Well, in this thread Flameduck and warren are simply trying to tell everyone that they (everyone) is wrong for thinking the way they do. This is obviously an interesting discussion, and may or may not point to the majority of the users.
Simply point is that the view of your customer is important, especially in such a small userbase (compared to M$, Sony, etc).
Is the customer always right? Yes, they are! Does that mean they should always get what they want? No, a customer can be without rhyme or reason in their requests sometimes, and there are simply some things you cannot provide a customer who will never be happy. Does that mean you shouldn't communicate with your customer? Well, communication in any business is the key, take that out and you might as well plan on shutting the doors.
If M$ had the userbase that BRL had, or lets say 3d canvas has, M$ would fail in their current state. The only reason they can get away with the way they operate is because millions and millions depend on their products. The company I work for couldn't afford to dump M$ products and go linux, or unix if we needed to. It would kill us. BRL doesn't have that luxery of monopoly, they need their users to want/need their products. So telling people that they shouldn't want more from BMax, or ask for more, or rely on product releases is clearly an incorrect view (flameduck, and warren).
There will always be hecklers in any community, there is no way around that. Some people can never be pleased regardless of what you do. But don't let those few speak for the rest, and dont let them discourage you. Even a heckler has a soft spot (usually found by another heckler).
With the current state of BRL having fewer updates accross the board, it would be in there best interest to keep a good line of communication with the userbase. The communication doesn't have to be two-way, all they have to do is keep people calm. Pushing back a deadline or promise isn't bad when it is expected. I will often call a customer of mine and inform them I will be running late 20-30 min before I am expected to arive. I can't tell you how much they appreciate that little extra even if I didn't say much on the subject. If I were to just arrive late (say 20-60 min) without a communication preparing them, I doubt they would be my customer for long.
BRL can keep their mouth shut about everything as some users are saying. Or they can communicate on a regular basis, true they might get a little bit of heat based on some things they say but they need to let it roll off. If they cut off communication and release the GUI lib a year from now, I doubt there will be many left to buy it. If they gave an update here or there, a year might be doable. They would still have less users, but at least the ones left are 'in the loop' and understanding. This is worse case sinerio mind you, but the concept behind it is the same.
Simply point is that the view of your customer is important, especially in such a small userbase (compared to M$, Sony, etc).
Is the customer always right? Yes, they are! Does that mean they should always get what they want? No, a customer can be without rhyme or reason in their requests sometimes, and there are simply some things you cannot provide a customer who will never be happy. Does that mean you shouldn't communicate with your customer? Well, communication in any business is the key, take that out and you might as well plan on shutting the doors.
If M$ had the userbase that BRL had, or lets say 3d canvas has, M$ would fail in their current state. The only reason they can get away with the way they operate is because millions and millions depend on their products. The company I work for couldn't afford to dump M$ products and go linux, or unix if we needed to. It would kill us. BRL doesn't have that luxery of monopoly, they need their users to want/need their products. So telling people that they shouldn't want more from BMax, or ask for more, or rely on product releases is clearly an incorrect view (flameduck, and warren).
There will always be hecklers in any community, there is no way around that. Some people can never be pleased regardless of what you do. But don't let those few speak for the rest, and dont let them discourage you. Even a heckler has a soft spot (usually found by another heckler).
With the current state of BRL having fewer updates accross the board, it would be in there best interest to keep a good line of communication with the userbase. The communication doesn't have to be two-way, all they have to do is keep people calm. Pushing back a deadline or promise isn't bad when it is expected. I will often call a customer of mine and inform them I will be running late 20-30 min before I am expected to arive. I can't tell you how much they appreciate that little extra even if I didn't say much on the subject. If I were to just arrive late (say 20-60 min) without a communication preparing them, I doubt they would be my customer for long.
BRL can keep their mouth shut about everything as some users are saying. Or they can communicate on a regular basis, true they might get a little bit of heat based on some things they say but they need to let it roll off. If they cut off communication and release the GUI lib a year from now, I doubt there will be many left to buy it. If they gave an update here or there, a year might be doable. They would still have less users, but at least the ones left are 'in the loop' and understanding. This is worse case sinerio mind you, but the concept behind it is the same.