Why is Konfabulator 'Pretty?'

[Marielle Lange]

Hi Heather,

I always enjoy reading you on this list.


> Over Time. We cannot, much though we would like to, do everything  
> for everybody, all at once.
>

As you are probably aware, we all try on this list to minimize the  
amount of criticisms and to channel them when they occur. In reaction  
to such criticisms, it has often been reminded on this list that the  
most important aspects (bug  chasing, documentation diversification,  
robustness) are well taken care of, that though not perfect yet (and  
what is), the product is evolving very positively and at good speed.  
Personally, by experience I know it is not a good idea, as a  
customer, to start to think too  much about what the company should  
be doing and to get nagged by what is not working 100% yet. I am in a  
merrier mood when I am happy about the product I use. If something  
nags me, personally, I prefer to focus on what I can do to help fix  
it and do it. This seems to be the attitude of many members of this  
list.

But to nag and complain from time to time is what we are expected do  
as customers. You have your interests as a company and I believe that  
most of us respect that. But, it remains that our interests as  
consumers are not always the same as your interests as a company. Our  
interests are to pressure you to give us the best and to nag you when  
we don't have it yet. That said, as customers, given the cost of  
switching if revolution collapsed, it is clear that it is in our  
interest is to help you prosper and to encourage rather than nag.


> We must be doing something right however, since we are in fact  
> still here, and orders of magnitude bigger than we were even a year  
> ago,
>

No question, the product is great. It's well deserved.

The criticism that had been expressed against the management comes  
from the fact that some of us believe that more could be done to get  
persons discover how great revolution is. We are zealots, we would  
like everybody in the world to get a chance to discover this. And we  
get frustrated because you don't seem to do enough in that area. Of  
course, it is not difficult to understand why. This has been  
discussed recently. You have two products for two different markets.  
We educators/hobbyists would like dreamcard to be distributed for  
free across the world. Professionals like Richard, Chipp and Ken and  
others are worried about keeping their competitive advantage and have  
the tool remain expensive and relatively unknown (at the very least  
maintain the existence of a cost of switching via the license fee and  
time to learn).

The main issue then, is that we don't really know what you are trying  
to do. No problem with taking no as an answer. Frustrating on the  
moment, but that doesn't last long. What is more difficult is  
receiving answers like "it would be really great for you to help"...  
but then with no information *at all* about what your strategy is. I  
am a person to easily propose my help, but I have learned to be  
careful about not to impose it. I am not sure I am always successful,  
but I do my best to do my stuff and I expect nothing in return other  
than the benefits (emotional or others) it brings me. The reason  
frustration is expressed within the education community is that when  
we proposed our help, the answer we got was "yes, please do"... but  
then doesn't really make it possible for us to help. I am only a  
human, I get frustrated in such contexts. You let us guess a lot  
about what we could do to help in ways that would be useful both to  
you and to us (i.e., not redundant with something that revolution is  
already doing).

That's with respect to that : (1) that we have said that in the past  
we have proposed help but we experienced communication difficulties  
(these communication difficulties sometimes caused by an absence of  
any reply -- to this I should add I have always received a prompt  
reply from you) and (2) that we have no replied to a fairly new user  
that his ideas about what could be done to help revolution become  
more visible were great but by experience best was not to invest too  
much energy in it without explicit encouragements from RunRev Ltd.  
Many of us, as you know, are ready to help. But for this help to be  
efficient, we need somebody from your team tell us how we can be  
useful. As long as it doesn't happen, we will discourage fellow  
members of the community to spend too much energy in anything  
described as having for primary goal to help *you*, runrev ltd to  
become more visible. I believe you can understand that it is in the  
best interest of everybody, it's not good to encourage persons to  
follow a road that will cause frustrations on both sides. Apologizes  
if our words suggested that we believe you don't care. I can speak  
for myself and I believe that's the same for Judy, that's not what we  
tried to imply.


> So be of good cheer! You all are doing your bit, rest assured that  
> we are doing ours, even if you don't always see it.
>

I have no intention to offend you when saying so but honestly, I have  
no idea of what you have been up to over the last year that  
contributed to these sales.  I know of the generosity and talent of  
the persons on this list. I know that many members have commented  
that it was what won them to revolution. I know of the huge success  
of the scripting conferences, both in terms of quality of content and  
quality of interactions. I know of the quality of participation on  
this list of persons like Richard, Eric, Jacque, Sarah, Ken, Xavier,  
Alex and many many others. I know that I posted some information  
about revolution on very many forums/fora and mailing lists about  
education or e-learning. I know of the traffic on my own website. All  
that, I know but most of what you have done over the last year that  
may have contributed to this rapid increase in sales, I have little  
knowledge of. That was the point Dan was making. More of your  
presence on this list would help us better realize all what you do  
for this community and how much you care about its member, how much  
you share many of our values. That would help prevent the little red  
devil on top of our head whistling in our ear that we are in part  
responsible for this success. Hopefully, when this happens for me,  
the little angel is prompt to remind me that if this community is so  
good to be in also because we have a great product to unite us and  
because the managers of this product and this list let it be so or  
even encourage, in many ways, to keep a positive attitude.

In that context, I thank you for your two recent emails. Even when  
frustrated, let's try to maintain a positive and productive attitude.


> its ten years since this company got started,
>

Hurrah! Happy Birthday... Many many happy returns.


> Viva la Revolution! and Merry Christmas too.
>

A bit early (we just had St Nicolas in my country) but Merry  
Christmas to you, the runrev team, and the runrev users.

Marielle

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--------
Marielle Lange (PhD),  Psycholinguist

Alternative emails: mlange at blueyonder.co.uk, M.Lange at ed.ac.uk
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