Newsfire, David Watanabe and the Advantages of Public Beta Development
I’ve been using NewsFire for quite a while, despite my reservations for existing RSS reader implementations. NewsFire, an RSS reader for Mac OS X, wins me over by being simple enough in it’s goals to be useful. It’s a perfect example of how a tool targeted at a specific activity can be much better than a tool that tries to do everything and usually does so poorly. Outlook comes to mind.
Beta Development and Open Source Advantages
NewsFire is also a great example of how active Beta releases can bring some of the advantages generally associated with open source software to closed source applications. We’ve seen a lot of software in active beta status for quite some time, the most prominent of which that comes to mind is Firefox. As Firefox incremented it’s way to it’s lovely 1.0 debut, enthusiastic users were happy to discuss it’s virtues and it’s deficits, and offer feedback to the developers involved. The advantage is clear in that the product itself gets real world testing and feedback while growing it’s way to a full release number. The disadvantage is also clear in that these growing pains are out in plain site and can often be embarrassing and lend to the product a sense of not being reliable. There are a number of examples, but the most obvious one to cite is the number of names the browser went through before becoming Firefox. The finished results however are tough to argue with.
Open Source Lessons in Closed Source Software
This process of open feedback and related improvements is generally attributed to open source software, but closed source programs like Newsfire show that the advantages are really tied to creating a way to let a program’s community talk to it’s developers and making the time to consider and implement their requests. This back and forth between developer and user only improves when the request you make appears in the next available build, creating a sense of near instant gratification as well as a personal sense of contribution for the user. Of course, open source has additional advantages including the ability for other developers to submit code improvements themselves, but Newsfire certainly stands as an example of how not all advantages popularized by open source are exclusive to open source.
My Very Simple NewsFire Request
I sent an email with a simple request to David Watanabe, the developer of NewsFire, this evening: Ignore the word “The” at the beginning of feed titles when sorting them much the way iTunes does when sorting artist names. This way “The Seattle Times” is filed under “S” instead of “T”. I sent my request via email. Ninety minutes later, he replied:
Yah, that makes total sense. I just implemented it for next release.
Thanks, Dave
I get the change I wanted, David gets helpful feedback, and NewsFire users get a better product.
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Comments (13)
Heh. I got a trip out of this because, looking at the picture of your request, it is alphabetically sorted for both “The” and for “Seattle.”
What is Dave’s email?
I had a couple ideas and a few questions.
You can send feedback email to dave via feedback at newsfirerss.com
You got lucky. Dave is a very arrogant, self-centered, egotistical (you get the picture) asshole who listens to his users and responds exactly 1% of the time. The rest of the time he will insult you or perhaps not respond at all. Do a nice search around the web and you’ll see what I mean. I PAID for his product and it stopped working a week later. After not responding to three emails, he finally responded to the fourth saying that “for technical reasons and fear of piracy, he would be unable to repair my registration. This is no joke. DO NOT give this asshole your hard earned $.
You got lucky. Dave is a very arrogant, self-centered, egotistical (you get the picture) asshole who listens to his users and responds exactly 1% of the time. The rest of the time he will insult you or perhaps not respond at all. Do a nice search around the web and you’ll see what I mean. I PAID for his product and it stopped working a week later. After not responding to three emails, he finally responded to the fourth saying that “for technical reasons and fear of piracy, he would be unable to repair my registration. This is no joke. DO NOT give this asshole your hard earned $.
Anyone who sends David Watanabe so much as a penny has evidently not researched the man. He is a crook 100%.
If it’s “obvious”, then it’s “obviously” on the development road map.
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This message is confidential.
On 19-Mar-07, at 10:05 PM, xxx wrote:
I agree, though that doesn’t answer my question.
On Mar 19, 2007, at 6:29 PM, David Watanabe wrote:
It’s an obvious enhancement.
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This message is confidential.
On 19-Mar-07, at 6:24 PM, xxx wrote:
Is this [.Mac] in your development road map? It would be super useful for me… I just got a laptop but all my feeds are on my desktop.
Thanks,
Jason
Yeah, he’s quite rude in email. Not cool.
[...] “Dave is a very arrogant, self-centered, egotistical (you get the picture) asshole who listens to his users and responds exactly 1% of the time. The rest of the time he will insult you or perhaps not respond at all. Do a nice search around the web and you’ll see what I mean. I PAID for his product and it stopped working a week later. After not responding to three emails, he finally responded to the fourth saying that “for technical reasons and fear of piracy, he would be unable to repair my registration. This is no joke. DO NOT give this asshole your hard earned $.” – George Bezel [...]
I had a similar experience with Dave Watanabe. I bought an XTorrent license from him and 2 days later the program quit working. He never responded to any of my emails regarding the problem. He provides no support for his software. Not even a FAQ!!
I ended up disputing the charge with my credit card company. I would recommend the same for anyone else who has given money to this clown.
Ben
Dave is an asshole. Just look at his awful nagware “features”.
Not to mention I bought a “lifetime” Acquistion license that doesn’t work.
Not to mention I got an extremely nasty email from him when I had a question about my license.
Asshole
[...] “Dave is a very arrogant, self-centered, egotistical (you get the picture) asshole who listens to his users and responds exactly 1% of the time. The rest of the time he will insult you or perhaps not respond at all. Do a nice search around the web and youll see what I mean. I PAID for his product and it stopped working a week later. After not responding to three emails, he finally responded to the fourth saying that for technical reasons and fear of piracy, he would be unable to repair my registration. This is no joke. DO NOT give this asshole your hard earned $.” – George Bezel [...]