'Community Beta' has lost its way

Heather Nagey heather at runrev.com
Mon May 14 06:11:04 EDT 2007


Dear Bernard,

I'm sorry you are experiencing frustration.

We are fully committed to the path outlined for the 2.7.5/2.8.1/2.9  
release series.

I've looked at the bug you are referring to, and see that it has been  
seen and confirmed by Marcus. Evidently it could not be fixed for  
2.8.1, there is every likelihood it will be fixed for 2.9.

I'm puzzled that you say you have emailed Bill and not received a  
reply. In my experience Bill is extremely punctilious about  
responding to email, and my first reaction would be to ask whether  
there could be an email issue, maybe somebody's email is getting  
stuck somewhere?

Lets take this offlist while we try to determine what is going on  
with that - email me in support at runrev.com.

Regards,

Heather


On 14 May 2007, at 10:30, Bernard Devlin wrote:

> The 2.7.5 Community Beta was launched with much fanfare.  Runrev  
> was going to be doing things in a new way.
>
>> We worked with Bill to immediately reinvigorate expectations on  
>> quality:
>>
>> * Respond meaningfully to community concerns through official  
>> Revolution venues like the Revolution Forums
>> * Get fresh eyes looking at the product to truly “shake the tree”  
>> and enable you to ship robust solutions based on 2.7.5
>> * Get more users familiar with, and confident about BugZilla, the  
>> community based feedback tool for reporting issues
>> * Assist in developing a more meaningful, community-based beta  
>> process
>>
>> Revolution 2.7.5 - Free Update to 2.7.x Licensees
>>
>> The focus on Revolution 2.7.5 is on core issues such as setup and  
>> install, crashing, IDE behavior, and stress testing. The new  
>> version will also finally bring the newest Revolution to the Linux  
>> platform.
>>
>> [..,]
>>
>> The most exciting news of all: Revolution 2.7.5 will be a free  
>> update. If you had an active Revolution maintenance plan as of  
>> February 1, 2006, or if you purchased any version of Revolution  
>> 2.7, you will receive Revolution 2.7.5 at no charge.
>
> [http://www.runrev.com/newsletter/november/issue13/newsletter1.php]
>
> Well, first of all, we are all currently testing the 2.8.1  
> release.  Fair enough - the numbering changed.  There's no Linux in  
> this release.  If the timescale of the 2.7.5 beta process is  
> anything to go by, maybe we are going to have to wait another 6  
> months to get the Linux version promised for the 2.7.x lifetime.
>
> Secondly, it is not at all clear to me that the next release is  
> going to be free (as promised in the the above newsletter).   I  
> find it hard to believe that both 2.8.1 and 2.9 are going to be  
> free.   Originally 2.7.5 was going to be free - now it is not clear  
> if it is 2.8.1 or 2.9 that will be free, or maybe its both.   If it  
> is not both, then I can see disappointment from those who thought  
> they would get free versions, and if it is both, I can also see  
> annoyance from those people who have continued to needlessly update  
> their 'maintenance plan'.  Either way this looks like its going to  
> be bad PR for Runrev.
>
> Thirdly, in my experience Runrev's responsiveness with regard to  
> bug-reporting for this Beta is poor.  I tested the last three betas  
> and there is an 18-month-old bug on OS X [http://quality.runrev.com/ 
> qacenter/show_bug.cgi?id=3196].  I tried to draw as much attention  
> as I could to this bug: I wrote to this list, Bill Marriott, the  
> Community Beta forum, and even added a detailed comment to  
> Bugzilla.  But after several weeks, not a single reply from anyone  
> connected with Runrev.
>
> I'm assuming that I'm alone in my disappointment with this  
> Community Beta.  This bug was a prime candidate to be fixed.   
> Instead, the beta has seemed to move its principal focus to the  
> incorporation of the ex-Altuit products instead.  The shiny-new  
> Community Beta process enjoins us to look for bugs, learn to use  
> bugzilla and the Beta forum to report them, and then just ignores  
> us.   Runrev really knows how to 'respond meaningfully' (the first  
> bullet point in the list above).
>
> Clearly this Community Beta has lost its way.  I should just get  
> used to the fact that Runrev are constantly setting users up to be  
> disappointed.  After waiting these past 6  months to see this bug  
> be fixed, I've now absolutely no confidence that it is ever going  
> to be fixed, without even any explanation from Runrev as to why its  
> being ignored.   The ability for Rev to interact with other  
> programs is one of my principal reasons for using Revolution, and  
> if it only works on Windows and Linux then I might as well start  
> looking at other tools and write-off my investment in Revolution.
>
> Bernard
>
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Heather Nagey
Customer Services Manager
Runtime Revolution Ltd
http://www.runrev.com






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