Transparency - Communication - Democracy and user Feedback - A Comment

[AllThatEvil 4]

Beeing a long time EN fan and loyal supporter, and reader on this forum, here are my 2cents to the challenges and chances for ENs development and business decisions. 

I can hardly think of ANY software product with such a loyal userbase.

But NOTHING but FRUSTRATION comes out of this huge opportunity without REAL open communication and INVOLVEMENT of us users and fans. Yes, there are improvements in this area, but in contrast, even Microsoft (Yeah, M$!) leaves EN now behind with their uservoice page. Clearly, not every small or bigger idea can be added, but its the transparancy and the commitment to their users that matter.

The feeling to count, the feeling, not to be infantilized by the company, you try to be loyal too. 

In todays extremly competive market, EN will be challenged more and more, and we, the loyal users and fans, are the only factor, that could be the joker in this game for EN. But without even more commitment towards us, loyalty can and will end. Eventually. 

I am happy to pay for the premium, even if it is much € for me, as a "working poor". But loyalty isnt a one way thing. 

Dont get me wrong, I am happy to see the changes since last year. The focus on core apps, Integration with Outlook, and small steps towards openess.
I just think there has been to many years wasted, so now it would take full, not half or 2/3 measures to keep up.

More serious integration of popular webservices, Apps, MS Office (especially MS Outlook is crucial for many Business customers), Cloud Services, Storage of Files and Media improved, Tasks and Project Management integration (Or better integration with Todoist etc) would be as crucial for keeping up as improvement on core functions.

Its 2016, and even long time cloud- and M$-sceptics like me now realise the potential of these new developments. 

So my vote is for (and i guess those of others too) letting us take a much more powerfull role in voting on features, and on the roadmap.
This way M$ even saved their a$$es on Windows ones again, and it would build more trust and loyalty than ANY blog posting, CEO interview, ect. could EVER build.

And on the plus side too, the ppl screaming for this and that here in the forum would have a real way to take action on their beliefs, AND they would easier understand when a request isnt fullfilled. E.g. when i want feature x, but feature Y has a higher vote count, i could accept that easier.

REAL democracy cant be wrong, now can it? (No irony intented  )

To the new voting feature in "General"-Forum: A first step, but without a dedicated sub forum, without mods that at least try to sort out double posts, this is quite useless, as everything is mixed in this sub forum. But yeah, with some time and adjustments it has some potential. 

But still: Without an EXACT list which features are beeing seriously considered, which are already planned and/or in dev, it is again limited too much.

Again, even M$ know has more transperancy at least on Win10, where you can actually track whats going on with your request. This system here is like voting for a party or politician, and beeing locked into a grave until next elections, where you can only hope that your vote had any impact at all. Where you can most likely only be disappointed.

Without real feedback AND transpracy, such a democratic attemp is just a satire on its own kind. Sorry for my harsh words, but as i said, after many years of hope->disappointment, a radical democratic approach to your fanbase seems like the only way to maintain your trust.

And as the new CEO just said in an interview: Trust is the most important thing.

I just hope, that this are not just words and half measures.

Steve

[AllThatEvil 4]

To be fair, i dont want to forget the things, that are positive..

Like the understanding of the need for a "real" MS Store App which is on par with the "Desktop" App (For all those with 2-1 Surface style devices, which is one of the only growing X86 markets now).

The fine tuning and speedup of the desktop app, especially on larger DBs.

The death of all those side apps and products freeing up ressources for the more important things.

Yeah, even the crippeld freemium. As i know, that many ppl who use EN semi- or full-professional could easily pay for it, are often to lazy (not to say greedy ) to pay for it, and as everyone knows that EN is at a crucial point in its history. 

Those were hard decicions, but they werent half, but full measures.

Kudos to the CEO to pull this through the shitstorm. 

I just hope the same full measures would apply to the communication towards us and democatic involvement for us users.

Steve