Thanks J for a very useful response. I've barely scratched the surface with MLO, but can already see the power and flexibility of the Windows version. As an environment for doing the main work of planning and organising it's the best I've seen, bar none, but it's having a good client on my Android phone that really brings it to life because an awful lot of the 'doing' will be done away from my PC. I have considered using a Windows tablet, but a well thought-out Android phone companion is a much belter proposition so I'm pleased to hear that MLO is putting in the effort here.
I also think MLO is on the right track by not limiting the power of the desktop to harmonise functions with the intrinsically more limited phone apps. As long as I can have the tasks behave as programmed on the desktop I'm quite happy to have to do all the tricky stuff back at the PC (I'm thinking of the recurrence options etc. which are only fully available on the PC, but once set and synced, tasks behave correctly on the phone). My issues - at least the ones I've contacted support about - are all Android or sync related. The more involved questions have been well handled by the responses from in the forum. However, my point really is that having confidence in the system you're using is absolutely essential - the 'trusted system' that's the very foundation stone of the GTD and other methodologies depends entirely on the user being able to 'trust' it otherwise simply cannot work. This being so, having a support system that's predictable and reliable is an absolute must, even if it has limitations. My experience has been that the current system (or personnel) simply don't have a good appreciation of this. Tolqua. On Thursday, 12 May 2016 18:05:57 UTC+1, J Smith wrote: > > Yes, when I first moved to MLO I experienced very similar problems. I > ruffled a LOT of feathers when I first arrived. I think my posts got banned > for a while too. (Too many posts too quickly??). I expected a vibrant > active forum with the ability to get some quick-fire help from a buzzy > triving community, plus reasonable support form the developers. > > However in my experience MLO support is extremely sleepy and unresponsive. > Worse, the developers whose first language is not English seem to be busy > developing the mobile apps and development on Windows seems to have stopped > for a number of months. > > On the up-side, MLO on Windows is an extremely mature product that has > almost zero bugs. And although this usergroup is small and slow-ish, it is > extremely thoughtful, so it pays to ask your questions extremely carefully. > > Imagine a gentlemans' club full of highly intelligent old-timers reading > their newspapers an you will have this forum. In my experience, forget MLO > staff, this forum is probably the best support you will get around here - > unaccepatable though that is. > > As a new user MLO is frankly a nightmare. Urgent questions are not > answered. The documentation is woefully inadequate. It seems clear to me > that MLO have barely even done any trials with new/mainstream users. > > However on the up-side, MLO is brilliant in many ways: It is but > astonnishingly configurable. The ability to assign hotkeys for very close > to everything you can think (including Contexts) of is a godsend. I love > having multi-level tasks & projects. And trivially easy changing between > task and project. Multi-selections - the ability to select multiple rows > at once and then have whatever you do next apply to them is absolutely > remarkable. As is conditional formatting. And designing your views by > writing your own Advance rules... > > All-in-all, once users have tried all the other systems they often come > back to MLO. Frankly it is much more of a task management "platform" than a > ready to go "application". i.e. It is much more the domain of the extreme > geek, than the busy business executive. > > In my opinion, despite MLO's remarkable strengths, in the end it is > crippled by having a database architecture that doesn not include a field > for "Area of Life", nor a field for "GTD List" to facilitate easy moving of > tasks & projects between GTD lists. However, the old timers around here > seem to have evolved their own work-arounds and nobody seems to agree nor > care very much. [DEEP sigh] > > I have asked around on other forums (e.g. > http://forum.gettingthingsdone.com) and there doesn't seem to be anything > better and certainly nothing as highly configurable. If you are interested > in the GTD method, an want something that is much simpler and better > configured as a ready to use application then another site that could be > useful is GTDNext.com, however after a blaze of initial progress about 1 > year ago they have gone very quiet. > > Anyhow, that's my completely honest take of the situation. > > So on balance I recommend you persevere with MLO. If you find anything > better please let us/me know. > > J > > > On Thursday, 12 May 2016 15:22:15 UTC+1, Stéph wrote: >> >> Hello Tolqua, >> >> Not seeing your correspondence trail, it's hard for me to comment. >> However, I'll note that I've never had any problems with getting replies to >> support issues from MLO. Note that this forum is on Google. I don't think >> any of the rest of us have been having problems with posts getting delayed, >> so maybe there was some problem with your Google account? If so, that's >> not MLO's fault. >> >> One thing you'll notice from previous discussions here - Once >> correspondence turns from urgent support requests to requests for features >> or comments on how MLO could work better, we don't necessarily expect to >> get replies. They get loads of requests and suggestions, which would start >> to get hard to deal with on an individual basis, and we just have to hope >> that our ideas have got noticed and are being considered. >> >> So, the reduction in response you've been getting from support could >> really depend on quite a lot of possible causes. As with other software, >> they rely on a responsive user group - Youi're best off continuing your >> discussions on these Google Groups, now that your questions are getting >> posted again. Dwight is an advanced user and very helpful and the rest of >> us might interject occasionally, where we think we might have something to >> offer. >> >> Stéph >> >>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/244ff12c-b7d2-4a1a-8ff3-78e31172a037%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
