We realize that when we’re not on the forum for a long period of time that this may cause some concerns that things are not being addressed or that somehow you are not being heard; we assure you that this is not the case. If you look at the past you’ll know that these silent times are necessary and indicate how busy we are working on things to benefit you, for the software and for the company. Remember that the time we are on here talking with you is borrowed time from working on the software and fixing/adding the things you are asking about. There is no one else doing the work for us while we are engaged in something else. I know that sometimes people fall into the habit of judging us in the same way as a huge company with an endless staff of programmers and developers to work on every possible thing at once, and if that were us some of the comments raised would be entirely valid and we’d likely have asked them of ourselves; but it’s not. We are in the process of working with some interested parties so we can grow the company and provide a base to deliver more of the things you like from us, in the way that we’ve wanted. For these things to happen you must understand that there are certain things we have to do and certain things we can’t always do at the time; and you may not understand why. You have a choice on this forum whether you want your actions and your words to have a positive or negative effect on bringing you what you want. We can’t always just lay out a roadmap of what’s going to happen because we wouldn’t just be laying it out for you, we’d also be laying it out for our competition. And in some cases the map is being put together with people other than ourselves, and it may not be the right time, or be appropriate, to lay it out. We understand that sometimes this causes some frustration (we’re not happy about it either), but every time we have to go on here and put out a fire because someone doesn’t understand or is upset is time taken away from getting to you the very things you are telling us you want and that you feel we need to do.
Now lets clear up some things and give everyone a little more insight into our world.
[b]TIME AND THE LITTLE BIG THINGS: [/b]
[i]Development time, features and things that get left undone from version to version. [/i]
If it takes us one week to track down and come up with a solution to a bug (or feature), or look into a question that someone has asked us, that means that if two people report something (different), then we’re two weeks out; four things to check can mean one month out, etc. Now you can see how easy it is to have a couple months go by working on things before they are visible to you and when they finally do come out they seem like things that shouldn’t have taken long. If you concentrate on just the thing you may have asked about, it doesn’t make sense. If you however realize that are other people who want or need to know something too it becomes clearer that some of these things only Lyle, Dan and I can deal with; and that means stopping one thing to work on them, or holding off on them, to finish what’s currently being worked on.
[b]WHAT YOU SEE AND WHAT YOU DON'T SEE IN AN UPDATE:[/b]
There will be updates where it will be apparent what was done and to what extent. But there will also be updates where it seems like only a little bit of stuff has been done, and that’s because it’s stuff under the hood, that either paves the way for what you’re asking about, or takes care of things that we found we’d like to change; but it’s all for the benefit of your experience with the software, and to make it easier for us to deliver things you ask for, in the time you want them. Because you don’t see them, doesn’t make them any less valid, or take any less time.
[b]WHY WE POST UPDATES SOMETIMES BEFORE THE DOCS ARE READY[/b]
We are one of the few companies that actually give you new features and improvements with our bug fix patches, and don’t have you pay for them. Normally you’d just get a patch and a little note about what was fixed. Don’t take this as “we wasted time on new features instead of fixing something.” It’s not always that simple. Time for fixing things is funded by time for selling things and we must devote time to both. If the patch is for fixing bugs and the features are extra, then it doesnt make sense for us to delay posting fixes that can help someone with a problem just to wait on docs for the extra stuff. You don’t need the docs, or even a list of what was fixed, to get an immediate benefit from the fixes. Docs are naturally going to take longer to do because one person has to understand in a couple of days what you get the rest of the year to go over, in order to present it and possibly make a note or tutorial; and they usually can’t be done until the feature is finished. Once again, that shouldn’t delay people who want to try it and can figure it out, from using it, if it’s ready. Other companies finish the updates and sit on them for weeks or more until the docs are ready.
[b]YOUR PART IN MAKING THE SOFTWARE BETTER:[/b]
People who have contacted us in a positive manner with a request or a bug have had the experience of seeing that item worked on and addressed in a future update, or sometimes that very week, if that item was able to be resolved in that timeframe. Even Thomas. I know it’s hard to believe sometimes, but even Thomas has sent us a positive email, and gotten a positive result back from it. 
Suggestions get better results than demands, and constructive criticism gets better results than insults. So if you don’t see an item addressed yet, it’s not because we don’t care; we can’t work on all of them at once, and we have to deal with them in order of what can be accomplished quickly, importance of global effect, or limited internal changes to accomplish-- and different things are important to different users. Even we have to step away from our computers from time to time, to eat and sleep (sometimes), and try to keep up appearances that we have a normal life We have no droids (yet) , or magic monkey minions (on back order), to do our bidding when we step away. So don’t be deceived by how simple something looks like it SHOULD be to do. Almost no code is an island; a change to one thing can cause a change to another.
If you ask a question or send an email and it takes a little while for us to respond, try to remember that we do everything you see, from developing the software, to designing and managing the website, trying to answer questions on different forums, making videos, meeting with clients, right down to the CD you receive when you purchase. Even the developer’s time is required in these things. We have great people who work with us, sacrificing their time to make everything happen, and they get their cues on whether it’s worth it from you, and they are human just like you.
We want messiah to be the best it can be, and the best way to achieve that it for all of us to work together. Some of the newer folks might not be aware how closely we work with our users and make them a part of messiah. There’s no huge beauraucray to go through with pmG. The people you talk to here or on the mailing list or through e-mail are the acutal people who are doing everything, not some underlings hired to respond to posts with an auto-reply message like “thank you for your comment, your message is very important to us but we can’t respond to all messages personally.” Sometimes, in order to do something all we require is just time and understanding; other times we’ll need you to do something (such as send a project file that illustrates the problem or requested feature), but it’s all for the same goal. Making software is almost like creating a living entity: it grows, it changes, it learns from itself and it makes mistakes-- then you send it out in the world to meet people and it grows some more. We recently saw a suggestion by someone on gathering a list of things together and see which ones everyone can come to some kind of consensus on, to prioritize. These are the kinds of things that move things forward for us and for you. We may not always be able to do things exactly the way everyone wants in the time they want it, but it will never be without a good reason. We know that many times your frustration is basically the same as ours, you see the potential of what the software not only is, but what it can become if only… and it’s the “if only” that we’re working on.
From all of us at pmG.