* okay, some of us might be tapping our feet in impatience, but you're all doing such an amazing job, and have been for these few months since ScrivWin dropped on us. You deserve a break. And if Keith objects, we'll shout at him.
18th MARCH - LEE'S UPDATE
Look mate, someone needs to say it. I know the others are too polite and too proper, so it's left to me. So... see that computer screen? Turn it off, then call some of your friends, and then head to a bar and have a royally good time. Don't dare log in here for two days, and don't dare think about Scrivener. It will be here when you get back, and we'll be waiting.
* okay, some of us might be tapping our feet in impatience, but you're all doing such an amazing job, and have been for these few months since ScrivWin dropped on us. You deserve a break. And if Keith objects, we'll shout at him.
* okay, some of us might be tapping our feet in impatience, but you're all doing such an amazing job, and have been for these few months since ScrivWin dropped on us. You deserve a break. And if Keith objects, we'll shout at him.
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altocumulusal
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2010 2:03 pm
- Platform: Windows
- Location: Scotland
p.s.
Scrivener becomes inactive on 25 March !!!!
Scrivener becomes inactive on 25 March !!!!
Scrivener 1.9.0.0 for Windows on --- Laptop running Windows 10
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jmsthorntonjm
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:03 am
- Platform: Windows
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
Lee,
Taking up narrsd's well made point @ Sat Mar 19, 2011, The "short-fire cut-off dates for releases" presumably had an original justification in building trust and a sense of reliability amongst users, showing that Scrivener is not one of these "big companies that over promise". However I think the negatives of cut-offs are beginning to outweigh the positives.
Firstly, I get a picture that Scrivener for Windows releases are highly dependent on one person - you. While this is admirable, it leaves you with little redundancy - no extra sources of labour or resources when things slip - and makes events like this week an instance of what Perrow called a "normal accident". (Yes, I'm using Scrivener for my thesis). If more people were involved in developing Scrivener for Windows, you could afford the brinksmanship of rendering Beta versions inactive on a regular basis. However you have to deal with facilitating the way things are, when it is just you which in my view makes removing cut-offs an option.
It might have a second justification in setting a deadline you feel you just have to meet. Psychologically I can see the sense in that (my thesis again - who doesn't panic at a deadline?) but you have a psychological advantage over us. You can do something about it. We users on the other hand are just rendered impotent and anxious.
The third possible justification I can guess at is that maybe you don't want free buggy versions floating around when the finished paid version is available. That is admirably responsible, but my suggestion is to leave beta's with no cut off. Just stop making them available for download as you do now when they are superseded. Then you have shifted the responsibility to the user to move from the dodgy buggy version to the new version, rather than taking it on yourself. At about $45, who in their right mind would continue to use that dodgy buggy version after the completed 'alpha' comes out? (And presumably with no support other than advice to upgrade.)
We users can all breath more freely and will have our own agency back if you remove the cut-off, and you get to do things such as have weeks as you just did. You can still set a time-frame for intended updates. But it gives you an off-ramp on the speeding freeway of software development. From our point of view, keeping us informed on progress is much more important than keeping us up to date with software.
Taking up narrsd's well made point @ Sat Mar 19, 2011, The "short-fire cut-off dates for releases" presumably had an original justification in building trust and a sense of reliability amongst users, showing that Scrivener is not one of these "big companies that over promise". However I think the negatives of cut-offs are beginning to outweigh the positives.
Firstly, I get a picture that Scrivener for Windows releases are highly dependent on one person - you. While this is admirable, it leaves you with little redundancy - no extra sources of labour or resources when things slip - and makes events like this week an instance of what Perrow called a "normal accident". (Yes, I'm using Scrivener for my thesis). If more people were involved in developing Scrivener for Windows, you could afford the brinksmanship of rendering Beta versions inactive on a regular basis. However you have to deal with facilitating the way things are, when it is just you which in my view makes removing cut-offs an option.
It might have a second justification in setting a deadline you feel you just have to meet. Psychologically I can see the sense in that (my thesis again - who doesn't panic at a deadline?) but you have a psychological advantage over us. You can do something about it. We users on the other hand are just rendered impotent and anxious.
The third possible justification I can guess at is that maybe you don't want free buggy versions floating around when the finished paid version is available. That is admirably responsible, but my suggestion is to leave beta's with no cut off. Just stop making them available for download as you do now when they are superseded. Then you have shifted the responsibility to the user to move from the dodgy buggy version to the new version, rather than taking it on yourself. At about $45, who in their right mind would continue to use that dodgy buggy version after the completed 'alpha' comes out? (And presumably with no support other than advice to upgrade.)
We users can all breath more freely and will have our own agency back if you remove the cut-off, and you get to do things such as have weeks as you just did. You can still set a time-frame for intended updates. But it gives you an off-ramp on the speeding freeway of software development. From our point of view, keeping us informed on progress is much more important than keeping us up to date with software.
Just FYI--and I say this as one who's defended a doctorate in recent memory--putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. Scrivener is great, but you should be exporting to different formats you can import into a word processor, need be. Those files--and other copious backups--should be kept in safe places, both on your computer, off your computer, and somewhere geographically different to you. (With a friend, a family member, even mailed to yourself on gmail.)
You can never have too many backups, copies of the file, or ways to work on said file, because without some sort of redundancy, you're well and truly screwed in a catastrophic computer failure.
You can never have too many backups, copies of the file, or ways to work on said file, because without some sort of redundancy, you're well and truly screwed in a catastrophic computer failure.
Slackware-current 64-bit, XFCE