Actinic Support

[Faulkds]

On the scale of it I don’t think actinic support is any worse or better than most software companies.

Obviously some people are experiencing some problems in version 9 and maybe Actinic need to look at their own testing before release. It’s easy to say that since a number of people didn’t part take in the beta testing, then as a result some of the problems weren’t highlighted. However, there should be processes and procedures to allow for this.

Maybe if Actinic gave an incentive for people to take part in these beta testing’s then they may get better results. The only incentive I've experienced is you get to see the new release. This might be great if you’re running a company that’s trying to sell Actinic products not so great if your having to use the product as part of your business on a daily basis.

I see alot of people put in their own time in these forums to help people. You may argue that there are personal gains in doing this but the majority of people are just simply trying to help out.

I think if it wasn’t for these people then Actinic would be stuffed.

I don't mind paying Actinic for support but I'm starting to think that some of that money should go to regular helpers in the forum. I’m also thinking that I won’t be paying for support next year when clearly the members of the forum seem to have more knowledge about the product than Actinic's own employees.

Just a thought

[Jarvis]

Let's get this right.
Regardless of what level of competence you are at, provided that you work at the appropriate level, the software should work as stated.
ACTINIC DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK AS STATED.

If you want to step outside you zone of competence, then yes, as Mal says, you should be checking out HTML and CSS sites to learn.
You should probably not really be seeking for help on the Actinic Community Forum.
There are other forums that are better catered for providing that sort of help.

Having said that, if you do not understand how something is implemented in Actinic, or you need to know how to why something that you would expect to work, doesn't, then this is very much the place, more so than Actinic Support.
As for BUGS, this is again, just the right place.
BUT, the levels of genuine bugs currently in Actinic is appalling!

I have been in IT as a Programmer for over 20 years, working in Assembler, Fortran, Pascal, C, C++ and many, many more languages.
I have developed some very serious applications for the MoD and the Aerospace industry.
NOT ONCE has code been released with this level of faults.

In my opinion the fault is quite simply in Quality Control.
A totally inadequate level of formal testing procedures appears to be in place.
You can almost touch the problem, good programmers given their own tasks and not talking together to seamlessly integrate.
Some of the really simple faults are simply not being address in an effort to resolve the bigger issues.
Some of these have hung over from early v8.

I appreciate that Actinic needs to talk in concept about v10, (mentioned elsewhere), but for goodness sake, get this version sorted first.

If you think I am banging on too much.
Bare in mind that this has SERIOUSLY hit my pocket.
I can comfortably say that in terms of reduced workflow time, my having to bug-fix clients problems, waiting on the phone for support and lost business due to customer dissatisfaction with Actinic, I have lost a few thousand pounds.
I like Actinic as a product and I am hanging on for the 9.03 release, but make no bones about it, I and a LOT of other people out there are having serious problems at the moment.

[RuralWeb]

A totally inadequate level of formal testing procedures appears to be in place.

Many of us predicted this when V9 was released BUT I do know that Actinic Towers have taken this onboard and many of the forum members have now been involved with 9.0.3 so as you say fingers crossed.

[Faulkds]

Don't hold your breath...

It's a famous support phrase....

Either its "have you tried rebooting" or "its fixed in the next release"

I had big problems going from v7 - v8 for various reasons.
Actinic had my snapshot for weeks and couldn't resolve the issues.

Then when the support contract was about to expire I told Actinic that I wouldn't pay for this years. I was told "it will all be fixed in version 9" That was fine but i had to live with my problems for months..... :-)

Anyway, you know what they say - if you don’t like the product then use something else :-)

Unfortunately, I'm tied in as there's no way I would try migrating my site to another product.

[RuralWeb]

It's a famous support phrase....

Certainly is

Fortunately all my V9 sites are working Ok so Im waiting for 9.0.3 to break them

[Faulkds]

Hi Mal,

So are mine

Not that helps

To be honest, I just use the product... As long as the sites keep taking the cash then im happy

If it aint broke .......

[parklifeclothes]

Not wanting to cause too many arguments I would say the forum is made up of 3 distinct groups, those at the top, the designers who work day in day out and make a living from building/maintaining sites, then there is the actineers, who make money from their own site/sites and have a degree of knowledge of what can and can't be done with the software and finally there are those that want to make a living from the software but barely have a clue.

The current 'problem' with the software is that too many people are trying to do too much without understanding it and when it goes wrong blaming the 'tools', some of the questions being asked are quite shocking, and I suppose if you are new and struggling you will quickly type in a question and hope for an instant answer, but there seems to be more and more new 'designers' members asking the most basic of questions that if I were paying them to build my site I would be very cheesed off that they are 'selling' something they know nothing about. Come on, if you are making a living from building sites, i would expect you to know what forms the basis of the clients site/way of living actually does.

I personally (with limited knowledge) have run V8.0.0.0 and now V9.00 or whatever it is with barely a crash in 2+ years and just one call to actinic cover when my hard drive destroyed the perl scripts and this I put down to not taking the sites to places I don't understand and probably never will. Whilst still paying for cover as a way of receiving upgrades and back up I now 'employ' a designer to take the site to those levels and be my mentor.
My advice to anybody struggling is have a go, but keep to within your own tolerances, take back ups (I learnt by not doing so and having to start from scratch) and read the knowledge base, it is very precise and actually has most of the answers. If like me you then want to develop your site further, employ someone, I'm glad I have, it's saved my sanity!!!

