filePro questions (was RE: Antiquated Software)

[Fairlight]

At Mon, Jan 16, 2006 at 05:27:12PM -0500 or thereabouts, 
suspect Kenneth Brody was observed uttering:
> You would probably be better off addressing this to the people to whom
> you are directing the question, by sending it to <filepro at fptech.com>,
> rather than (or at least in addition to) the mailing list.
> 
> See <http://www.fptech.com/contactus.htm> for a list of contacts.

Ken,

PREFACE:  I -really- do not want you taking this personally, ok?  This has
-nothing- to do with you personally, you saying it, or anything about you.
Your presence here is a gift to all.

This has to do with corporate policy on communications.

I'm going to more succinctly say what I said in the EVE community forums
when I voiced criticisms over their recent patch that made the game largely
unplayable, and was told to take it private with support rather than try to
force the issue in the community.  It seems to apply here, at least to me:

When someone tells you to take it private, the chances are that they want
to get it out of the public spotlight so they can give you the Mushroom
Treatment[tm] in private and not have to answer to their larger customer
base regarding their response, or lack of an adequate response.

In short, I don't hold with the, "Please contact us privately," methodology
when most people in the community -want to know-.  It simply makes it look
like they have a lot to hide, or nothing to put forth.  If they can't
respond to honest questions and concerns with honest answers within their
own userbase community, I perceive it as a problem.

Sorry, and I -know- it's not you.  But that whole policy--just like, "Ask
for a quote!" on the web site, is a huge bloody masquerade.  State the
prices up-front.  I mean, that makes you think they give one place a $1k
settle to get a sale but stick it to another for $4k if they can get away
with it.  Do they have fixed pricing or not?  If so, why not post it
directly and copiously?  Same thing applies to corporate policy.  Why can't
they clearly and concisely say where they are and where they're going?

Management should address the issues up-front.  It's really not that hard.
The current policies smack highly of "cop-out".

Again, -totally- not personal, man.

mark->