On the Democratic Operation of Bugzilla

[Thomas McGrath III]

No comment about how you should be slapped.

I do think that using the bug reporting is an optional thing and that  
you are not required to do so and that REV does not 'rely' on it as  
much as giving the users a voice in it. I wish Office would do this  
or Adobe.

Tom

On Feb 23, 2006, at 3:13 PM, Garrett Hylltun wrote:

>
> On Feb 23, 2006, at 11:07 AM, Dan Shafer wrote:
>
>> This provided me with an opportunity to say something I've been
>> meaning to say for some time but never had a "trigger" for.
>
> Ditto!
>
> Ok, so I spent all this money for Rev, and I would expect that any  
> bug report sent to them would be taken seriously and that it would  
> be actively followed up by the company.  I can understand setting  
> priorities depending on the severity of the bug, but having the  
> users rate and vote?  I thought I was purchasing a product, not  
> getting married to a second wife!  Bugzilla seems like it relies  
> far too much on the users and not enough on the company.  Users  
> should not have to do such things, especially after spending this  
> much money on the product.  It's almost absurd, more so if just  
> because a bug is not rated hight or voted on by anyone else, then  
> is that to say that it may get completely ignored?
>
> So it seems this is the scenario;  Pay hefty price for Rev, pay  
> hefty price for updates?!/upgrades, Pay heavy for extras, and make  
> the users who paid for the product work for you by making them  
> search out all the bugs, post them for you, rate them for you, vote  
> on them for you, follow up on them for you.....  To quote "Jubel  
> Early", a not so famous bounty hunter from a not so famous TV  
> series that's long since been canceled... "Does that seem right to  
> you?"
>
> I can understand the hefty base price of the product, I can't agree  
> with having to pay for damned updates! where fixes that they should  
> be responsible for should be taken care of by them.  I can  
> understand a small fee for upgrades, but not the amount they are  
> asking for.
>
> But what upsets me the most is depending on the paying customers to  
> help them track down bugs!  What the hell are they doing with the  
> money?  And what the hell are they doing releasing a product that  
> is already known to have bugs still in it!   They should be paying  
> testers for this and not raping the paying customers for this  
> work.  With the prices they are charging for everything, we  
> shouldn't even be having this conversation at all!  If a user finds  
> a bug, he/she should be able to simply report the bug to Rev either  
> via email or a bug report form on their site, and they should take  
> care of everything from there!  That bug should be gone by the next  
> update of the product.
>
> I'm sorry for being a bit over the edge, but I've been in this  
> business myself, and this really makes me mad.  You don't release  
> products if you know it still contains bugs!  You don't upgrade  
> your product unless the upgrade fixes all the prior bugs.  Updates  
> are to fix bugs and issues that you didn't catch earlier, that  
> somehow got past your beta testing team, and updates are free since  
> you're fixing your own mistakes, not mistakes of the customer.   
> Upgrades are not like going from 1.1 to 1.2, but from 1.x to 2.x   
> Upgrades are when the product has had some major changes done to  
> it, improvements and new features over the previous version.
>
> I'm really starting to regret my purchasing Rev now.  I'm feeling  
> like I've been ripped off.  Rev is a nice product, but if this is  
> how the company is going to operate, then I'm not going to be  
> updating/upgrading.  And I doubt that Rev is going to change their  
> business practice since it seems so many people tolerate it and   
> continue to give them money for releasing a product that will  
> always have bugs in it.
>
> Runtime...  Stop charging for updates!  Fix all the bugs and  
> release an update, then work on an upgrade when all the bugs are  
> fixed.  Go ahead and charge for upgrades.  Dump the 'zilla stuff  
> and setup your  own internal bug tracking system so you guys can  
> take care of this and leave the customers out of the process.  Beat  
> the crap out of your beta testing team for allowing all this stuff  
> to get through to the customers.
>
> Sorry to everyone else for my angry post to the mailing list.  If a  
> hand slapping is due to me for this, I'll gladly take it as I should.
>
> Best regards,
> -Garrett
>

Thomas J McGrath III
3mcgrath at adelphia.net

Lazy River Software™ - http://www.lazyriversoftware.com

Lazy River Metal Art™ - http://www.lazyriversoftware.com/metal.html

Meeting Wear™ - http://www.cafepress.com/meetingwear

Semantic Compaction Systems - http://www.minspeak.com

SCIconics, LLC - http://www.sciconics.com/sciindex.html