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General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com Book Collector 6
« Last post by Darwin on December 12, 2008, 08:42 AM »I'd guess the reason for the change is that either the search sites were charging and Collectorz wants to cut down on costs, some of the search sites have told Collectorz to cease and desist in the old way of doing things ...Actually, if that is the real reason, I'd expect Collectorz to say so. I think it would save them a lot of trouble with angry users, since it would be a valid reason to change the software, and hard to argue against for the users.-Carol Haynes (December 12, 2008, 04:57 AM)-TucknDar (December 12, 2008, 05:33 AM)
One would think that this would be an excellent way to handle an impending change in practice... But then, look at the debacle the occurred when they silently stopped selling lifetime licences. Sure, the switcheroo was clear if you read the revised EULA, but that kind of change in policy should have been splashed all-over their website, discussed in detail in a newsletter and on the forum well in advance of actually being put in place. Did they do ANY of this? No - not even a banner saying "Read revised EULA" with a link to same. They do not appear to be that interested in avoiding angering their users. As I've just outlined, it would have been easy to have done so in the past and they didn't. They're obstinately sticking to a course of action that is clearly pissing off their existing user base and AFAICT couldn't care less about it. Thus, it is my opinion, if Carol's musing are correct, that the first indication any user (existing or brand new) would have of such a change would be a pop-up in a Collectorz app directing them to pay a subscription fee so that they can access the database. Howls of protest on the users forum will be dealt with much as in the past: with a repeated strong declarations of the "correctness" of the decision (WRT business models, this might well be a VERY good decision), with acknowledgment and regrets that more should have been done to pave the way, and that'll be it...
Maybe I'm just cynical... of course, they did do right by me over the lifetime licensing issue. However, they appear NOT to have learned anything from the firestorm that ensued at that time, and I doubt that this current change in direction, with its attendant controversy, will result in much deviation from the pattern in the future.
NB I haven't looked into this, but Alwin does note that the switch to a single Collectorz run database was outlined almost a year ago, so perhaps my cynicism about their ability to learn and communicate with their customers is misplaced...
Alwin has been... "prickly" about any suggested re-direction of his business model. From what I have seen, always level-headed, but prickly... I don't think he is the slightest bit interested in user input WRT the direction Collectorz is taking. See the 
I also find that the mouse cursor will just randomly disappear (completely - absent from both Slave and Master systems), even though the keyboard still works as expected on whatever system had focus before the cursor disappeared. Eventually, it comes back, but it's damned annoying. Suspect a reboot will fix it, but then I expect that a reboot will revive Synergy...