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Avoid bad software versions by reading their forums

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jpfx:
I would have to stipulate that the forums are not moderated to the point that they just sing praises.
If you want to see the good and the bad then you probably need to view an independent support forum.

To pick an example program known to many here. There is a huge well of discontent regarding ritlabs (the bat!), mainly complaints about unfulfilled promises of what would be eventually included in a particular version and the cost to upgrade. I state here that I am one of those discontented. Their forums (such as they are) have no mention of anything like that.

Reading the reviews, it's a great program but is the support of the same standard? When you part with the cash, your're buying into the whole thing but you aren't necesarily aware of the whole picture through the forums.

mouser:
thebat definitely has a significant number of disgruntled users. i linked to two such sites in the review, which are all the more damning for the fact that they are sites run by people who used to write plugins for thebat(!).

their forum is quite new, that may partially explain the lack of critical posts - rit labs has long run a very busy set of usenet newsgroups that are not, to my knowledge, censored at all.  the newsgroups have been quite helpful to me.  having an open forum is quite important, especially for programs which have support problems.

a good example is agnitum outpost firewall, whose *official* customer service has been horrible; but the forum has become a fantastic resource for users to help each other.  a good forum can go a long way to making up for support problems.

when agnitum pr people asked me how to improve their support problem, i told them to do one thing:  support the forum - give them what they need and hire people to help out their officially.

Scott:
OMFG--they asked you how they could improve their support problem?  How about responding to customers who ask for help via email?  Sounds like a good start to me.  Or maybe fixing bugs without forcing users to pay for the bug fix in an upgrade?

Which may lead to another tip...  Sometimes it's telling if you send an email to support during your trial of the software, with an honest support question.

mouser:
contacting an author/company before you buy the program is something i would highly recommend, if only to ask a simple question, etc.  or if you are a student, ask if a discount would be possible.

you can get a good first impression about the company/author based on if/when they reply and in what manner.

iorange28880:
zridling, great advice. I note this thread on the PGP forum with dismay, however. That really takes the cake.

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