[revServer] process timeout issue

[Jeff Massung]

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Chipp Walters <chipp at chipp.com> wrote:

>
> Unfortunately, Jerry's team cannot provide a recipe where others can
> replicate the buggy behavior which he says is forcing him to choose another
> platform.
> <http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution>
>


I've tried to hold back from chiming in on yet another "passionate"
discussion having to do with Rev. Most everyone here is great, and obviously
there are those here intent on trying to diagnose and fix the problem.
Bravo.

Yet, I feel the need to say that I had *extremely* similar issues to Jerry
for the few months I used On-Rev. I had several emails back and forth with
Heather regarding extremely sporadic and spotty access to my site given a
web application I've been developing for quite some time.

While using On-Rev, my user-base (in pre-pre-alpha) consisted of a whopping
8 people, and there would be hours at a time during which my REST API'd
application was just unavailable to my customers. There'd be times where an
average command would take milliseconds, and others when socket operations
would timeout *consistently* (we're talking 20+ second timeouts). This was
just wholly unacceptable for me - as a paying customer.

During this time, Heather and Co. were very responsive and - I think -
understanding of the problem(s) I was facing, but in the end weren't able
to accommodate me in the way I was hoping they would. And that's 100% okay;
no company can meet every customers' needs. So I switched to a different
host, I'm paying more, and have had no problems (other than my own stupid
bugs) since.

It's really great that Rev users love their tool of choice. It's even better
that they want to make it the best it can be. Sometimes I wonder if the Rev
team realizes just how good of a marketing resource they have in their
community. I rarely witness it being coddled, nurtured, loved, and even
taken advantage of (in a good way). If I had such a zealous group behind one
of my products, I'd be here every day trying to grow it.

But, in the end, we're customers. We're not paid advocates - at least I'm
not. If a product I'm paying for isn't working for me, I move on. And - from
what I've read and discussions had - that very much seems to be what Jerry
did with On-Rev. We (and our business ventures) don't have infinite amounts
of time and money in the bank to wait for a product to mature meet our
needs, no matter how badly we want it to. And, likewise, unless the Rev team
is aware that there is a serious risk of losing it's [very loyal] customers,
there's no incentive for them to do better.

If I may venture a guess, I think what most people like about Jerry, his
team, and his products are that they are extremely focused and targeted. And
to make things even better, they eat their own dog food.

>From the outside, the Rev team feels like the exact opposite. I see
nearly-zero focus on anything. On-Rev is > 1 years old now and the IDE is
still something I wouldn't have release to any customer - even as an early
alpha. There's no way they use that tool in-house, because any programmer
worth their salt would have screamed out loud and started making it better
within 48 hours of being forced to use it. And, to distract from that
product line, there's also RevMobile, RevServer, RevWeb, RevDesktop, and
whatever the next pre-alpha $400 product is in the pipe.

That's not to say I don't love the thought of what Rev could be. I want it
soooo badly I can taste it. And I'm what you might call a die-hard
programmer that's programmed everything from 8-bit micro-controllers, Lisp
compilers, satellite communications, to PS2, Nintendo, 360, and PS3 video
games for Disney. But, I just love how productive I can be in the 100% live
environment that Rev provides for me. And, frankly, it's fun as hell and
even zen-like relaxing at times. ;-)

But, there have to be consequences for failure. Jerry's a customer. I'm a
customer. I've been a customer for over a year now, and the bottom line is
that I've gotten nothing from my maintenance fee for Enterprise except
continually postponed promises. If it expires before 5.0 comes out, I won't
renew it. I tried On-Rev and it didn't do what it claimed (for me) either.

Damn, that was a long-winded way of saying, please cut Jerry some slack.
He's just another paying customer, and if the service provided doesn't live
up to his expectations or needs, he moves on. No one should be upset at
Jerry for any reason at all. If there's anything to be upset about, it would
be asking one's self, "why on Earth wouldn't Rev do *everything* in their
power to make such a long-standing customer incredibly happy so he could
keep advocating Rev and even be able to claim that Rodeo runs on Rev
servers?"

Jeff M.

/emote hunkers down, waiting to dodge incoming flames...