Anderton
Microapp
I know "how you do it". I have to do it every day. I hope Keith already knew it too. I am not saying your example is not "the way". It is great, you fixed a bug. I am saying you don't get a gold star for it. Fix some more, there are plenty that are easily replicated and comparitively low hanging fruit. It goes with the territory. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
You are not only missing the point, I believe you are misrepresenting it. I never said I fixed a bug, and I never asked for a gold star. I never even gave any props to Cakewalk for fixing a bug, which is expected from developers.
Please don't make things up. It would prefer to think it's beneath you. (And don't waste your time telling me to "fix more bugs." I can't write a line of code, except Kontakt scripting and SFZ files if you consider those "code.")
Re-read the original post. I pointed out that the person who started all this was THambrecht. The forum followed up on what he presented and came up with a recipe. My only involvement that I mentioned was coming up with some workarounds (which apparently is a callous and uncaring act...who knew!) to hold people over until if/when it got fixed.
This thread was all about a forumite, the forum, how a really important fix was prioritized based on the data THambrecht and the forum provided so Cakewalk could act on it, and I thought all those people deserved props. I summarized by saying: "I think THambrecht, the forum, and Keith deserve some props for underscoring the tangible benefits to having a partnership between the users and the company."
And I started it off by my saying that this showed "why this forum can be very, very cool." But also as this thread shows, that's not always the case.
I am aware that you personally did not fix a bug, but you certainly claimed to be part of it along with several other forum members and Keith. The 'you' refers to those involved...the partnership in your own words. You do not get a gold star.
What you showed an example of, is not that the 'partnership worked' but rather that when Cakewalk finally invests time in trying to solve a problem, and listens to forum members, it can be solved. The partnership has always been here..at least the forum end of it. So when Keith or any other Baker locks onto a problem until it is solved, it is because they decided to do so. We're here, and have been all along and begging for cooperation.
Try this, since you claim you want a better model... get someone to interact in the forum in an official capacity. Get an intern, hire someone, a forum member, whatever. He could dig into an issue which gets reported on the forum, give updates about fixes, sort out newbie issues from real bugs, that sort of thing.
When someone asks when MAC OS Alpha will be out, he can be the mouthpiece.
Even if he has to say "I can't comment on that", this is still better than SILENCE.
I actually consider "I don't know" a legit answer. I do not consider silence a legit answer.
He could certainly filter out some of the trivial from the real problems and allow developers to develop.
He could ask willing users to try to replicate a problem and discard those which cannot be.
He could probably eliminate half the post volume just by eliminating speculation.
We as users do not want silence.