My post today would have been kind of harsh and extremely negative (it probably still will be to a great extent …) but then I received a nice comment from Ice Kyoob which kind of ameliorated how I was feeling till then. Since I put up the new build of Scope (which I think I mentioned was not even a beta …) what I’ve received have been mostly what I’d term complaints. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against bug reports or even suggestions for improvements but when I get feature requests with not a hint of a request – they sound more like demands as if I owed something to them because they used my software – in them, I do find myself getting grumpier by the minute. Maybe I’m taking this the wrong way, maybe the writers did intend their comments to be requests and not demands, but from where I’m sitting, they sure don’t sound like requests.
The other day I noticed that NetCaptor (an app a lot of users compare against Scope – and you can’t blame them since I started work on Scope because I wanted a free alternative to NetCaptor) is now shareware instead of Adware. While I’ve always been for free software, I find myself agreeing with their decision – who wants to put up with this kind of aggravation for doing something for free? Now this does not mean that I intend to make my apps shareware because I still believe in free software for people but before I recieved Ice Kyoob’s nice comments, I was thinking seriously of shutting down the public distribution of my apps – I wanted to let my friends, the ones who do contribute in some way or another to the apps that I create, have access to my apps but not to the general (generally ungrateful and critical) public. Now I think that might have been a bit of a drastic measure but I still feel that people on the Internet seem to take, take and take even more wherever they can instead of giving a little bit back as well … You know, it doesn’t have to be money or things – a word of appreciation or even a bit of consideration in how you word things might be enough …
But enough of that – I did have a kind of nice (or rather funny) experience today … I went to the local KMart early in the morning since I was out of milk and while there, I decided to browse through the games section. There was this lady who was trying to buy a gaming console for her children and the store clerk seemed either not to know too much about the subject or deliberately misleading her (or not telling her the entire truth …) so that she would buy a PlayStation2 (which they had a few in stock …). I don’t normally like intruding on other people’s conversations but when I heard him telling her something or other about the PlayStation2’s built-in modem and about how the PlayStation2 was actually as good as the XBox or the GameCube (they were just “udpated” according to him :p), I couldn’t stand it any longer and jumped into the conversation <vbg> I guess my pitch was a bit slanted towards the XBox but I do honestly believe that out of the current crop of consoles, the XBox stands above the rest – except for the dearth of games for it (but then again, the GameCube suffers from the same phenomenon …) The upshot of it was that the lady walked out of the KMart saying that she wanted to get an XBox for her kids and the store clerk went off giving me a dirty look <vbg>
fahim, you make great free software. In my opinion what makes it so great is the speed of your feedback regarding the features. That doesn’t mean how fast you implement it to the program, instead how quick and direct a suggestion can be brought to the programers attention. sorry for the bad english.
thanks antd take care.
Fahim, d onot underestimate the silent mass! Probably quite a number of users, like me, is using your apps with deep gratitude over your work, but did not manifest themselves yet because they feel they don’t have the knowledge to bring something new or usable.
You’re right in pointing out that a “thank you”note would be nice, however… ;o)
In my experience, it’s always the complaining ones you hear the most. After all, don’t we all rant over delayed trains, but say nothing about the onse arriving on time?
I personnally think you do a great job, and am really grateful for that. Do not let the pestering ones among your users discourage you!
With best regards