[Riocaz]

Originally Posted by ali

Frankly, I don't think being constructive is of any use.

Constructive doesn't mean happy and good Ali :-)

Originally Posted by ali

So far, every step forward, and every honest announcement, was the direct result of massive, non-constructive, vulgar, googleable, flames.

Not completely true, but close enough.

Originally Posted by ali

And then they talk about the "custom made viewers", and how they cooperate with the community, and blabla, and today, Matthijs tells us "As soon as our platform is a bit more "developer friendly" we are going to work with the community[...]".

In fairness they already do to a limited extent. Matthijs answered some queries Adam had in the development of the FBReader port for example. As he as done with other queries both here and on the iRex forum.

What I think the Commander is trying to say that everyone posting the negative side in every thread will push those people at iRex who do actively help away and make them less likely to help in the future. And at the end of the day they know the platform the best atm.

Originally Posted by ali

All of this forum stuff is the common situation where the users and their complaints get separated from the decision makers by paid PR/CR guys (karel). You think karel's boss listens to stories about "constructive suggestions" from the users? Really?

I think it's unfair to blame Karel. He has promised answers in the past and delivered.

It has been said (by a member of iRex staff (if memory serves) that the higher-ups in irex are old fashioned and don't patricularly like their employees talking direct to customers.

I have been in that situation (specifically in a company that had been very free flowing with customers which was taken over by a company who then clamped down on it).

Originally Posted by ali

This company tries to deliver announcements *instead* of real features. They try to satisfy people by PR stuff, by hiding behind a friendly face (who is not making the decisions). The only working way for the users is going on the same level -- PR. Fill the forums. Shout down every PR stunt.

I don't think it's fair to determine something as a PR stunt at this point. But I agree with your overall message.

Originally Posted by ali

I also think this endless repeating of the same arguments is necessary. It's mostly new users who think everything's fine. They don't read back and don't search for the old arguments. They just see "movement" but can't judge movement speed because they didn't experience the history.

Again in all fairness CommanderRoR diddn't say "stop it" he said keep it to "a few select threads" rather than people hijacking threads on the positive side of the iLiad (and even I have to admit there are positives).

Originally Posted by ali

(Plus, TBH, I feel personally offended when somebody tells me all the deficiencies were known before and it's my fault that I didn't google for them -- because I (and you, CommanderROR, and Riocaz) was among the first people to buy one, and it's because of us you can actually google for the deficencies. Someday I'll just flip out and kill one.)

I utterly agree. Not to mention people who havn't bothered to read the thread and respond to one post out of context and completely miss the point being made