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ConnectedText - moribund?
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Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 11, 2017 at 10:52 AM
As Paul and Pierre had said, it is unrealistic to expect lifetime around-the-clock support for a single payment of USD 39.95 from a single developer. That just economically doesn’t make sense.
bobmclain wrote:
>I have a feeling that fans of ConnectedText are making excuses for this
>developer that they would not make for other developers.
Indeed, that might be the case, but for a good reason: and that is the exceptional responsiveness Eduardo had demonstrated over the years when it came to fixing bugs and implementing requests.
As it turns out, Eduardo has just posted on the CT forum, explaining why he has been unable to respond to requests in the past 3 months:
http://connectedtext.com/forum/index.php/topic,3461.msg16722.html#msg16722
Posted by Paul Korm
Apr 11, 2017 at 11:17 AM
Thanks for that link, @Dr Andus.
Embarking on a career as an independent developer is a brave venture. Some succeed, many fail, and everyone who tries has committed their self to the ball-and-chain that users can sometimes be. Witness the trollish comment from someone in the linked thread that essentially says “well, sorry you’re sick, but your illness proves my point that I cannot rely on this developer and I need a way out”.
Posted by Slartibartfarst
Apr 11, 2017 at 12:14 PM
I’m only a trial user of CT at the moment, but if I end up buying a licence (and I think I shall), then it would be on the distinct understanding and acceptance that there is an implicit risk that the dependency on a sole author/developer may mean that support/development may stutter from time to time, or even stop dead as natural life events occur. Nothing is certain.
And if the support/development did indeed stutter from time to time, or even stop dead - and for whatever reason - then I don’t think I would be able to substantiate such an egregious lack of grace as to harass or berate the developer for it, or impugn his motives. I would have already accepted the risk. If he’s still alive and well, I feel sure that such a committed person, as this developer has apparently demonstrated himself to be over the long term, would be doing his level best to get back into the driving seat.
Get well soon Eduardo, and God speed.
(Also posted to the CT Forum.)
Posted by Graham Rhind
Apr 11, 2017 at 02:27 PM
Hmmm. I know there’s a lot of love for Eduardo in this forum, and I’m sure anything I write is going to get slammed, even though, as a sole trader, I understand perfectly the situation he is in.
But I have to ask. Eduardo’s arm is (has been? Will be?) incapacitated for three months. I wish him well. But it’s been at least four months since support apparently ceased, and he was able to answer Steve’s Facebook message in February, so I guess this is a new problem. If I were incapacitated in some way, but conscious, I would do everything I could to make sure I let my customers know what the situation was, even if it meant getting a neighbour in and telling them which buttons to press. Even if I’m just away I make sure people are aware of that - I owe my paying customers that much. Maybe it’s just me and I expect too much of others, but Eduardo’s support has always been good before, so when it suddenly ceases, it’s very noticeable!
Also, almost everybody who’s posted here has said they know and accept that support may be marginal when they buy from a one-man company, and that the software’s future is not guaranteed. Sure, that’s a given. So does everybody, before buying any software, send a message to the company asking how many people work for the company and what their health situation is? It would never cross my mind to do that, and there’s nothing on the CT website to indicate the size of the company. There’s nothing on my website either to show that I’m a sole trader, and I also use the royal we. If I fall under a bus, all my products die with me, and I’m open about that - if asked! - and have lost business because of it. But I have left instructions to ensure that my customers get to hear about this if that happens.
Spare me the backlash, if you would - I do wish Eduardo well and I appreciate his software very much - but I am suspicious that this isn’t the full story. Maybe I read too many whodunnits ....
Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 11, 2017 at 02:55 PM
Graham Rhind wrote:
>there’s nothing on the CT website to indicate the size of the company.
But it does advertise the product as a “personal wiki system” not a business software. It was your decision to adopt it as your enterprise system. There is no business licence and no enterprise-level support promised with the purchase.
You have benefited from adopting a very reasonably priced personal software for your business, but that does not mean that you should expect enterprise-level support to come with that just for you, gratis.
If those are your needs, you could try to negotiate a special enterprise level service agreement for an additional fee.
As for the risk that you have taken on by adopting a small business’s product, that was a risk for you to assess and evaluate and mitigate (due diligence).