[WriteLog] Curious?? (long)

Barry w2up@mindspring.com
Wed, 28 Nov 2001 14:13:51 -0500


Tim,
I disagree with your analysis.
First, there is one individual, who is responsible for probably 25% of 
the posts. Many of us have his posts auto-deleted by our e-mail 
filters.
Second - Yes, the help files do leave something to be desired, at 
times. However, my guess is that WL has, by far, the most new 
users of any of the contesting programs. Anything new generates a 
lot of how-to mail.
One great thing about WL is each update works. There's none of 
the "I tried V9.57 and xxx is broken, so I went back to 9.36 which 
is the last version that worked right..."
73 Barry W2UP

73,
Barry

On 28 Nov 01, at 11:46, Tim Makins,  EI8IC wrote:

> Hi John - I lurk on this reflector, because I'm interested in how
> Writelog works with SO2R. I also lurk on the reflectors for CT, NA,
> TR, and SD. You might be interested to know that the Writelog
> reflector generates 3 or 4 times as much email as any of the others,
> mainly of people asking for help. On that basis alone, I would say
> that assuming the program is not full of bugs, then the documentation
> MUST be. If people have problems, then either the program is not
> simple enough to use, or the Help guide does not explain itself well
> enough, or the documentation is inadequate. The usual problem here is
> that the documentation is written by the author, who forgets that he
> knows half the stuff, and assumes his readers will as well. I have
> seen this frequently in a number of major software packages. I am sure
> you have too.
> 
> If it is the only Windows contesting program of its kind, then that's
> a pity, because there's no incentive to make things work better. At
> the end of the day, software should be there to assist us, not make us
> pull our hair out, as many of the correspondents seem to be doing.
> Things have moved on from the days of the '386, and we've all got
> Megabytes of memory available that should be used to help the user.
> Doesn't seem to be happening here, does it ?
> 
> If I was a prospective purchaser of Writelog, and lurked on the
> reflector for a while, I would be scared silly by the correspondence,
> and would NOT buy the program.
> 
> In my book, a good program has a silent reflector. End of story.
> 
> Tim, EI8IC
> www.qsl.net/ei8ic/
> The European HF Contesting Website
> Recent winner of the 'DX Zone' Editors choice Award.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "WA9ALS - John" <wa9als@starband.net>
> To: "Jerry Ford" <benlightnd13@home.com>; <WriteLog@contesting.com>
> Sent: 28 November 2001 10:23 Subject: Re: [WriteLog] Curious?? (long)
> 
> 
> > (I'm sending this to the reflector in case there are other friendly
> > undecided lurkers out there like Jerry.
> 
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> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/writelog


--
Barry Kutner, W2UP              Internet: w2up@mindspring.com
Newtown, PA                     Frankford Radio Club