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GemX - missing in action

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Darwin:
Yes - I agree Doublewitt. They seemed to my mind to keep up quite well for quite a while. Jon and Peter seemed in general to take criticism and suggestions well and to keep up with the pace just fine. I went away for June and July and when I returned in August the forums were still open (just, as it turned out) but "no one was home". A week or so later and they were gone... Given the grammar and style of the latest news post, I wonder if Peter Brooks is still around? The writing doesn't have his stamp on it, which I found odd.

doublewitt:
How can you not have enough man-hours for 20-30 minutes per day?
The reality is that the real reasons are disguised...

I think so too: emails and posts didn't seem to be from Peter Brooks himself - it really showed...

datamill:
I think part of the reason for the gemx problem was that the vision of a package with so many features was too big to handle.  They put the whole thing out at once and there wasn't enough time, so they bounced from section to section.  They couldn't make the project come together. They were just spread too thin and I have no idea what size their company really is, but I'm guessing it's small.

This is aside from the issue of how they treated the beta testers.  I think if they just said how it was going for them, we would have backed them up.

MikeH

sigh...:
i really think it was just Peter and Jon - well, i also saw someone named Abraham Walker on one of the links.  who knows, could be a made up name for either Peter or Jon! lol!  maybe Peter IS Jon!!!

like i have said before, i think it was dangerous for them to release all of these modules and not have any of them work near "perfectly" - i am sure they became overwhelmed.  extremely symptomatic - when you have too much to do, you spread yourself thin and the details DEFINITELY go by the wayside. you jump from point to point, instead of focusing on one issue, solving that issue and then moving to the next issue.  that was/is GemX in a nutshell.  heck, speaking of "Getting Things Done"!!!!

how can they continue to have a software product without a forum to post problems/comments?  (as has been mentioned above).  THIS IS INSANE!!  and what could they possibly be telling the new members regarding updates - nothing!!  because it would be posted on the site.  if i was interested in DO (having not ever had it before) and i saw that note regarding no more forum - i would definitely raise an eyebrow and decide against purchasing the product.  and since i would have trialed it first and seen  how buggy it is then:

no forum for support and resolutions + buggy product  = a big fat NO SALE

and what a shame...although i think that they (whomever this is) may make a comeback - i don't think i would be interested - because who's to say it wouldn't happen A G A I N.....

this really hurts me - i saw such great potential in DO  -  nothing like it out there - for customization features, that is and that is what i really needed and really loved.   i still really want to have hope that they get back on their feet (or someone buys the company out and reorganizes it) and they are able to continue.  i find that i am both angry and saddened all at the same time...

maybe, just maybe if someone more qualified and less sensitive takes it over, theres a some small percentage that i may give them another try.  but it had better be a damn great comeback!!!

if this is so, would anyone else reconsider - if some other group or company took over GemX????

Darwin:
I agree with you, Sigh... I'm less angry with them than I am sad. Such potential, such a big mess and all of it easily avoided by having placed a short note on the homepage a couple of months ago. They also could/should have left the forums in place with a note that said something like: "The development team will be unable to participte in these forums while GemX does x,y,z. Please excuse our absence. During this period, which will be as brief as possible, we have a diverse, knowledgeable and friendly user base that is very active in this forum. Post requests for help in the appropriate thread and we are sure that someone will be able to help you. Please feel free to continue to post bug reports and feature requests as well and we will attend to them as soon as we can".

Anyway, to get to the point, I have mixed feelings about how to respond to your question. I *did* request and receive a refund for Do-Organizer but that was more about 1. getting GemX's attention (I think it worked) 2. getting a refund while I could in case the company disappeared. I still have a licence for TexNotes Pro (not installed at the moment, though) and *might* be wooed back to GemX under the scenario that you've outlined. There is certainly nothing wrong with their vision and ideas for their products - they just need to work on managing the various projects they have on the go and balancing that with customer service. Customers (well, me  ;)) will put up with a lot as long as they get the sense that their voice is heard and opinions/wants valued. I can't stress enough how simply GemX could have kept my $70 upgrade fee for Do-Organizer... I'd have accepted the bugginess and waited for fixes if they had simply communicated to its customer base, as outlined above.

So, at this point, I'd answer your question with a qualified "yes" - there's a small chance that I'd return to the fold. By this I mean actively using TexNotes Pro. Parting with cash for Do-Organizer would take more than that. For a start, in the immediate future, it would be nice, as the person who started this thread and as someone who has requested and received a refund (I'm betting that I am not alone), if they contacted me directly to express their sorrow that it came to this and attempted to reassure me about the future. I'd also like to hear that Doublewitt had been directly contacted as well... At this point, I think that at least some of their energy should be devoted to re-building a positive relationship with it's existing userbase. As Josh noted, many of us will be posting on other threads in other forums recounting our experiences. This negative "word of mouth" advertising is going to make it difficult to build up a new userbase, let alone recapture/retain its current one.

As an aside (and with apologies for waffling so much), I wonder what became of Chessnia and Chris Tonchev?. I know there were many others who were active on the forum, but those two stick out in my memory. I'd be curious about their reactions to all of this. Chessnia wrote the e-book on Chess... I wonder if I can find him? I'll give it a go.

EDIT: That was easy - message sent!

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