Subject:Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Posted by: Illogical

Date:4/1/2005 2:36:15 PM

Here's my suggestion, product suggestions should have an entire forum dedicated to them (here me out, forum luddites) rather than this system of clandestine submission to Sony developers. By posting product ideas here in full view, the suggestions can be discussed by people who actually use the software before they're either dismissed or embraced. And that way you (Sony) can see how much demand there is for the various suggestions among forum goers.

You should take it as fact that most people aren't gonna bother to tell you how to improve your product, they'll just find a different product elsewhere that does what they're looking for. The people who post here go beyond the responsibilities of a consumer in an effort to create a better Acid Pro, which in the long run benefits everybody, but certainly benefits Sony more than it could ever benefit any single individual. So tear down this wall, er...you guys, and make it easier for us to help you out.

OK?

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Zacchino

Date:4/1/2005 8:26:24 PM

I second that one - hope it'll reach webmaster's hears and devellopers' mind.

What would be great would be to create a Feature Request forum, but with a voting system.

People won't write down the same idea, they'll just vote for it (if existing) with 6 levels of importance : "Essential", "Important", "Innovating", "useful", "inappropriate" or "useless".

A moderator would have to delete the post that are suggesting the same Idea, but to not make this happen, a quick and accessible "search" function specific to this forum would be avaible.

Essential, Important and Innovating best votes would then matter for the next release. Useful, Inappropriate or Useless would be good for discussion.

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Zacchino

Date:4/2/2005 11:20:20 PM

Maybe that if someone knows PHP or ASP enough, and have some time to work on it, this would help ^^

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: JohnnyRoy

Date:4/3/2005 6:58:37 AM

Right before they start working on a new release, Sony usually starts a thread to ask what you’d like to see. This helps them prioritize things. So they do use the forums to understand what’s on users minds.

The formal suggestions page helps eliminate a feeding frenzy. It’s a true measure of what was important enough to “write a letter” about (as in the old days).

~jr

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/4/2005 7:47:14 AM

"The formal suggestions page helps eliminate a feeding frenzy. It’s a true measure of what was important enough to “write a letter” about (as in the old days)."

err, well I hear ya, but I don't. The old days are behind us, and this forum isn't exactly a frenzy of anything. Plain and simple, people aren't gonna bother. We are bothering, and our efforts should be embraced rather than walled off.

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Zacchino

Date:4/4/2005 3:05:03 PM

>our efforts should be embraced rather than walled off
Agree. I'm always disapointed and happy at the same time when I report an unknown bug. Happy because I found it, but disappointed because it wasn't found before.

I still don't get why they don't publish any public beta before releases. And I still don't get why there's so few developpers for 3 huge softwares. That's not fair to the customers like me who hardly believe in this software. That's not fair at all.

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Rednroll

Date:4/4/2005 4:10:42 PM

"And I still don't get why there's so few developpers for 3 huge softwares."

So few? How many have you counted?

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: SonyJennL

Date:4/5/2005 9:24:13 AM

" I still don't get why there's so few developpers for 3 huge softwares."

The funny thing about that is that in order to hire more developers, we would likely have to charge more for the software. You'll see just as many complaints on the forum about the software being too expensive....

Do feel free to bring up any product ideas here. We are poking around and do notice. Also, the product suggestion forum is another great way to reach us.

thanks,
Jenn

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/5/2005 1:39:20 PM

"The funny thing about that is that in order to hire more developers, we would likely have to charge more for the software. You'll see just as many complaints on the forum about the software being too expensive...."

well, you wouldn't need to charge more if you sold more copies of Acid. The unit cost once the product is developed is pretty minimal...I downloaded mine, so you didn't even need to make me a box. So if you sold twice as many units, you could charge two-thirds the price and still be doing better than you are today. But you gotta come with the bells and whistles that move the units. Gotta spend money to make money, as they say, and people don't buy what they don't know about. I mean...did you guys even send out copies to the publications? I read Electronic Musician, Mix, Tape-Op, Future Music, Computer Music, Music Tech, SOS, didn't see a review in any of those (CM mighta had one, I think I missed that issue). When Ableton Live 4 came out, I couldn't open a magazine without seeing another review for it. Is it just a superior app (I don't think so), or did they do a better job promoting their product?


"Do feel free to bring up any product ideas here. We are poking around and do notice. Also, the product suggestion forum is another great way to reach us."

There's a product suggestion forum?

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:4/5/2005 1:45:20 PM

Illogical, yes there is. At the top of the screen pull down the SUPPORT menu and click "Product Suggestion". I've used it a few times myself. I've seen several of my suggestions appear in the next versions of the software. 'Course, it could be because other people suggested it too, or possibly even because the SONY team thought of it themselves.

Nahhhh. I'll keep believing it was because i suggested the ideas. ;)

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/5/2005 2:02:26 PM

It was all because of you, I'm certain : )

That's not a forum though, it's an email form, innit?

