<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by svpii:
I realize you don't know me and don't give a rat's ... what I think, but since this is a free venue, I'm gonna talk anyway 
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svpii, we do give a rat's hindquarters what you and the other FTers think; that's why we have these feedback forums and monitor them.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by svpii:
If you resent the fact that you have to maintain a free service, then change that.</font>
No no no no... I'm realizing that my original post is being taken entirely in the wrong direction. We don't resent maintaining a free service; we know the price (or lack of) is entirely up to us. What I meant in my posts was for people to put things into perspective, and realize that we're working on the system, putting in the extra hours/days, and playing phone tag with vendors, but that some things take time, and in the order of priorities, sometimes FT has to wait. That actually isn't the case this week, as we have been putting a good amount of time in speeding FT back up, or at least establishing why the drastic slowdown occurred.
I know that I went off (came out swinging, although that phrase always reminds me of There's Something About Mary and Warren) in my first post, but I didn't realize that it would be extrapolated to this extent.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by svpii:
There are a lot of us here with experience in web-based ventures, databases, middleware, hardware, etc. We are curious because we will understand what you tell us. And when we get answers like "it's not working like we thought it would", it's in our professional nature to ask more questions. </font>
Definitely understood; we do the same things here. But realize that we are in the same group, and while we're asking our own questions among ourselves, and especially with our tech providers, and dealing with the frustration that brings, it doesn't help any to be bombarded with the same questions over and over. I think we're pretty good about posting the resolution of problems in the tech forum, when we find out the answers, and we do post "working on it" when we've been notified.
No one likes criticism, and we're just as human as the rest. If the intention of the posts was purely benign, then I do apologize. But, as has occurred more times than can be counted, sometimes a person's thoughts aren't conveyed the way they're intended to (as seems to be the case with mine). I took a few of the posts to be cracks on our work, and those, coupled with the amount of repeated "postings" after the problem had been acknowledged, was a few straws too many. As developers, you understand that your work becomes personal, and when something breaks or is executed wrong, we're frustrated enough at ourselves, without the extra comments.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by svpii:
So I'm sorry if you had a bad day or week. But don't look at us as less than valued customers because we follow FT's established policies. You want we should send you a check??</font>
I don't believe I referred to you as less than valued customers. Obviously you're valuable, since users are what make a board live. And, as I said before, please continue to use the forums to alert us of tech problems. Just understand when we tell you we're working on it, that we don't need to keep being told about it...
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Dorian:
Give a copy to Randy while you are at it.</font>
I doubt I need to, as I I emailed him as soon as the first post was set; Besides, I'm sure he's received plenty of messages already. I'm sure I'll have some explaining to do, and I may walk with a limp for a week, or worse, but I knew that when I posted.