Oh puh-lease
Gregg Eldred commented earlier today about a comment he saw over at Vowemart...
For some time, we are evaluating switching to Lotus Notes from a mail and collaboration system we put together on our own. Reading blogs like this, Ed Brill's and some other forums discussing Notes and Domino, I see bashing Notes and IBM all the time. Client bloated and slow, IBM unresponsive and ignoring community requests, platform independence just an empty promise, license model intransparent, too expensive, Notes as trojan horse for WebSphere, slow release cycles, etc.
No matter how impressive the feature set and concept of Notes are, I'm just wondering if we should just stop thinking about investing in Notes if this software and its company causes so much frustration within its own community.
Of course, every one jumps on to say "it's just tough love" or "a vibrant community is what Lotus is all about" or whatever personal rationalization they choose for that split second.
What complete bullshit.
Look, there is such a thing as tough love. There's also nasty, sarcastic, persistent undermining of someone else's good effort. And when I look at the list of names responding, I see an awful lot of people that like to grouch about the Lotus product line rather than publicly promote it, in spite of the fact that the yellow product line has paid for their families and homes for the last decade or so.
Afraid of being pigeon-holed as a fanboy? Fine. That's certainly a reasonable concern. But you can't tell me that Notes 8 isn't a stylistic revolution. You can't tell me that Lotus isn't sinking massive investment dollars into the product line. You can't tell me that Symphony isn't a bull's eye on the financial jugular of the principle competition. You can't tell me that Xpages aren't a huge leap forward. You can't tell me that cost-of-ownership isn't plummeting. You can't tell me that Lotus isn't shipping product at an absolutely blinding speed. And you can't tell me that Lotus' public attitude and marketing isn't a major leap forward from 3 years ago.
Or at least, if you claim otherwise, you're a bald face liar.
When someone walks in to see your "tough love" and sees a list of responses like this one -- how can you miss that YOU ARE THE PROBLEM?!?!
Smacking the smirk off your benefactor's face is smart when they really are trying to sneak a knife behind your back. But when someone sees the error of their ways, and moves millions of manhours to correct it, it's time to quit bitching and get behind the efforts that you've been pleading for over the last 5 years.
What's the thing that set all this off? That the Notes client for the single most closed, proprietary vendor on the planet won't properly full-text search against attachments until Notes 9.
Awww... cry me a river. A marginal set of users miss out on a marginal aspect of a severely underused piece of functionality that has no competitive counterpart, and it's suddenly death-by-Websphere all over again. *eye roll* They might actually have to wait until the next major point release!
Heaven forbid that anyone simply accept that writing software for a vendor that's galactically famous for secrecy and obfuscation of their platform might pose a challenge that takes some extra time to address. Instead, let's all engage in rampant, baseless speculation about unannounced ship dates with no basis in evidence whatsoever. Because that's just good community. That shows we really care.
Listen Lotus community: you are being played like a Stradivarius. You don't have to be a fanboy to promote a piece of technology. You DO have to do more than regurgitate press releases. But it's not rocket science to identify the real value behind the latest in Lotus technology. Just start clicking.
Comments
Posted by Richard Schwartz At 02:02:04 AM On 09/09/2008 |
truly sick to death of constant bleating based on other peoples marketing and seriously marginal issues.
Unfortunately its been going on for years...probably mainly due to MS FUD and IBM's mishandling of marketing in Notes earliest days and the websphere debacle.
Nobody seems to have noticed recently (other than you) that while IBM still haven't implemented an MS rip-and-replace model (oh so profitable!) Notes supporters have managed to make a pretty good living now for more than a decade - starting from 1994 in Australia.
the other irritating thing is that those same people who complain so loudly also (off line and invisibly)will tell you what a great and truly flexible platform it is... the cruel irony
Posted by owen b At 02:06:50 AM On 09/09/2008 |
BTW Chrome brakes it and goes to the page linked.
Posted by Vitor Pereira At 04:59:45 AM On 09/09/2008 |
I also like how my colleague Sarah Lachance took that discussion about FTI search of attachments on the Mac client back to the IBM forums, where exactly three other people had complained about the problem. The intersection of Lotus + Mac fanboy tends to produce some loud results, but they are, as you say, highly disproportionate versus the overall issues in the market. That's not to say this issue should be ignored...far from it. But there's a thoughtful way to discuss and express concern, versus the "this must be fixed immediately" or "this product is a joke" smugness that instantly emanates when such criticisms arise in certain corners.
