Whil Hentzen (Pro*) <> wrote:
> Stephen the Cook wrote:
>> Malcolm Greene <> wrote:
>>> This would be a great way to retain VFP developers as Windows
>>> customers ... and would cost little or nothing to do so.
>>>
>>> I see no advantage to alienating such a loyal base of customers. No
>>> matter how much marketing money Microsoft spends, they can not buy
>>> the type of product loyalty and passion that the VFP community
>>> brings to the table.
>>>
>>> No other Microsoft product has garnered such a passionate base of
>>> customers.
>>
>> You have to be kidding. Each product M$ owns has a passionate base
>> of consumers. Word or Excel, Project. Need I go on?
>
>
> That's not exactly true. On the order of 'not true at all'. <s>
>
> Data point 1: VFP beta tests generate more participants by orders of
> magnitude than other products. When VFP was part of Visual Studio and
> the beta testing was all combined into one database, 8 of the top 10
> and
> something like 35 of the top 50 bug hunters were VFPers.
>
> Data point 2: The first few service packs for VS6 had almost no VFP
> updates. VFP developers had their nose out of joint until it was
> discovered that the VFP community had done such a good job of bug
> hunting during the beta that MSFT just didn't have much stuff to put
> into the first few service packs. Other communities didn't exhibit the
> same, er, passion, and thus had a LOT of fixes to jam into the first
> three SPs.
>
> Data point 3: At MVP summits since the mid-90s, the VFP community set
> themselves apart in a variety of ways. For example, in the auditorium
> in
> one of the first summits, there were, oh, maybe 150 people all spread
> out among the seats, a lot of loners reading through the material that
> was handed out at the door, a few groups of two or three, some quietly
> talking. And one big group of 20 or so, sitting down in front, making
> a
> big hairy ruckus, yapping with the 'softies on the stage, and just
> generally having a good time. Guess which product was represented by
> the
> group of 20.
>
> Data point 4: At the same MVP summits, MVPs would meet with the
> respective product teams. At the VFP meetings, MVPs and VFP developers
> asked about their spouses by name, exchanged presents, and swapped
> pictures of their kids. Other product teams spent most of their
> meeting
> team introducing each other, because the MVPs and developers didn't
> even
> know who each other were.
>
> Data point 5: Ricardo Wenger, after his stint as VFP lead, was asked
> by
> the triumvarate (Bill, Steve and Eric) to head up the MSFT community
> building effort. MSFT wanted to know why the VFP community actually
> had
> a community whereas other product groups just had a lot of
> participants.
>
> Data point 6: At the last MVP summit I went to, Fox MVPs all had
> matching t-shirts. Ahem. None of the other groups did. Although I
> heard
> that a number of them were heard muttering, "Yeah, well just wait till
> next year. We'll even have matching PENS!"
>
> I'm sure Ted can fill in with a number of examples that have escaped
> me...
>
> The Fox community _IS_ different.
Are you and Ted still part of the Fox community today? I will agree with
you that ten years ago your statements above were dead on. Unfortunately
they are memories and not the current state of affairs.
To be part of the Fox community now you should have done the testing of how
your apps were going to be altered on Vista. I'd say that maybe 10% of this
list went and did that. Ten years ago we all would have been over the
drill. Right?
Stephen Russell
DBA / .Net Developer
Memphis TN 38115
901.246-0159
"A good way to judge people is by observing how they treat those who
can do them absolutely no good." ---Unknown
http://spaces.msn.com/members/srussell/
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