CompuServe Messages

I blame the hobbyists. 🙂 A casual computer user is willing to accept lousy products because they don't need to rely on them; they just want the lights to blink and the screen to jump and the speaker to squeek. A serious, professional user – even a shoe-string, cheapskate professional user – will get extremely upset at bugs and lousy manuals. They should, no matter what size the company that made the product. My advice about products with what you judge to be lousy manuals, poor quality control, extortionary upgrades: don't buy them. Write the developer a letter and tell them why. I'd be willing to bet that some software manuals were written by the programmer, six-pack in hand, ten minutes after they considered the program "finished." Finished for now, of course. Finished enough, because the advertising hits this month, or the newsletter has reached the public… The way to prevent it? Don't buy those products? The problem is, there's ten hobbyists in line behind you. When you walk away, they buy it, then they tell you it's the greatest thing and you really should buy it. 🙂