Here are my observations/thoughts/conclusions/3 1/2 cents: (When I say Declude, I am talking about the company as a whole.)
1. David Barker is in the position of being in the middle of all of this. As such, nothing should be directed at David directly personally. He is doing the best he can with what he is given to work with. He is also human and subject to the same emotions we are. As such, he is not perfect and has made mistakes, some of which he would rather not admit to, but then again I have boxes full of those. David believes in Declude and us and wants us to succeed with Declude as well. He may not agree with decisions made by others for which he has to follow, but that is part of the job. (David, listening to the sound track from Iron Eagle on loud while taking a power nap does wonders for clearing the mind.) 2. Declude has made a number of mistakes since the change of ownership from Scott. Some of those are/were rather large. Some have been admitted to and others have been swept under the carpet. This has made many of us, including many of us power users, short fused when it comes to problems with Declude. This is to be understood and expected, but not necessarily right. There are those at Declude that are truly trying to clean that up, but for sure it is not easy. There are forces at Declude pushing for new avenues of revenue by introducing new features and products. While every business has a right to do this, how it is done and how it is perceived that it is done can mean a big difference on how the company is viewed by it customers, and prospective customers. 3. For the last couple of weeks or so, a carrot has been hung in front of us, or at least some of us that saw it. This was a new included test that was to help on identifying spam and viruses. That carrot was ZEROHOUR/CommTouch. Now, it has been introduced officially and low and behold most of us can not legally use it. Oh, but we can actually use it as part of a new product which is a Declude Gateway product. Well, talk about a bait and switch! I am very upset over this. There was mention of licensing restrictions by CommTouch and such and David was able to get them to allow us service providers to use albeit through a different means. I am sorry, but if details of how it was going to work including final negotiations were not finalized until very recently, nothing, not one word, should have been said about this until such agreements and licensing terms were finalized between Declude and CommTouch. As it is, this has left a big awful taste in my mouth, and frankly has not placed much confidence in what CommTouch has to offer us. That is not good business, nor does it foster good relationships. 4. As I had discussed with Barry, what over a year ago now, the possibility for some one such as myself to use a Declude Gateway product was time sensitive, in that the ever changing war on spam and viruses was necessitating changes in my configuration in the present time. In other words, I have already spent time and money on gateways to my Imail server as I could not wait for the anticipated time for the Declude Gateway product. So now, as a service provider the only way I could utilize ZEROHOUR if I wanted to is in a Gateway product which now I am not interested in purchasing. Others may be interested, but I would have to think most of us have already made some adjustments to our configuration in response to changes in the war on spam and viruses in the last year. In other words, the Declude Gateway product, which is not even officially out yet, is a late comer and is going to be playing catch-up in terms of install base. So, it remains to be seen as to how many service providers will consider purchasing the Declude Gateway product, irregardless of ZEROHOUR. 5. On the subject of licensing based upon revenue sharing, it will not work. Period! Some have tried to argue that if you can not make a profit on offering e-mail, then do not do it. Well, they do not understand. In this day and age, thanks to all the fly-by-night and el-cheapo-servicio-providio and the Mickey D's of hosting spam and virus filtering is not only necessitated by the onslaught of such trash but by the expectations of users and companies that it is automatically part of e-mail. Yes, there are those out there that still have morals and values and understand that quality service not only costs money but deserves to be paid, but in today's culture of me me me they are becoming fewer and further between. Sorry Declude, but you can not squeeze water out of a sponge that is just damp without putting tears or rips in it. (Go ahead, go home and try it.) Besides, if that is what CommTouch is insisting on, then CommTouch can go away, and don't let the door KEEK ya in the butt on the way out. So Declude, stop holding a carrot in front of us and concentrate on fixing bugs. Hey, we are human too. Concentrate on fixing one bug. Let us power users try it and report back. Then release it and go onto the next one. Like has been mentioned, lets get back to being a strong community helping one another. If you want to add new features/functions. Fine. Keep it quiet and use NDR with betas if you want, and when ready have all the Ts crossed and Is dotted and go for it. Yes, Declude has a right to make money. So do we. The problem is, most of us are wearing too many hats and have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out which one I am supposed to be wearing when the phone rings. John T eServices For You "Seek, and ye shall find!" --- This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com.
