Baylys: User(land) Relations.

I've never understood why UserLand likes to make life so difficult for its strongest supporters. David Bayly is a perfect example. He has customers that are running UserLand's (buggy) software, and whenever he tries to help by pointing out where a bug is and how to fix it, they treat him like a jerk.

Why not just FIX the bugs instead of claiming that David's desire to help people run bug-free software "breaks customers". Fix the bugs intead of the wandering into la-la land every three months doing a half-job on some new greatest-idea ever while ignoring the software that actually pays the bills.

Now, these last couple "Manila Months" probably some of these bugs, but it's a shame that a company has to PROCLAIM their love for their software for a limited time to demonstrate that it'll actually get some attention, especially when the software is sold under a subscription license (and kept just buggy enough to require those fixes that get released just after the subscription runs out).

Some people have suggested that new releases tend to get shipped right after the bulk of customers' subscriptions run out. Not sure how they would know this, unless it's based on when the subscription program first started, but that's the risk you run when you let a company keep an open socket to your wallet.

As much as I love the underlying software UserLand's products use, I've never been so turned off by the way a company treats its customers and developers. I find it ironic and sad that a company led by the cheerleader for developers can't do a better job of this. If they treated their developers how they wish the platform vendors treated them, maybe rants like this wouldn't be written.