PaulM wrote:atlatus wrote:No, I mean Stan. He has played the same game with me and other customers...
Thank you for the clear up.
I have used and sold WP for many many years but this is the first time I have seen a new version come out so flawed, equally, the original poster should have written their concerns more politely but even allowing for that, the implied attitude in the reply was one of I can berate and sod off if you do not like it.
Either way, the product IS fisher price now, has been dumbed down way past what is needed and is costing me and FT money while it does not work properly.
Interesting thread - and not in a good way.
It's absolutely fundamental that anyone who uses anything, especially software, take a bit of effort to read the manual or help files. Failure to do this is not helpful and wastes time.
Having said that, I acknowledge that it's a tough task to move from one version of anything that we've become accustomed to, onto a new one. These are just teething problems - and in time, just as we became familiar with an old version, we will become familiar with any new one. MS Office - still has me stumped and I do lots of Googles to find stuff that were really basic and far easier to find on the XP version. UI (user interface) issues are not unimportant and try as developers might, they don't always get things right at first blush, or second, or third etc. It's made more complicated when they are dealing with users with different levels of expectation and IT competence.
If you happen to see GIMP (an excellent open source graphics product) perhaps you might see my point - I cannot make heads or tails of it. But then I know others who can create works of art as easy as can be: different expectations and different levels of IT skill. I'm told it's 'better' (easier?) than most commercial graphics products - so clearly I am way of of my depth with it.
UI is really important as evidenced by many computer science courses setting aside multiple units on the subject. There are some constraints imposed by time, resources and function as to what developers can SAFELY allow users to modify (mostly cosmetics) and features. My setup works perfectly fine for me - but might not for others and vice versa. That's not the same as saying MWP2010 has a Fisher Price (spelling?) UI which I think is both inaccurate and unhelpful.
All feedback helps - but unhelpful feedback (insults) risk being ignored. It helps to give examples of whatever it is that concerns you. But also, it's important for all of us to acknowledge that our personal feedback may not lead to anything - for lots of quite valid reasons. For example, I can see some value in allowing users an option of choosing a 'classic' MWP interface. I can also see that (even if this were possible - not sure) it may take a lot of resources away from addressing other more urgent priorities. Every time a single line of code is changed there is a risk of unforeseen consequences - something might break on PC "X" but not PC "Y". It's the reality of software development everywhere.
Anyone who uses a Microsoft operating system might recognise what I'm trying to say here. It's not uncommon, despite herculean efforts, that an update (bug fix / security fix) 'break's' programs / systems that were otherwise working happily.
For me, MWP2010 is a brilliant stable upgrade that works well and is really easy to use. Others have different experiences. We do need feedback on real problems so that we can help the developers make an excellent product even better. And all of us need to be patient. Designing, coding and distributing new programs is tough going even when everything goes perfectly well - which is as frequent as winning lotto. Debugging, however, is a painstakingly detailed process - that demands caution, great patience and a lot of skill. On balance - bug solving is IMHO the far harder task of the program development cycle. But that's just my opinion.
People are free to make all sorts of assumptions about anything, including the motives of others - but that does not make the assumption correct. No-one was "berated" and absolutely no-one was told to "sod off". When we stay within the confines of reality - it makes discussions a lot easier and far less personal.
Just my 2 cents worth - love the new product and will do what i can to help make it even better.