This is something I had been toying with for a long time, but didn’t see the potential to create change with it. I can see this
as a good forum where someone can come gripe, and actually get help with their problem. This alone will make this forum worthwile, but how can this be leveraged to create a change with Hash Inc itself.
Now, I am not starting a bashing thread, but to demonstrate the issue as I see it I would like to discuss my initiation into the world of Hash.
I had been using Blender and was looking for something with better character animation tools when I came across Alien Song on the net. One thing lead to another, and after a little research I decided to try AM out. So January 17th of 2002 I ordered my copy. I was like a kid before Christmas, all Hash’s marketing literature indicated that this was a professional quality app. Jan 22 I received the package. Giddy, I installed it, and dove into the manual to work through tutorials. Five minutes in, it crashed. I couldn’t work through a tutorial at all, it kept crashing. Frustrated I turned to the list, the avenue for support according to the literature. I got a snotty email from steve about list rules and all that, but didn’t get booted. I took advice installed the updates, still had problems. After a couple weeks I called Steve to ask if I could get a copy of 8.5 to work with until 9 became stable, I even offered to pay. Steve refused. “If this is something causing you too much greif you can return it for a full refund.” That of course wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted AM, and I wanted it to run.
Now to the point of this thread, I was a single voice. Steve saw me as a unique problem that could scare off potential AM users if I stuck around. His solution, get rid of one problem user to preserve potential future users. What does this have to do with anything? I beleive my situation was not unique, I just spoke up that is all. I am sure many threw their CD’s in a drawer and never used it again, or maybe toy with the idea of picking it up again later.
Bugs you can submit along with project files, which if reproducable they cannot argue. They just have to fix them, it doesn’t matter if only one person submits it. But with things like this, where the customer was set up to expect a high quality product, only to find that they paid for the priveledge of being part of the beta test team, only one person complaining will not matter.
So, my question: How do we plan to let Hash know when something like this is bothering us in such a way that they really see the true impact on their customer base? After all hash is a company, and they are ruled by the almighty buck.
As far as being a support forum, this will rock. The animaster list sucks for legacy support. “Upgrade to the latest” seems to be the standard reply to queries for help on anything prior to version 9.
Ok, lets start animatin’ . . .