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From: kdd@well.UUCP (Keith David Doyle)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga,net.music.makers
Subject: Re: SoundScape, IFF & MIDI
Message-ID: <1879@well.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Oct-86 17:58:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: well.1879
Posted: Fri Oct  3 17:58:42 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Oct-86 12:48:40 EDT
References: <1868@well.UUCP> <1869@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: kdd@well.UUCP (Keith David Doyle)
Distribution: net
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito CA
Lines: 64
Xref: watmath net.micro.amiga:5132 net.music.makers:235


[..................]
>Isn't it so easy to take the work of people and degrade it and tell others
>that it is incomplete. Those that are just users of software have free reign
>to expound about all the things that the software DOESN'T do without realizing
>the amount of work that went into the product for the state that is is in.
>Software is an imperfect world, the best for some doesn't cut it with others.
>If you are so high an mighty with what you think is best lets see you create
>it -- I hope it pleases all but I will await the word from your peers.
>Let's enjoy more and criticize less.... please.
>-Jim Becker

Now wait a minute...  What I did (or at least thought I did) was post a
REVIEW of a product, so that other people might learn from my experiences
with it.  If it seemed like a *flame* well, that's perhaps because I had
some problems with it.  If more people posted *critiques*, even *opinionated*
ones, perhaps more of us would end up spending our hard earned money on
software packages that do what we need them to do, and bypassing ones that
may not be so useful.  For the most part, the only way to find out whether
or not a product is useful enough to be worth the money, you have to buy it
and use it for a week or two.  Unfortunately, by that time you've already
shelled out.  In a relatively new marketplace where everyone is
hungry for new products and software developers know it and hurry to crank
out something into the market window, I think it is important that people
say what they think about these packages, *however opinionated* in SOME kind
of attempt to compensate for less than optimal product quality. So far, I think
that the one thing that hurts the Amiga marketplace right now most is, the
quick and dirty programs proliferating and obscuring the really good ones.
I'm not complaining so much about BUGGY programs, though I'm not crazy about
them particularly, I know how hard it is to find that *famous last bug*.
What I'm complaining about are programs that appear *unfinished* or are lacking
in major important features.  How would you feel if you bought a spreadsheet
that knew how to add, subtract, and multiply, but didn't have divide?  Or
couldn't save your work after you were finished with it?  Would
you just *lie back and enjoy it*?  Or would you attempt to let other people
know what the product is like *in your opinion* (who's else do you have?) so
that perhaps someone else might learn from your experience *before* they
buy it?  I find that magazine reviews are many times 1) very very late, and/or
2) biased in favor of the product because the company is an advertiser.  If
we had a 'consumer reports' for Amiga software that could get the info out to
us shortly after the product is on the shelves, then maybe I could *lie back
and enjoy it*.  Otherwise, everytime I buy a product and have something to
say about it *you're likely to hear from me*.  Why?  Because I'm mad as hell
and not going to take it anymore.  Don't give me this *those that can't, talk*
kind of bullshit.  That implies that if someone can't write programs he has
nothing to say about the quality of the ones he buys.  If we all took that 
attitude, we'd all have to shut up and nobody would ever learn anything.
If you don't like my approach, OK, no ones asking you to like it (or even
to listen).  If my approach seemed a little heavy on the emotions or flamage,
and perhaps even proves out to be a little uneducated on some of the details,
well that's because that is where I was at at the time.  Sure, after further
investigation, I cooled down a bit (but as you can see, just a bit :-) 
and, am actually finding the program somewhat useful.
If I caused at least one person out there to step back and take another
look before they buy, then I'd say it was useful.  I want to see the Amiga
succeed as much as anyone, but I DON'T think the way to do it is to keep
quiet about things I don't like about programs I buy.  If you look back a
bit, I think you'll find that I've made some positive noise about programs 
too (DPaint for example).  POST REVIEWS GANG!  Good or bad, let's find out
what's going on out there.

Keith Doyle
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