------------------------------------------------------------------------ A poll associated with this post was created, to vote and see the results, please visit http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=73698 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question: Is third party plugins/applets important for your Squeezebox purchases ? - I won't buy any more Squeezebox products unless support for third party development is prioritized - I won't buy any more Squeezebox products unless the third party plugins I rely on is supported - I use third party plugins but I would still consider buying more Squeezebox products without them - I don't use third party plugins so they aren't important to my Squeezebox purchases ------------------------------------------------------------------------
DaveWr;504359 Wrote: > Yes it does, but the author is not supporting it..... > > a matter of time with the way the developers change features.... Well, officially Erland isn't supporting it on SB3 either... Yes, I know Erland is frustrated, but there is also a lot of over-reaction around.... No doubt that people like Andy, Michael and Ben (is Fletch still around?), are very much supportive of "we need 3rd party plugins"... Michael and Ben were (are?) 3rd party plugin authors long before they got hired and I'm sure they know exactly the frustration that Erland has. (And I'm sure Erland knows this...) The catch is most likely something they have hinted at. Well, two things most likely: 1) Touch is late. They are under a ton of pressure to get TinySC, the UI tweaks, buggy WMA codecs, etc fixed... now. I am sure this makes them grumpy when pressured... they don't have TIME to deal with anything else, and are feeling a lot of pressure. This also affects the API: "clean up, document, and enhance the API" is much lower on the priority list than "get the Touch shipping". 2) Big Companies are Painfully Slow. There has been an open bug about the licensing issues on Squeezeplay for, what, 2 years? This is all out of the hands of the folks who post here... they need someone in the corporate legal department to sign off on a better license. Getting some PR-shill to announce a 'Rededication to an Open API' etc takes forever. PR people are almost as slow as lawyers in writing their drivel. Now, don't get me wrong: I like Erland, he seems to be genuinely nice, and I rely on his plugins. I even contributed to his beer fund. But there's something about the tone of things around here: I like Andy, and Michael and Ben and the rest of the developers, too. I don't want to see them getting prematurely bald or grey, or just pissed off and frustrated as they try to put out multiple fires, especially since this one isn't their doing. (It's one thing to have to fix your own buggy software, it's another to have political nonsense holding you back from saying your mind, or doing what you want... most of us have experienced such nonsense at work, and I for one don't want to add to their headache.) That said, any ammo I can give them to complain to corporate about "we need to do something here, could you please get your ass in gear and fix the licensing concerns about SqueezePlay..." would be good. IMHO, it would be nice if Andy or Mickey could give Erland, Pippin, and other major contributors at least a side-chat. "Look, I know it sucks for you right now, and it sucks for us, too.. we're on your side, and we're going to keep fighting, but for the moment we have Touch to deal with as well, so it may take a bit." Not Official Corporate Crap. But human to human. I think that would do wonders. However it is trivial for me to say that: Big Corporations usually have no clue about communications, and the value of honestly talking to their customers without the PR shills in the middle. For some reason corporations LIKE that crap, even though most customers would rather have real contact. And, sadly, they often forbid such stuff because they like their own spin on things more than honesty. So Andy and the rest probably can't actually say the above to anyone, even though my guess is they would want to. (Again, Michael and Ben contributed a ton of code long before they were hired: they know how 3rd party developers feel.) Gotta remember who the 'enemy' is. Ancient Document that someone at logitech corporate should actually read: http://cluetrain.com As I've said before: third party plugins are so essential to Logitech that they used MusicInfoSCR in their product photos. Whether corporate recognizes that is another matter. -- snarlydwarf ------------------------------------------------------------------------ snarlydwarf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1179 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=73698 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
