And who will receive the blame for that? Let’s assume that D continues his “we’re the victims here” posts then by the time RW9 and StacksApp is out the vast majority of users will not be blaming RM.
The rendering sofware I use has a forum, and like here, WS, and RMF we thought ‘we’ were the active users but no, we were a small %age of the actual users. Most people don’t bother with software communities/forums but THEY WILL be the ones who’ll get smacked in the face when RW9 launches.
Who will they ask “what’s going on?” Well that’s obvious isn’t it? The people who make the software they use …. RM…… and can you imagine the answer they’ll receive?
Yourhead, and all the Devs who’ve decided to stick with Stacks will need a CO-ORDINATED campaign of informing their users of how to move forward WITHOUT any of the ‘sentiments’ expressed here and elsewhere.
We’ve seen a fair few users come to RW from other now defunct apps, they and others are just as likely to move on again to the likes of SquareSpace if they loose trust in RW.
I barely do any web work anymore and as such I’ve avoided commenting on the current and future) situation but unless the message is managed I can see both platforms dying.
I use SketchUp, if I’m asked what sofware I model in I say SketchUp BUT I’d say at least 50% of the functionality I actually use is provided by plugins and yet …. I still say I use SketchUp. Forgetting the last few weeks; how may of you would answer RW if you’re asked what you use?
Excellent point. I would suggest @isaiah and all other stacks developers (@Jannis , @joeworkman , etc) put together an update to their stacks with a notice to their users of just what changes will be taking place with RW9 and the anticipated release of a standalone Stacks.app.
I wouldn’t count on such an announcement from RealMac, as they’re already controlling the communication. Very, very, very disappointing.
On the RM Roadmap 2 thread, I seem to recall that many posts did get removed or disabled or whatever term is used? These posts were created by members and could initially be viewed, and then somehow, they were not visible, while other posts remained visible. So it would seem that 'hiding" all comments wasn’t necessary after all.
Looking forward to:
“As soon as this is implemented, we’ll be able to unhide the existing comments.”
EDIT. Confirmed by Circle that if a comment is flagged for moderation, then that comment will be hidden from public view until approved. So to hide a single comment on the RM forum, the moderatorwould just need to flag any individual comment and it would become hidden from public. All other non flagged comments woud remain visible.
So there is no disable or hide or delete or eradicate or annexe as such, but comments can be indivdually hidden.
Im afraid that Mr C has been proving over and over again that he just tells porkies. And he must think we are thick to not be able to validate easily what he is saying. What a shame it has come to this and he feels it necessary to try and manipulate all of us!
One feature they have figured out, is how to disable linking this forum in comments. I tried link Isaiah’s AMA thread and it wouldn’t allow me. It seemed to go through via a ‘tiny url’ but it either didn’t save or it got edited on my behalf.
Browsing the RM forum is increasingly like reading a Russian newspaper. Now they are even asking members to only recommend stacks from developers who have already promised to support RW 9. Yuck!
RM made their bed and now they have to lay in it. At least they are taking ownership.
I try to think of what other options Realmac had. For all intense and purposes they no longer had control over the direction of the company. Stacks was at a point that it was the growth engine. Other than opening up the API and coexisting with Stacks, they were just a funnel.
Dan started the company for a reason. He wants control and money. He made a decision. He’s moving forward without Stacks.
Isaiah was forced to make a decision. He is moving forward without Rapidweaver.
It looks like ‘ensuring continuity for users’ will reap financial reward. Who knew?! Perhaps I should hold a magnet against my moral compass. Anyway…
That forum is getting beyond belief! If people are asking for stacks recommendations then i think it is fair to recommend any current stack. At the same time it would probably make sense to inform the poster that, as a Stacks/stacks user, the sensible choice at this time would be to stick with RW8/Stacks 4 (whilst also looking out for the forthcoming Stacks 5 app).
Elements should have been a welcome and much needed addition to the core RW product. The way they attempted to go about it though (by trying to hijack stacks) was completely the wrong way to do it. A genuine competitor to Stacks would have been welcomed by developers and users alike. Instead we have this absolute shambles of a situation where there are very likely to be no real winners (well…maybe one).
Just my 2¢ but I would, if I was a stack developer, send out an email to my list ASAP letting them know where to find forum support. I know this doesn’t really help new people looking for solutions however radio silence is never good. We know where Stacks and stacks is going. Tell the world. No reason to allow customers to get worried waiting on an answer they may never get or worse is not the best answer.
I responded to a comment to a post asking for Isaiah’s side of the story (with links to RW4All and his blog) and got a personal email from Dan telling me to stop “shitposting”. I get that Dan doesn’t like the other version of the story but there’s literally people under the impression that Isaiah has ‘gone dark’ and it’s just met with shrug emojis and links to Elixir (who I like/support, btw)
That is a public low point for Realmac IMHO. In private there are many here who have a collection of these type of “off line” tirades from “RM”.
As a valued member of the Stacks “brains trust”, you don’t deserve to get an email like this that could be considered bullying and also carried out in a devious way.
That is exactly right. RM had an actual viable future, if it wasn’t for the annexation of Isaiah and before the RM roadmap got shot to pieces.
Any stack developer who is OK with purging Isaiah and then promoting the hacking of some simple stacks to somehow run in Elements, also has no moral compass. Such a developer clearly could have no respect for Isaiah as a person, and would appear to be chasing a quick commercial, but technically grossly flawed route to expand their profit.
Dollars to doughnuts Dan created a new user profile in order to keep an eye on things, though.
As a very long time Rw user (version 3, I believe) in whose life it has made a profound difference for the better (I made life and career changes in my mid-40s, and Rw was a big part of my early success), I’m very saddened by the path Dan has chosen for Elements. Had he simply created a competitor between the two, instead of importing existing stacks into Elements, everyone would have embraced it.
I am not losing any sleep over the future of my web design business. I have every confidence that the developers (Gary, Stuart, Janis, Joe, Steve, Davide, etc.,) will carry on. Isaiah has proven to be quite capable of designing and delivering on his Stacks engine over the years; so I’m not at all worried that he will also design and marry it to a solid framework. And, should worse come to worse, I’ll just continue to carry on using Rw8 and my current set-up (but, again, Isaiah has made it clear that he’s on-track to ensure that won’t happen).
Please explain it then. Going by the RM public roadmaps and developers explanation, there doesn’t appear to be any place for Stacks in RW9. Yesterday RM started advising that only stacks that have been Elemetalised should be used from now on. This is just adding more fuel to the already blazing fire.