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:4/5/2005 2:10:27 PM

Maybe you should use it to suggest that they convert it into a forum. ;)

I think the reasoning is that they'd rather just hear requests straight from users without endless debate going off in all directions. Another possibility is that they may judge the necessity of some of the ideas by how many times it is independantly suggested. When you make a suggestion you won't necessarily know how many others have also submitted the same idea. However, if the SONY folks see many submissions for the same thing they may give it more consideration than something that is only suggested once or twice.

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Rednroll

Date:4/5/2005 2:11:08 PM

"And I still don't get why there's so few developpers for 3 huge softwares."

And actually there's more than 3:
1. Sound Forge
2. Acid
3. Vegas
4. DVD Architect
5. CD Architect
and don't forget....
6. Super Dooper Music Looper as well as the assortment of available Sony plugins.

As a side note, not all the developers pop their head into these forums and let us smack them around regularly like SonyPCH, so there might be a few more than you're counting. Also those developers get moved around depending on the apps currently being developed. You ever find a bug, that exists in Forge, Acid, and Vegas? I found one 2 weeks ago in Forge, that also existed in Vegas, and Acid.

In my viewpoint Sony has quite a few Software developers working on a single app at any given time. I'll contrast that with my own work experience, where I work in the development of premium audio OEM systems for car manufacturers, where all the hardware is software based. Infact our customer Toyota/Lexus asked us the question, "How many software engineers do you have supporting our business?" Well we knew that they would be shocked, by that very low number, so we had to answer with the politically correct answer. "The same amount we have working on our Chrysler side business, and more than we have working on BMW, Mercedes, and Hundai". Now our software is nowhere near as complex as the Sony Media products, but then again I'm sure they're not selling 10,000 copies per day of Acid/Vegas/Forge either.

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: SonicJG

Date:4/5/2005 3:59:00 PM

Yes, I believe Jenn meant product suggestion 'form', not 'forum.'

Joel

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/5/2005 4:22:53 PM

Well, that's kinda the whole point of the thread, Joel. There should be a forum, not a form.


"I think the reasoning is that they'd rather just hear requests straight from users without endless debate going off in all directions. Another possibility is that they may judge the necessity of some of the ideas by how many times it is independantly suggested. When you make a suggestion you won't necessarily know how many others have also submitted the same idea. However, if the SONY folks see many submissions for the same thing they may give it more consideration than something that is only suggested once or twice."

Chien, I hear ya man, it's a way more efficient model they've constructed, and I can see how they could get swamped with back and forth. Just seems to me the product interest is in decline, and these forums aren't exactly teeming with life, so it would seem a just reward for those of us who stick with it and try to contribute if we could have an honest, open discussion here about what works, how we use the software, and what we'll need to continue using it in the future. But it needs to be a Sony sanctioned thing, so we know they're listening, and they really should spread the word to as many people as they can that it's happening so the discussion is as diverse as possible. It doesn't need to be an entirely different forum, just a set of sticky topics that are started by sony to demonstrate their interest in our opinions.

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Zacchino

Date:4/6/2005 4:39:07 AM

You know what Illogical ? If one day I made a product of any kind, with all these contributions and the guys behind on this forum, I'd do anything to please them.

We should build a forum of our own and give it to sony

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/6/2005 9:14:13 AM

"We should build a forum of our own and give it to sony"

I'm up for a collabo anytime, man, but web design is not my strong point ; )

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Zacchino

Date:4/25/2005 4:25:49 PM

Okay, I've been looking around last week for a way to make a decent forum customized specially for polls. It seems that PhpBB is the best suited one. I'm still looking for a decent server that allows PHP scripts. For free (yes that's the hard part). Still looking.

The only issue is that they maybe won't be able to kind of "merge" a PHP forum with this ASP forum. The only (great) ASP forum I found is ASPplayground.net forum (e.g. Sonar's). But it's not free at all. And its poll features is less obvious than PhpBB group's.

I'll keep you guys up when I'm done !!!

Subject:RE: Yo Sony, I Got Your Product Suggestion....right here!

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:4/26/2005 10:57:18 AM

If there's any suggestion I can make regarding anyone that wants to let SPD know what on their minds, it's to be nice. Don't demand. Being rude won't get you anywhere.

Another thing is to hope for the best and expect the worst. Know that your idea possibly isn't going to make it into the next version of ACID. It may not even make it into the version after that. I do know some things I've suggested over a couple of versions hasn't yet made it into ACID, but that's OK with me. I'm a persistent but patient bastard. :o) I can presently work with what I have anyway.

I also do know that SPD listens; 64th grid resolution made it back in ACID Pro 4 because I asked for it back. (I believe it went missing in ACID Pro 3.0.)

Iacobus
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