lowdbrent wrote:He has a point to some extent. If you try the product before you buy it, buy the product as it is, then you have what you purchased. Technically speaking, he does not owe you anything further. It would be nice if he continued to develop and fix it for free, but who can eat and keep the lights on with that type of model?
You can dink with this stuff, or you can buy something else from a real company, with real employees, tech support, field reps, retail representation, and hold them accountable. Until then, you have to understand that you are buying experimental product from a guy in a garage.
I won't argue that with you. But you know as well as I, that is not how things really happened over time there. I never said that I felt ripped off or that I didn't get my money out of the SAC/SAW investment.
And it's not just the lack of further development that is the most annoying. It is the response to any suggestion that it might not already be perfect as it or any question about what the status of further development is. And the tone of those responses. If "he" so desperately wanted people to respect him, he should look in the mirror and think about how he responded to the customers that did support him. There are a lot of reasons that the SAC ship is sinking. But I don't think lack of further development is why so many have stopped bothering to pay any attention or contribute to the old forum. It's because the tone of the forum starts with it's administrator and it rolls down to all the participants. I wasn't adversarial in my posts until the developer made adversarial responses to my questions. Or at least I tried not to be, even if it didn't always read that way.
And then there is the fact that he said he was going to do things and never did them. If you say I'll make X, then you should follow through and do so. Even if it takes a while. Or if you change your mind and chose not to, then just be up front and honest about it and then a customer knows where they stand.
As for buying an experimental product, there are lots of small companies in our industry that make all sorts of things. While I guess you could just buy everything you ever wanted from Yamaha and Harman that would only get you so far, particularly if you have more specialized applications such as theatrical audio. Pretty much all the Broadway, West End and professional theatres and training facilities around the world use software and hardware that would fall into your experimental category to run their shows every day. All the popular playback and show control applications are tiny operations with a handful of folks at the most or they are a single person. Yet despite that I have used or tried out pretty much all of the popular options at some point in time, I don't think I've ever run across a developer like Bob before. That doesn't mean they were all perfect. Just means that none of them were quite that unique in their approach to both potential and current customers.