumors makes guesses and speculations in the absence of official information. It's the epitome of the kind of behaviour that I'm describing, and precisely the type of stuff that keeping customers informed prevents.

[pesto126]

Look at for instance "nikonrumors.com, .net ...". They speculate on a body, (even giving some specs), 2 to 3 years before the Mfr makes the announcement

Nikonrumors.com and the like are not owned/run by NIKON! There is a HUGE difference in discussing websites run by the public versus sites owned/run by the developers...