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| MakeMusic Forum > Public Forums > Finale - Macintosh > Poll: a change in forum policy | Forum Quick Jump
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Philip.
Registered Member
      
Date Joined Aug 2006
Total Posts : 866
| Posted 11/7/2009 2:29 PM (GMT -5) |   | jim dukey said...
But think about it-Would you want to monitor this place 24/7, and commenting on and logging every little thing? That sounds like a terrible job. to me!
Jim, Fair enough. I don't expect every little comment to be logged. But currently, the only way to be "officially" heard by MM is to submit a support request form, even if there is already a long thread about an issue with many voices chiming in. This seems redundant and inefficient all around.
Would you at least be in favor of a more regular official presence from the development team on the forum and saying, "Yes, it's a bug, we hope to fix it" or "We hear everyone's requests for this feature, it's on our wish list" or "This is possible already, here's how to do what you want", and then integrating that into the quantitative data they use to track support requests on issues?
Finale 2008b, 2009b, 2010a
Mac 10.5.8
2x2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
10 GB RAM | | Back to Top | |
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encephalon
Registered Member
 
Date Joined Aug 2001
Total Posts : 254
| Posted 11/7/2009 5:20 PM (GMT -5) | | This is somewhat analogous to the very thing we use Finale for: producing scores.
As a composer, arranger, and music director I spend an enormous amount of time and effort creating scores and parts of my music for performance that are very high quality (error-free and beautiful layout). I do all my own copy work because I have yet to find someone who I can trust to do it exactly the way I want it done. A long time ago I first experienced the phenomenon that beautiful scores on high quality paper makes instrumentalists play better.
Almost all of my writing is for live performance. My charts get played more than once, and often by different players as we hire local musicians out on tour.
I listen extremely carefully to the comments and grumblings of the orchestral players, even if they are not directed at me. I also look through the post-performance parts after I've collected them on a gig. I take the pencil markings very seriously and if they are useful I incorporate them in to the score file: obviously data errors and changes to bowings, but also any markings that the players made to help themselves remember details.
These "used" parts are probably my most valuable source of information once I've "released" my scores. A lot of players won't take the time to come up to me and point out an error, and thankfully most won't bother to ask for a "note check" in rehearsal if the fix is obvious (like a missing accidental). But they *always* write it on their parts.
I would think that a company who runs an online forum about its product would mine it for data on a regular basis. What a valuable tool for finding the very info that your beta-test period is supposed to. Sure, it might seem a lame job to some, but it would be directly helpful to the user base -- some people actually *like* being helpful.
It seems (at least in the past) that the MM Customer Support people think first that any problem with the software is actually a problem with the user or his computer. A support person dedicated to the forums would have to be savvy enough to discern the difference between a complaint that is clearly a problem with the user, and those that are problems with the software. For example: if there is an ongoing discussion about a bug that involves the more "senior" forum members then it's clearly a problem with the software. If a newbie posts something like "Finale deleted my whole hard drive!" then it's not hard to figure out that we're dealing with something else.
I think it's a great idea. It would not only help their development process, but it would be a GREAT public-relations tool.
encephalon
Lush Music | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 6553
| Posted 11/7/2009 9:25 PM (GMT -5) | | Bill Stevens said...
It's a crummy job, but I'll do it for minimum wage (Mac only).
24 X 7 X $7.25
$1218 a week -- cash, unmarked bills, in a brown paper sack delivered to the knothole in the big oak at the graveyard.
Bill
...delivered by a brown-shoed square in the dead of night...
Mike Rosen
www.specialmillwork.com
WebMaster for the Seattle SeaChordsmen www.seachordsmen.org
NEW SITE www.specialmillwork.com/finaletips.htm
Print Music 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010
Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 6553
| Posted 11/8/2009 12:44 PM (GMT -5) | | But it's pretty clear, with their insistence on "logging the number of submissions", that they have some sort of threshold for action. And no matter how often the topics are brought up among power users, and first-timers just discovering the faults, they can take refuge in the excuse of "it doesn't affect enough people for us to spend the time and money to address the issue." Which they have never said, of course: they just drop the complaint to the bottom of the list. Again.
Mike Rosen
www.specialmillwork.com
WebMaster for the Seattle SeaChordsmen www.seachordsmen.org
NEW SITE www.specialmillwork.com/finaletips.htm
Print Music 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010
Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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Philip.
Registered Member
Date Joined Aug 2006
Total Posts : 866
| Posted 11/10/2009 7:03 PM (GMT -5) | | Motet said...
I reported two long-standing problems yesterday via the Support Case system (entry playback with transposing instruments and copying between staves with independent key signatures) and it was a positive experience. You have their attention since it's an open problem report, and you can attach problem files. I had several back-and-forths with the MM employee on each, ending with a promise to pass the matters along to the development team.
I found the experience heartening, and plan to do this from now on in addition to or instead of beefing here.
Motet, I am glad your experience was positive. The chief problem with the tech support-only route is that it's a closed system between you and MM. When you post to the forum, it alerts others to the problem, and we all benefit by knowing if others are experiencing the same issue, and what the solutions or workarounds may be.
Scott H. MakeMusic said...
I would definitely agree that it would be nice to be able to assist with submitting cases from the forum, if the need arose, but unfortunately our system is not setup for this at this time. I have spoken with Justin (at length) regarding this feature and how we could maybe implement this in the future. At this time, to my understanding, this would require a different/upgrade Forum and would require Part-time employees like myself the ability to access internal information to aide in submitting those issues. Great suggestions, Philip. We do understand where you are coming from and certainly do not want to make anything more complex, there is just a certain way of doing things now based on how our system is built in order to get the data we need.
Scott, thanks for considering these issues, and I do hope you can find a way to integrate useful comments and problems from the forum into your support data in the future. I do think it would help the development of the software and give you a more comprehensive overview of the problems and feature requests and their relative frequency.
Finale 2008b, 2009b, 2010a
Mac 10.5.8
2x2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
10 GB RAM | | Back to Top | |
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