To some degree, we are all being gamed. A few weeks ago, Yancy adjusted the "Hot blogs" algorithm on PlanetLotus.org. Now, only "Lotus-related" posts would count for making that list. All of a sudden, vowe.net resumed past operations of Lotus-sniping, and these little tiny, somewhat funny, somewhat disappointing bits of IBM sloppiness get blown up into witty one-liner blog entries with no actual commentary. In at least one case, the word "notes" was used unusually in a non-Lotus-related entry to trigger the Lotus-related word count on PL. Maybe the vowe.net readership isn't quite as big as everyone believes it is, and the traffic from PlanetLotus is needed as some sort of validation.
Someone asked me yesterday about how I was getting along with Volker Weber lately. I said, I count Volker as a friend, but of late, I've been doing that silly American thing and letting business interfere with our friendship. I don't endorse vowe.net -- quietly dropped it from my blogroll months ago -- and simply stopped getting so excited about it.
And in the meantime, we had another record-setting quarter for Notes, shipped a great 8.0.2 release, came out with Lotus Protector, updated Lotus Symphony, and have more exciting announcements in store this month. The community has contributed to every single one of these positive efforts -- the focus on performance of the Notes 8.0.2 client came directly from and was validated by bloggers and readers as a major constituent (I personally signed up over 100 beta testers for 8.0.2). So, I'll keep going, even if one grouch-in-the-corner website wants to keep going, too.
Posted by Ed Brill At 05:28:32 AM On 09/09/2008 |
I think even an American would recognize the irony in the consummate critic attempting to suppress all criticisms. When you think you're the emperor on your post-modern throne, the last thing you want is for someone to point out that you blog naked.
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 07:06:02 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Ah well, all Empire die someday!
Posted by Vitor Pereira At 07:11:40 AM On 09/09/2008 |
RoB
Posted by Roberto Boccadoro At 07:37:46 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Maybe there is a Napoleon complex issue, I don't know. But more importantly, I don't care.
Posted by Gerry Shappell At 08:00:17 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Good post, though, Nathan. I'm wondering if he even reproduced the problem since he's not a Notes user...
Posted by Chris Whisonant At 08:27:33 AM On 09/09/2008 |
I do agree his quote is politician-grade truthful.
However, so the full text index of a local replica on a Mac doesn't work 100%, but what about the ability to Spotlight search mail? That's part of 8.5, at least thus far.
The reason why we can seem "whiney" bunch at times, is because, IBM does listen. Compare 8.0.2 to 8.0.1 for instance.
Not that we get our way all the time, but the important thing is that customer-user centric design approach is here to stay.
Posted by Nelson Morris At 08:34:00 AM On 09/09/2008 |
"Dude.
Are you sure you don't have an agenda? I know, you're German, and that somehow makes you more "honest" than the rest of us (although most Germans I know aren't constantly negative... just tend to be more matter-of-fact than Americans), but where I come from, it's generally held that journalists are supposed to be not only honest but objective. Report the facts, and let the audience decide for themselves. Constantly raining on a single vendor's parade, on the other hand, gives me the impression that you're harboring some sort of grudge... that there's some deep pain you're trying to soothe. If you were truly honest or objective, sooner or later you'd find at least one feature or accomplishment to praise.
Please note that I'm not asking you to change what you write... this is your site and you can write whatever you want. But when you spout stuff like this with no possible positive result, don't be surprised if a few folks like me who are obviously less objective than yourself see it as petty, childish, and downright annoying."
Posted by Tim Tripcony At 08:40:27 AM On 09/09/2008 |
The Vowe.net BLOG has turned into the TMZ of our community. And the sad truth of the matter is the fact that 1) just like the gang behind TMZ/etc., he gets that shit like this brings in the hits and 2) I have to assume at this point that he generates such content to specifically lure that traffic.
Remember, getting eval/review hardware, software, and advertisements is based on hitcounts...
Posted by Chris Toohey At 08:48:36 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Posted by Jeff Gilfelt At 08:57:30 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Apple makes great computers. They also make great audio players and great phones and a great operating system. But they do not play well with others. They're famous for it.
