Getting things the wrong way round . . .

[Shari]

I've found two things to be true in this world of software:

1.  If you publicly post that you are working on a new version, sales 
of the current version take a nosedive.  People hold off purchasing, 
waiting for the new version.  When it comes out, you do not get all 
the lost sales back.  (There's a name for this phenomenon... I do not 
recall the name, but it was named after a company that actually went 
out of business after announcing that a new version was in the works. 
The company had been previously very successful.)

2.  One of my favorite authors is James Herriott, the country vet 
from England who wrote All Creatures Great and Small and several 
related works.  James Herriott wrote of both his successes and 
failures as a country vet. Sometimes his patient would die. Other 
times the recovery would be truly miraculous. He would often 
encounter the farmers in the local pub or marketplace. And his 
experiences with happy farmers and unhappy farmers is a familiar one.

If he treated a cow and the cow promptly died, the next time he saw 
the farmer at the marketplace the farmer would be LOUDLY regaling the 
story of the dead cow to everybody who would listen. And he would add 
juicy details of his own flavour to the story as it got bigger and 
bigger with each new listener. The cow was alive, James came to see 
about him, the cow dropped dead.

But the farmer whose cow James literally pulled from the brink of 
death, that farmer would inevitably be the quiet sort of man, who 
spoke in barely a whisper. And he might share the story at the 
marketplace, but with all the hustle and bustle, his whisper would be 
lost in the crowd.

I can relate to this aspect of human nature. As a game developer, 
I've seen it, too. The unhappy folks yell the loudest, while the 
happy folks whisper in your ear.



>
>something about this. [...] It is in your interests not
>to alienate [loyal users] and the best way to avoid
>this is to anticipate the sort of thing that happened
>recently and, as a preventive measure, keep them
>extremely well-informed and reassured.
><<<
>
>When we post a version late in the day and then notify people about their
>free copy before noon the next day, I don't see where there is a case to be
>made about a lapse in communication. However, perhaps we should anticipate
>that some people won't be happy no matter what we do, that they will shout
>it from the mountain top instead of writing an inquiry to support, and that
>the tone of their comments will be needlessly inflammatory.
>
>- Bill


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