Graeme,

I already spent time on Sunday answering your first round of questions. I haven't had a chance to really read through your second round, and to write up a response.

If you have questions directed directly at Macromedia, and which you need to have promptly answered, then I suggest you email them to me directly at mesh@macromedia.com.

Otherwise, I may not see them on your weblog, or I may not have time right away to wade through all of them and all of the comments, and all of the other threads, etc...

Summary:

-if you have questions for Macromedia, ask Macromedia directly.

-if you ask 20 some odd questions then it might take a little while to get a response.

mike chambers

mesh@macromedia.com

Thanks Mike, I wasn't really making it an attack at MM or you yourself though. To be dead honest, I don't know all the questions that haven't been answered and thought this might be a neat idea to get them all here, as a lot of developers/designers jump on the chance to repost a question they had.

I'm extremely curious to see what other worries people have.

On your note to mail MM directly, I do that all the time, and in the end have almost *NEVER* got any answers (mostly flashcom stuff). Usually I get told that they will get back to me ASAP, and no matter how many reminders I send it's the same.

Yes I realize it will take time, and thanks for responding so quick to the one on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I'm very appreciative of it, as it's the largest reaction I have ever had from MM.

>Thanks Mike, I wasn't really making it an attack at MM or you yourself though.

Well, maybe I am mis-reading it, but that is certainly how the post comes off to me.

mike chambers

mesh@macromedia.com

Sorry, but nope, not an attack. The title itself is spoofing your own contest, thats a bit of clue right there I thought. But the written word is extremely confusing and may not come across as the writer has intended.

Either way, you're the head of the Central team, from what I understand, I assumed that my questions/comments wouldn't be so hard to get to as they are all things that should be reasonably worked out already. Plus it's not just my own questions/comments, there are quite a few in the comments area that haven't been addressed. The fact that you can take time out to remind people of a contest for wallpapers for Central instead of taking time out to address some very serious issues shows to me (maybe to others, I'm not sure) what your priorities are. This part may seem like I'm attacking a bit, and I am. This *always* happens with MM. You guys ask questions, get info and then dissappear like ghosts in the night or move on to something else, just when we are getting to some results and juicy info. You wouldn't believe the number of mails I got from my last last post on Central saying along the lines, "I know exactly what you mean, good to see it written down".

Eric D. says MM listens to us... I say MM listens to us, for the most part, when it benefits *them* not us, but when the going gets hot...

Prove me (and other anonymous writers (even though JD says that anonymous writers don't have a voice)) wrong. If I, and others, didn't want to know more, we wouldn't take the time out to write about it.

> I say MM listens to us, for the most part, when it benefits *them* not us, but when the going gets hot...

I am not sure how this turned so negative. You posted a long post with a lot of questions. I addressed those questions.

You then posted another long post with some more questions. This was less that 24 hours ago. I haven't responded to that yet, and all of a sudden this is somehow supposed to be proof that we don't listen to developers or engage them.

So, sure, I could have taken two minutes to respond to your questions, but I certainly couldn't have read all of the questions and answered them in a way that you would like in those two minutes. I have been assuming that you asked the questions because you are genuinely interested in the answers, and that because of this, I am going to take the time to answer them appropriately.

Does that mean you may not get an answer immediately? Yes. Does it mean we are not responsive? No, I don't think it does at all.

FYI, I am in charge of developer relations for Central, but not of all of Central (although one of my primary roles is to make sure the team knows about developer feedback, and that feedback results in better products ).

mike chambers

mesh@macromedia.com

>I am not sure how this turned so negative.

Good point. It's more of a combination of few things I suppose. I don't consider it professional when people put so much effort into something and it get's ignored by the very same people who say "we are listening". It's not this blog, it's a whole slew of other stuff. Take Flash2004, take flashcom, take DW2004 and now Central. MM always wants to start other stuff up before cleaning up the mess they made with other apps. There are a lot of pissed off developers out there, and we're all shouting but it's not having the effect it needs to have. Why do we shout so loud? 'cause we give a shit about what goes on with the tools that we use day in and day out. We want to see forward movement in all issues, not just issues that MM deems worthy of dealing with. Not to say that you guys don't want to make everything perfect though.. I would assume that it's quite hard to meet all goals, but... that's your job as the leading multimedia content creating application company in the world. Set higher goals, meet them, and then move on to the next issue.

I most certainly don't expect you to hop in here and spend all your time answering questions on my blog, but JD hopped in with a couple of answers which made me think that maybe you weren't going to as I had seen posts on your own blog about other stuff. In my own mind, a short blurb of, looking into it right now, will get back to you right away would have been helpful I think maybe? But Gary Grossman said the same thing on this post: http://www.sti-media.com/blog/archives/000042.html and I haven't heard back on that one...

