tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7634444367570332361.post6387767455800243868..comments2023-10-02T08:26:59.650-07:00Comments on Aaron's Rambling Inanity: An Open Letter to CrashPlanAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08217464657567731020noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7634444367570332361.post-66639584991877289402008-10-11T15:15:00.000-07:002008-10-11T15:15:00.000-07:00CrashPlan's got the release notes live now, and th...CrashPlan's got the release notes live now, and they're definitely working on new user documentation, so those are all good things. They've got a whole new support site they're working on, and I have every faith that they will have all this stuff figured out soon.<BR/><BR/>They also have a good point that the design of their software basically requires auto-updates, since your backup destination's got to be running the same version your are for your backups to keep running.<BR/><BR/>I feel my criticisms still stand, though as a general complaint and warning for all software companies.<BR/><BR/>Heed my words, o ye developers of software:<BR/><BR/>If you update your programs automatically with major changes in functionality, give your users some way to find out what's changed and how to use, adjust, or otherwise take advantage of those changes.<BR/><BR/>Keep your documentation updated with your software releases, and make it easily accessible. This one is for your benefit, because when you get a stupid question from a user, you can just say "covered in the docs you should have read". However, if new features or changes aren't in your user level documentation, or your users can't find it, you lose this great shield that you would otherwise have.Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04398538375423363995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7634444367570332361.post-21154971037233352122008-10-10T14:38:00.000-07:002008-10-10T14:38:00.000-07:00Hi Aaron,Because you wrote us via e-mail and blog,...Hi Aaron,<BR/><BR/>Because you wrote us via e-mail and blog, we're responding in both places. The e-mail was a bit more detailed than this reply:<BR/><BR/>re>release notes<BR/>Sorry - they were posted within 24 hours, but they were not posted prior to release. Part of the confusion is we've moved our blog from blogger to our own wiki. Release notes can be found here: <BR/><BR/>http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php<BR/><BR/>Please note we also are on twitter and posted live as we were upgrading:<BR/><BR/>http://www.twitter.com/crashplan<BR/><BR/>re>User guide location<BR/>We felt having a link to the user guide on the very page you get our software was a pretty solid idea. We've also added it to support since you've complained.<BR/><BR/>re>User Guide<BR/>It's not designed to be updated with every release, however your guess that we're not going to be upgrading it is wrong. We are in the process of moving the user guide from PDF to live wiki with user comments! This will be ongoing for some time.<BR/><BR/>re>No mention of auto update<BR/>A mention is in the user guide, however admittedly it's not very detailed.<BR/><BR/>re>No control over auto update<BR/>This is a feature of the CrashPlan for Consumer product. Put simply, if you're backing up to friends, you do not want to trust them to upgrade in a timely manner. The solution is to have the consumer product keep everyone in sync. We wouldn't do this for say, a video player. But because backups are supposed to be reliable, we felt it necessary to auto update. If you run the business product, you can control your own release cycle.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Best regards,<BR/><BR/>CrashPlan teamAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com