In-Your-Face Marketing

I was tasked to spin up a FM Server for a customer. Now, each and every time someone logs into the server console, this pops up:

Is there a way to silence this embarrassing in-your-face marketing? How do I explain that to my customer?

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I wish there is but I doubt there is.

If you believe this to be an undesirable feature (as I do), start by sending a complaint to Claris. Then tell your colleagues, customers, fellow Soup members and anyone else you can think of to do the same.

I, for one, am unhappy to find out Claris is adding advertising to its software.

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This is what happens when marketing drives the product.

I love FileMaker but I always feel their hand reaching for my wallet.

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@RosemaryTietge,

Please look into this.

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Which version of FMS ? Mine is 19.6.3.302. I just logged in after adding a new tab to Edge, but didn't get this. I have seen this pop up, but can't recall where.

EDIT

Ahum, it's there, I missed it, right in the upper right corner :frowning_face:.

Thanks for bringing me into this conversation. To be honest, I doubt that we will remove that message area from the Server admin console because it gives us an effective way to reach customers.

If we used that message to deliver helpful resources -- for example this article about FileMaker 19.6, engineering blog posts to help you adopt new features, or upcoming developer-focused webinar announcements -- would you be less upset by it?

Thank you for quick response. It is a server console, the workplace for server admins. Server admins know where to look for information about Claris' offerings.
That thing plopping into the face of everyone who does not log in for watching an advert but for doing the admin job is very annoying. Each and every time we have to click it away. It is out of context, pushy and intrusive.
I seriously doubt that my customer will buy more Claris products because they get this slammed into their face at each login.
For presenting technical information to admins and developers there are forums, an engineering blog, a YouTube channel. People know where to look for it.

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I would still be as upset. These are what I consider opt-in options. FileMaker Server and FileMaker clients are apps and, in my opinion, apps should restrict themselves to what they are tasked to do.

Help and product documentation, available via a help menu, give us the information that help us adopt new features. An opt-in feature in the help menu, where one could subscribe to articles or be redirected to places (web pages, blog sites, forums, etc) of the kind you are suggesting, would be appropriate. In this case, it would no longer be "in your face", as @Torsten says, as it would require the user to select the menu item.

Hope this helps.

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I guess the biggest problem, now that I think about it, is the inability to opt-out of these messages. I still think this should be an opt-in feature… but an opt-out option is a minimum in my opinion.

Look at iOS for a parallel. The tips app contains all the help I could want about Apple's iOS ecosystem. The tips app produces notifications by default. I am not so fond of this but, then again, the target audience is not a technical one. Thankfully, I can disable notification for this app. I can even delete the app.

That's closer to an appropriate behaviour that, I think, Claris should adopt with its apps and services.

Hope this helps.

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exactly! Here, server admins are often part of the IT departements, who have some 'questioning'.. I would prefer to not get this message

But anyway - thank You so much for chiming in, Rosemary!

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Agreed! They don't listen and won't change.

This silly un-opt-out-able marketing reminds me of QuickBooks, my most most-hated software application of all time.

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That we even have to explain this to Claris is indicative how disconnected they are to their pro user base (admins, devs).

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Ja, schade.

The marketing folks at Claris aren't into that whole "programming thing". They're not probably even sure it's "a thing"...

LOL.

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Honestly, no, adding technical info or a link to the engineering blog would not make this less annoying. The engineering blog is not updated all that often- I do not need a reminder to check every time I log into an admin console. And being a server admin, I do not need, nor do I desire, marketing information being presented every time I log into a console. When I log into the admin console, it's for a specific reason and do work, not to be marketed to.
At a minimum, something like this should be opt-outable. Ideally, it should be an opt-in setting in the server console itself. I'm already a customer, stop wasting my time trying to sell me more when I have work to do.

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The train has departed:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/youtube-is-killing-the-overlay-ad-format-next-month/

:steam_locomotive: :train: :railway_car: :train: :railway_car: :heart:

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My FMS project is pretty much over so I won't have to renew. The in-your-face advertising pushed me over the edge (to NOT renew). Nice job, Claris. (Anti-marketing)

I now wonder how long it will benow , like Quickbooks has, before FMP itself has in-product advertising. Once this "idea" catches on in an organization, it tends to spread in my experience.

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Someone logging into a server control panel has already gone through the process of "selling" the Claris platform to their stakeholders. There's no need to hit them up again.

The pop up messaging needs to offer value to the user, which would demonstrate Claris' commitment and appreciation to the user base. Asking "how you can help", is a better message to send than "how can I upsell you".

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I would prefer that this sort of information was provided in there same way that other notifications are handled.

A different colour could be used for server info and marketing info.

My preference would be that the marketing output is optional.

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I cannot reproduce this issue, no pop-up marketing communication here :slight_smile:
hosted on Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS
FMS 19.6.3
Console is running in Chrome on my Mac at home

Did you install without a license file like having a test setup? This would be the only option I could think of that makes at least some sense...