Who'd be Actinic?

[george]

Looks like theres a fair bit of stick flying their way at the moment. (Google Checkout, v8.5.1.238956255, new and unheard of payment systems, etc).



The Goat Club have called an emergency meeting.

[leehack]

There is a dark cloud hovering at the moment George and it has been around for quite sometime. It has been so long since we had some genuine good news to hold on to. The GC thing has took off like a rocket and swept them off their feet. I daresay Chris has tried to reply at least a few times, but it's very hard for him to say anything that will solve anything. He is fighting a forest fire with a watering can at the moment.

I feel for the guy somewhat to be honest, we've all been in the firing line at times in our life and it isn't a nice feeling. When developers are starting to lose faith, you are going to have big problems on your hands.

The problem is that we all know deep down that GC isn't going to happen this year, but until they stand up and be honest and say so, the shit will keep flying. They should grab the bull by the horns and just say it as it is. True, there will be flack flying for a day or two, but it will nip it in the bud far quicker. There will soon be a new flavour of the month, we have 8.5.1 about to kick off, so it will die down.

I think they have listened to feedback on their poor communication and have undoubtedly improved tenfold in this area, i just feel they should cut the crap and the uncertainty and tell it as it is on this issue. Better to lose a handful of customers now, than drag things out for weeks with people not knowing.

We all need to move on from GC, but they need to tell us why we have to IMO. I've always preferred straight talk though, so i may be alone thinking like this.

[george]

It has been so long since we had some genuine good news to hold on to.

My last good news from Actinic probably involved a v7 release.

[buspassjohn]

You have to bear in mind that Actinic got a shedfull of cash from selling V8 upgrades to us users, yet V8 is still a pile of poo if Pinbrook's latest posting http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=29651 is any indication.

Why should they bother now to sort out Stock control/GoogleCheckout etc when they can't get V8 right? according to Actinic they have 10,000 users, if only 10% of them shelled out for V8 then Actinic got a very nice payday from V8, not to mention the commissions from Paypal.

I was one of those stupid enough to shell out over £1300 (plus £1400 for new computers) for V8MU only to find it full of bugs and not really multi-user, do I feel aggrieved? you bet.

The problem is we operate our sole business with Actinic and are stuck with it until we can install an alternative, if we weren't dependent we would have instigated legal action long before now to recover our payment for a product which is clearly "not fit for purpose"

Most of the active people on this forum are sellers of Actinic services and their fantastic help and advice is obviously biased accordingly, however, without this free work and advice they give on this forum, Actinic would have collapsed a long time ago as they are clearly not willing or capable of sorting out the problems of this software.

When such an Actinic supporter as Jo says "why did I bother" (to install V8.5.1) then its time for Mr Barling to climb down from his pile of cash and take notice.

[NormanRouxel]

if only 10% of them shelled out for V8 then Actinic got a very nice payday from V8

What! 1,000 at say £300 comes to £300,000 which will pay for only a few skilled programmers working for a year? And then there's all the support and marketing divisions to pay for. Wouldn't even break even. And then we expect instantaneous miracles from them.

[buspassjohn]

What! 1,000 at say £300 comes to £300,000 which will pay for only a few skilled programmers working for a year? And then there's all the support and marketing divisions to pay for. Wouldn't even break even. And then we expect instantaneous miracles from them.

Yes Norman, but we paid £1160 plus Vat for V8 MU upgrade from V7, so some paid a lot more than £300 - only lucky developers got it free

[pinbrook]

only lucky developers got it free

us unlucky developers still pay for the software... why do you think we get it for free?

[jont]

My wallet was emptied just like everyone else's

[pinbrook]

and we pay for cover just like everyone else....

[leehack]

and of course the free 24 hour design service.

[los_design]

only lucky developers got it free

**sighs, opens up online banking and spots the massive hole left by subs and software!

Free my a£$e

[jont]

and of course the free 24 hour design service.

I think that has been won back in free forum reply time

[los_design]

I think that has been won back in forum reply time

Spot on, wouldn't this be a quiet place without developers and the like (many of whom have much more experience on here that you can shake a stick at...sorry, always wanted to say that on here) and helped sell god knows how many copies of the software to boot

Strike...strike...strike....

only kidding, still got red blood coursing in my veins from the good old days

[leehack]

Its a good theory, subsidies should be introduced. Might make up for the quick upgrade process over the weekend and Monday night.

[Jan]

There nothing much happening that hasn't happened before - the problem is people assert that 'actinic do this ...', 'actinic don't do that', 'actinic are in league with alien goats ...', but how do they know what is happening internally at Actinc. I personally don't think ranting helps, the fact is that Actinic do listen to people and they do take notice of what people say and at times the development plan is changed.

If you want to get something done, you are better off being proactive - like the guy that published the partial solution for google checkout - than demanding change. I'm not saying that you shouldn't point out how much you need a particular feature, that in itself is a good thing, but a well presented case will IMHO be more like to get a result than a post slagging of the people you want to do the work.

I'm luckier than most because generally, if I don't like how something works I can change it by writing my own plugin.

Some people have been sounding particularly fed up on here just lately, it's a shame and I can understand that a lot of it comes from having very busy sucessful business. It's hard to know what to do to help really.

Regards,