There are two sentiments bouncing around here - one of a personal ownership of the 'revolution', which includes a commitment to contributing to the group, to make the community better as a whole, to in a mini-way save the world. That comes with an expectation that if I, the loyalist, am devoted to the movement, then my partner, the company, is also devoted to me, and has made a like commitment to me. It's a bit of a shock then to find that after being loyal, giving all your good ideas and solutions and bugreports freely to the company, and proudly watching the Revolution mature and grow as one would a child, that an idea turned into a product starts going off in ways you didn't expect. The revolution becomes The Revolution, and those involved are abandoned and disappointed.
The other group, fondly referred to here as the profit motive group, sees this all as a software tool whose purpose is to enable one to generate income. Those folks, with a sense of fairness, don't have any problem with paying for the potential to make their own money by using this tool. They also are less forgiving, with the attitude that since I paid what you asked, the product damn will better work. They are less understanding of the loss of the sense of family, of community. While they also contribute to the improvement of the product, it's for a different purpose - to improve the money making tool - a perfectly worthwhile goal.
Some of those here have a foot in both camps, as does the company. On the good side, this is a natural stage of progression of any movement where it starts to become institutionalized and is not longer a grass roots, seat of the pants operation. On the bad side, this is where many movements and companies fail, either abandoning their support group too abruptly or not being ready to deliver a fully developed product to the new 'customer base'. The current pricing structure is a clear attempt to bridge this gap, and the only thing missing is an equally clear and consistent message to the core supports who have given their support for free that they are an appreciated and valued entity; that while the company wishes it could continue to give it away in appreciation of their efforts, the new level of complexity of everything makes that impossible; that because the company does recognize the critical role these supporters have played will meet them halfway with a substantial gift of half the price; that while no longer free it's going to get way better really quickly for the benefit of everyone.
Peace,
John
Flowing Thought Educational Solutions ======================================= On Nov 2, 2003, at 10:20 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
A user said:
And, I believe, contrary to what most of us supporting and promoting MC over the years thought we were supporting and promoting. Like Ryno Swart, ``I am just a bit disappointed.'' Forget that: I am totally disappointed.
Frankly, I can't get into this sentiment. I really can't.
The only thing RunRev can do is make you an offer of a software product in exchange for pieces of paper with pictures of Presidents on them (or the Queen, or whatever). This offer essentially increases the number of options currently available to you.
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