[cbarling]

Just a quick update on Business Plus performance issues.

Nearly 90% of Business Plus customers do not seem to have an issue with performance.

Of those that do, we believe we have found the problem. In our test, by fixing this particular problem, one customer's 30 second response time has gone down to 3 seconds. Not perfect, but much better.

Unfortunately, this fix is not in 9.0.3 which we now have on private beta. However, we expect it to be available fairly soon and it will be offered to selected customers before general release.

Apologies if you have been experiencing these problems, and also apologies if you have been told that the problem is fixed in v9.0.3. There are a number of performance improvements in v9.0.3, but not this one. I am arranging for all front line staff to be briefed on this.

Please email our Product Development Director, Ben Dyer, on BDyer (@) actinic.co.uk if you are having these problems and would like to try the fix.

Chris

[RuralWeb]

Please email our Product Development Director, Ben Dyer

he can now put that shiny new DELL to work then

[Benjamin Dyer]

he can now put that shiny new DELL to work then

Lol, thanks Mal. I'd like to point out it has smoke coming out of the USB ports most days.

[RuralWeb]

time for an upgrade then

[TraceyHand]

Make sure it's thoroughly tested before upgrading...just in case

[Darren B]

time for an upgrade then

I seem to remember CB wanted to know why he never got a new one. Cant see this one being upgraded anytime soon

Make sure it's thoroughly tested before upgrading...just in case

ouch

[nileshpa]

I think there are 3 major issues here with Actinic.

Firstly. Actinic as a product itself is very flexible and allows extreme customisation. This itself manifests its own problems where novicies with limited knowledge are diving into it, breaking it and then raising calls to Support desk for help. Secondly, this support desk itself has been going through significant changes at both, staff & location levels which hasn't helped. Compounded to the two above is the third & most crucial issue, namely the "buggy" release called V9.

What I have read on the forum is that V9 & in particular V9.0.2, has probably been the worst release ever produced by Actinic. This has affected your common/average users who have paid over the odds for support subs year on year. By this group, I mean the users who do not fall into the novices group as mentioned above or the so called experts who have been using Actinic for years or selling their services. It is this primary group that have been very much dis-satisfied with Actinic at the moment. Had V9 been solid, Actinic Support would still have been able to handle the odd calls from novices who bodge up whilst sorting out their staffing issues.

My bigest gripe to date is the lack of info on V9.0.3 and the time its taking to arrive considering Actinic knows how bad 9.0.2 has been. I raised calls about severe performance problems and constant crashes way back in June and was asked to wait for V9.0.3 and I'm still suffering. Had someone said at the time that it will be a 3 months plus wait, than those on V9.0.2 including myself would have regressed back to V8.5.3. To date, all we've heard is that its coming, but then again so is the world cup which we've been waiting since '66.

Chris - I understand & appreciate that you are trying to sort out the support side and also that you want V9.0.3 to be solid. But Knowing how bad V9.0.2 has been and that quite a few users have upgraded and flooding the support desk with real problems, would it not have been better to provide a series of quick fixes for them and told everyone else to lay off V9.0.2.

Can we have some clear dates on the release of V9.0.3, what issues are cleared and what is pending. Let the punters then decide for themselves the right strategy for them to adopt. I think the punters deserve that, at least because they are the ones paying the subs year on year. So please keep them happy by talking to them. Communication is paramount here.

BTW - I may only have 18 months Actinic experience but was in IT for 25 years designing, developing & implementing large Global systems using Oracle, so I think I have a fair idea of what I'm doing within Actinic. I agree, my hands-on knowledge of HTML or CSS is limited, so according to Mal in post#117&118, I presume I fall into the inexperienced group. But, I do not ring support to get me out of situ as Mal has raised. I only use the Design view just to understand how it works under the bonnet and if I want to make changes I back it up first. If it doesn't work, regress back. Honest, Mal

Nilesh

[grantglendinnin]

My bigest gripe to date is the lack of info on V9.0.3 and the time its taking to arrive considering Actinic knows how bad 9.0.2 has been. I raised calls about severe performance problems and constant crashes way back in June and was asked to wait for V9.0.3 and I'm still suffering. Had someone said at the time that it will be a 3 months plus wait, than those on V9.0.2 including myself would have regressed back to V8.5.3. To date, all we've heard is that its coming, but then again so is the world cup which we've been waiting since '66.

I'd agree with every point you made up until then, with the exception of that last line right there. I can assure you the world cup won't be coming to the Queen's land any time soon, but then again, I spoke to a guy yesterday who also uses Actinic and was told word on the grapevine 9.0.3 will be released by the year end at best. I for one certainly hope this ain't true. Had Actinic informed us all of a realistic delivery time for 9.0.3, the majority of those who upgraded to v9 would have left these shores by now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it in the terms that once you use your existing v8 license to 'upgrade', you therefore forfeit that license key and your v8 becomes obsolete? Unless of course Actinic are willing to admit that v9 has so far been a complete farce and hand back the v8 licenses...