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Management Started 4 months ago by kTJe

4 posts

This topic has been marked not a support question by our support staff or its poster.

kTJe
Member

I have been a Linkinus user for almost two years now. I have been a user since the 1.0 series and now own 2 seperate 2.0 licenses. As a customer of Conceited Software I thought it was my right to provide feedback for the currrent state of your operations. I am only speaking in regards to the development of Linkinus in this feedback since I do not use any of the other products provided by Conceited Software.

To start, I love Linkinus and I find it to be the most feature rich and easy to use IRC client available for the Mac OS X platform, but there can be many things done to make it even greater. By greater I am simply not referring to pleasing one or two customers, but getting more control over a market that grows everyday. Linkinus itself costs several dollars and is developed exclusivly by Conceited, but do you realize how much of an impact you could have if it was open source?

Do not get me wrong, I know that you are a small company and need revnue to stay afloat, but as a customer I do not feel my money is going towards a good cause. I have attempted to request features several time in the past before for Linkinus and have been shunned. As a developer I understood the simplicity behind many of the features that I requested, but when I asked for them I felt like I was being told that it was being worked on just to stop me from asking. If I am paying for every new major build of your software that is released it seems I should at least be granted a saying in it.

Furthermore, I have seen it requested and I also have requested many basic features of IRC be implemented into the Linkinus IRC client such as a window to view ban exceptions. Linkinus also lacks the abilities for the IRC Operators of a IRC network to effectively develop plugins to manage that network. Linkinus suppresses all “/who” requests instead of just those required for a channel. Do you understand the need for an IRC Operator to be able to look up users on the network? No matter the size of the network it is always used.

Another downside of Linkinus is the inabilitiy to create plugins that do not require a command to be executed. I have seen many menu-based management scripts before for mIRC, but the only way to use those within Linkinus is to have a specific command to execute each menu item, and do you really want to memorize all that? An IRC Operator cannot memorize every ban reason that the network uses so a menu system is needed in order use predefined commands. The abilitiy to capture raw events withint he API is also very key.

Linkinus itself is also very poor when it comes to memory management. It has a very heavy and custom UI with a webkit based HTML theme system. A much more effecient setup needs to be designed. Conceited also needs to be more public regarding the work that it is doing. Make more frequent blog posts and post roadmaps. Do not leave your customers, aka your “stock holders,” in the dark. If you are not willing to listen to the customers then make it open source so the customers can do it themselves.

Posted 4 months ago #
Okeanos
Moderator

Currently the developers are busy updating the other applications they offer before they will, once again, put focus on Linkinus. Be assured it is neither dead nor forgotten. There is only so much time the developers have available at any given time. All tickets submitted will be taken into consideration for the next update and implemented where possible and feasible.

We are aware of the issues you mentioned in your post (there are, after all, a number of tickets for each) and I am very certain they will be looked into. Concerning blog posts: absolutely and I will have to hit my own fingers here as well for not pressurizing the necessary people from time to time. However, I was very, very busy the last few months myself and had very little time for this kind of work in the end :(.

Posted 4 months ago #
kTJe
Member

With the prices that you charge you surely could hire more help.

People are fine with paying for applications but when they do not get what is worth their money then trouble occurs. It took nearly a year for 2.0 to be released after 1.3. It appears the same will apply for 3.0 and we will most likely have to pay for the upgrade so that you can keep your business going. I believe that if you really care about what you have created and you did not just do it to make quick money then you would see this as an opportunity to expand.

There are many other open source IRC clients for OS X available and all it takes is one person tired of closed source systems to take that code and develop it into something magical. I have seen many people reach out to you to help develop more advanced plugins and such. Every time that person was either shunned completely or just told it will be done eventually. Unfortunately, eventually is not what we want to hear.

Sorry if it sounds like I am attacking you but the way that Conceited is currently conducting itself is not A+ service. I have talked to 50+ different people up to today regarding what they believe and they all have agreed that Linkinus and Conceited as a whole can be improved a lot. I know I will be ignored and just looked down as another voice, but you seriously have to consider making yourself more open to the idea of shared development because at the rate it is going there is no innovation.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a closed system in which the Government controlled all. They eventually fell because of this closed idea. Do not let the same happen to you. When your customers are tired of waiting they will know what to do and where to go. They will go to those hundreds of open source projects who are willing to take them in and listen. The open source projects are not working for the money. That is only a second though to them. They are taking them in and listening because they have a passion for what they do.

Posted 3 months ago #
Okeanos
Moderator

Please believe me when I say that (at least) I am aware of these voices but I can tell you that open source is not going to happen.

Also, if you checked the blog in the last couple of days you'd have noticed that we did take someone on board to take care of support requests. Yes, support – not development. But with support being taken care of not by the developers this should help just as well :)

Concerning all the people who want to leave and/or threaten to: If they believe Conceited cannot offer what they are looking for in the long term, they should by all means do what they believe is right. We'd like them to stay naturally but in the end I believe it's better for both sides where unsatisfied users to submit a ticket with what bothered them (so I can show the people in charge) and come back at a later time and see how things worked out.

Also, another update for Linkinus for Mac /is/ in fact in the pipes, however, does not have absolute priority right now.

Posted 3 months ago #

Posted in Conceited Forums » Linkinus

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