If you are looking into it, and are going to get back to it with some serious answers, then I'm waiting with baited breath. I can't wait to read up so I have some more to work with and figure out what exactly I need to know to actually calculate all risks and be able to explain to the higher-ups what it is that is going on. That is my goal so far. When that is done, then current schedules can be accomodated to fit in Central research and development if we so fit to do so (by the raving of some of the high-profile deav's out there, I'm assuming it is, but I need to prove it myself)

My apologies to have taken things down the negative road, but I'm tired of letting things slide with MM. I want to see the time I've put into an issue turned around and put back in to it for me. We all benefit from it, and I would expect no less from myself had our positions be reversed.

Quite surprised at this post. If what you say is true and you don't get the answers WHEN you want them, then THIS post certainly didn't make matters any better did it? :-(

In any case, I wish I could answer your questions sir. But alas I'm not a MM employee. :-)

David, no, that isn't true. When I want them isn't the issue so much of IF I'm going to get answers. Of course I'm not waiting months to get answers that theoretically shouldn't take that long. A concept of time I suppose. :)

This post didn't make matters better? I beg differ that maybe it didn't make them worse. Is Mike pissed at me? not sure, but I know for a *fact* now that he's listening and that makes me feel a heck of a lot better, and because of that our "relationship" can grow. It's business, I'm not trying to woo MM into any special relationship. We (we as in all developers/designers and MM) gain off of each other most when we cooperate most with each other.

> but I know for a *fact* now that he's listening and that makes me feel a heck of a lot better,

Just to clarify on this, I was listening to you before all this (as evident my response to your original thread).

I am not sure that this particular thread has improved our "relationship" though.

mike chambers

mesh@macromedia.com

>Just to clarify on this, I was listening to you before all this

OK.

>I am not sure that this particular thread has improved our "relationship" though

hmmm... my goal is to know more about Central, your goal is to get the info out so people will use it. So far we are succeeding :)

I have found in my life that the people that scrutinize me most, if I win them over, turn out to be the best allies in the future. It's the drive to meet goals and deadlines, the energy and patience to see something to a finish that make a project a success.

Central is not going to succeed tomorrow, next week or even in the next few months. It'll take time and good planning which means we are still in the preliminary stages of what to do. If you thought I was just some whiner (like some I have seen out there) I truly doubt you would have bothered to send stuff over or reply to this post (so many times too!). We move forward from here, to me that is an improvement in the "relationship". Do you see it any different?

I also have issues with not getting answered by Macromedia, and I perceive that they don't deal with bad news, difficult questions, or negative feedback in the most helpful manner.

However, I would like to nominate "The Apple Macintosh Community" for your competition. Although if they were to be awarded a Microsoft X-box, they might feel insulted.

Mac owners have been pleading for a faster version of the flash player on our platform - comparable with the PC version. Here are 11 pages of requests. There have been answers, but as yet, no solution - which is what really counts.

http://www.flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=323463

Thanks Daniel, it was gettin' a bit lonely here with just Mike, David and myself ;)

I don't work on a mac (have one but it's a G3 so... a bit slow) so I wouldn't know, but I have yet to see an app that runs faster on a Mac than it does on a PC (not a pc vs mac war here.. just to my knowledge) that is not made by apple itself. Even then iTunes runs zippy fast on my pc but not on my mac.

By the way, I lost the contest hands down anyways 'cause Mike and JD answered pretty much all of my questions.. :)

11 pages of requests... holy crap.. I'll go over it a bit later then. Thanks.

Daniel wrote: "I also have issues with not getting answered by Macromedia, and I perceive that they don't deal with bad news, difficult questions, or negative feedback in the most helpful manner."

I read your previous multi-screen post here, but was already inundated by picking questions out of our host's multi-screen post.... ;-)

(You'll usually get better answers if you clearly ask an answerable question which isn't already FAQ'd... for your "slow mac player" post here it seems like you've ignored all my previous typing about how the Mac Player has actually gotten extra engineering time, the browser variable, and all the rest, so why should I type it again instead of doing something else with that time...?)

jd/mm

Well - that put me in my place :)

My slow mac player comment wasn't a question as such - it was a nomination :) And my multi-page comments were not really questions as such either - they were my observations and perceived hurdles using Central.

Both you and Mike have been very attentive here. But that hasn't always been my experience of Macromedia over the years, or even recently.

>Both you and Mike have been very attentive here. But that hasn't always been my experience of Macromedia over the years, or even recently.

I fully agree with this and have the same experience. Can you guys throw some of that energy to the FCS team? :)

Thanks again for all the answers, I can say at this point Central *is* in our project roster now, and I will post more in the future as to how we plan to take advantage of it in our apps.