SECOND -- I too am very disappointed by this whole scenario. The biggest attaction to Declude has been the "transparency" of the product and it's support.
An official slogan for Declude might have been "of the tech, for the tech, by the tech". It's the only product that was 100% on the same philosophy and thinking that most of us have as techs/admins versus the suits/marketing types at Imail and other vendors.
With this new feature, it is clear the "new owners" (suits) are calling the shots.
That is true -- and that is the way that it should be. :)
As John pointed out, we are essentially "testing the waters" here. It's a chance for the new owners and myself to see how they operate. Remember, they haven't been in the anti-spam/anti-virus business as long as I have. They are not (yet) experts in this industry. They are going to make mistakes. It's only by making mistakes and learning from them that they can effectively take over this business. If I just tell them what to do, they aren't going to be running the business, and they aren't going to be able to add anything to it. If I guide them, they can learn, and become experts with a very strong business background and a tech edge.
That's ok, afterall, one can expect Declude to remain a one-man show for ever and still be in business, but it is, of course, disappointing to see Declude slide and decline to the same level as most other vendors.
Rather than thinking of it as sliding and declining, how about thinking of it as the new owners starting at the same level as most other vendors (where they would naturally start), and me guiding them up to where Declude has been.
What is MOST ANNOYING, is the lack of transparency with this new feature. It comes with a turnkey auto-installer that mucks with our crucial config files rather than telling us what to do, it doesn't explain what it did, and the test itself was obscure without any good technical background on what it does, how it works, etc.
It's also important to remember that one of the biggest costs in selling software is support. And we (including me) spend a lot of time with people that just shouldn't be running a mailserver. Heck, even people who know what they are doing can get mislead by Windows sometimes ("I'm *POSITIVE* the file is named global.cfg, not global.cfg.txt -- Windows Explorers says so!", where Windows Explorer is hiding the .txt extension). We (both the new management and myself) figure that an install program for Declude and a GUI interface is going to help reduce the support requirements (which makes us and new customers happy). Think of this as a test run for those. With input from this, we can help ensure that the install/GUI goes more smoothly than it otherwise might.
My personal assessment is this was intentionally a "dry run" of a mediocure new feature (witness all the reports of huge false positives) and the real thing here was Declude testing a new methodology for them to roll-out optional services tied to current customer SA's. I assume the next step would be to have some of these new features sold as options and require additonal payment. (The mechanism to verify customer SA's could easily extend to verifying purchase of optional components).
This new strategy of slicing the baloney thinly and starting to charge for every new piece is exactly the traditional vendor approach that we hate and loved Declude for avoiding.
FWIW, I can't see that happening. The owners are aware that there are ways to get more money out of existing customers, but they also know the value of a happy customer. They haven't raised any prices, which they could have easily done. They haven't switched the focus of Declude to target the bigger fish out there.
There's a reason that I am here responding at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon. There are a lot of other things that I can be doing. One of my main concerns about finding new management for Declude was that my customers would be treated well. And I am quite confident that will happen.
-Scott
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