That means their users suffer for it. I wish it weren't so, but the need is on Apple to open up in order to empower ISVs to deliver on their platform. If they don't do that, then the cost of using a Mac extends to more than just paying extra for hardware.
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 08:59:09 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Posted by Mark Dowling At 09:39:52 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Posted by John Head At 09:41:54 AM On 09/09/2008 |
That analysis is Exactly correct and spot-on Nathan. Thank you for saying what I was thinking when I read those other posts. The fact that there even exists Notes software for Mac at all should be LOUDLY applauded.
Posted by Paul Gagnon At 10:49:38 AM On 09/09/2008 |
After I posted that, and read the comments that it generated, it got me thinking about what other people may think about Lotus, simply based on blog posts. Peter's comment has merit. But how do you balance that with valid issues with IBM/Lotus or the Lotus brand? Tough question, I think.
I certainly don't have any answers, but I am glad that Peter made me think about it. And, based on the comments you have generated here, it is a worthy conversation.
Posted by Gregg Eldred At 11:23:01 AM On 09/09/2008 |
Posted by David DeWell At 11:28:50 AM On 09/09/2008 |
1) As every good manager knows, you praise in public, punish in private. That's motivation 101. It's no different when you're trying to motivate a vendor -- because companies are made up of individuals, and those individuals have emotional reactions like anyone else. Public shaming should be a measure of last resort, not the first thing you do when you have a question.
2) If you want your voice to be prioritized, then you have to demonstrate leadership. There are several ways to do that, but the two most obvious are to either be a revenue leader -- by driving real business, or a thought leader -- by driving real public-facing value. Blogging in general is a thought leadership approach, but there has to be VALUE to it. If you only blog to gripe and talk about the weather, then what value did you create? How are customers and users made better off by your participation?
That's a question that every author should ask themselves, by the way: how have I made readers better off when they give me the gift of their attention? If you don't have an answer, then you're probably not getting it done.
3) The key thing about Peter's comment is that it draws attention to the fact that public negativity has real world consequences. When a person says "I can't find Domino work in the UK. IBM sucks" over and over again, they're creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course YOU can't find Domino work in the UK -- you're busy talking some people off the platform, while you're busy alienating others who are loyal to it. How could you possibly expect such an approach to have a positive outcome?
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 11:56:35 AM On 09/09/2008 |
{ Link }
Love it.
John, next time we meet, look me in the eye.
----* Bill
Premier BP since 85, BP since 01
Posted by Mild Bill At 05:39:32 PM On 09/09/2008 |
And Bill, I think you made a typo. How could you be a premier BP in '85, but not a BP until '01? Did you mean premier in '05?
Not that I'm disputing anything. Just trying to parse that signature.
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 07:24:02 PM On 09/09/2008 |
After more than a decade of working with Notes I find there are a small number of features in it that irritate me, but they are monumentally dwarfed by the excellent feature it has -- features that put it into a different league from the competition. And I say that as someone who no longer works as a Notes professional but who still uses it on a daily basis. I also work extensively with linux, windows and os x, and develop in another cross-platform toolset, so I'm not praising Notes out of any financial incentive, and I'm well aware of what the alternatives are.
Anyone who has nothing good to say about Notes is no expert when it comes to IT.
Posted by Bernard Devlin At 11:08:43 AM On 09/10/2008 |
@23 I don't think anyone would argue with that
Posted by Ben Poole At 11:28:17 AM On 09/10/2008 |
Posted by Pedro Quaresma At 11:58:51 AM On 09/10/2008 |
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 12:54:31 PM On 09/10/2008 |
Posted by Ben Poole At 03:04:06 PM On 09/10/2008 |
What did those gentlemen expect? To get endless 3000$ a day training contracts by just showing people notes admin stuff and a few @formulas. Or consulting contracts to inform people that Notes is better, because its simpler and leave them alone?
Technical, organizational and economic progress is a complex beast. Partial faillure, risk, disadvantages that in the end are outweighted by advantages are part of the process.
Allways accompanied by nay-sayers who prefer to specialize themselves in producing simple, need and plain wrong propaganda than to enter in a serious debate.
Posted by Axel At 06:21:43 PM On 09/13/2008 |