Dear Mr. Moore,
In reply to:
The general sentiment I get from many of the posts is that some see a strong resemblance between Infopop and the Taliban.
With all due respect I think your comment is completely inappropriate. I can understand your desire to inject some levity into the discussion, and this was not the best way to do it.
In reply to:
Infopop currently has about 25 people.
I find this quite amazing, especially when you consider that WWWThreads, clearly head-and-shoulders above UBB by any measure, was written by one guy, in his spare time, working with a community of unpaid contributors. Perhaps it's time to re-examine your business model?
You state that Infopop has "made mistakes in the past;" that's fine, but it means as much as some bureaucrat coming forward and taking "personal responsibility." What I would like to know is what you are going to do specifically to ensure that WWWThreads does not go down the road of UBB.
In reply to:
Disagree with our business strategy. Be critical of our tactics. Dislike our products. Even find us objectionable as individuals. Please know though, that like Rick, we are good people of integrity and character.
There must be a difference between Infopop and Rick, however, since not many of us have disagreed with Rick's business strategies, neither have we been critical of his tactics nor disliked his products; we certainly have not found him objectionable as an individual. So to what do you attribute the difference between the general perception of Infopop as everything you have described and our perception of Rick?
In reply to:
Please give us the chance to do that and to serve you.
You have been given a chance, and you have yet to respond. You have been given a chance to state that licensing per domain will not change, instead you have opted to change licensing to a per instance basis. You have been given a chance to state that pricing will not change significantly, so far you have not done so. You have been given a chance to show some type of good-will toward those users tied to the Perl version of W3T, contrary to your statement, you do not intend to serve them. You have been given a chance repeatedly to respond to concerns regarding overpriced and underfeatured products, to concerns of censorship in your discussion forums, to concerns of poor support and impersonal service, and you have not responded. You have been told that the change to UBBThreads is ill-advised, what has your response been?
Please keep in mind that this community had a significant role to play in the development of W3T, unless, of course you believe, as I stated above, that one guy (exceptional as he is), working in his spare time, can single-handedly produce a better product than Infopop, a company of 25 full-time employees. Speaking for myself, since the announcement was made, I have yet to see Infopop's commitment to "serve" us, in action. All I have seen are progressively worsening attempts at public relations, perhaps you really do need that marketing staff.
Respectfully yours,
Derek
