That’s not good publicity (as it appears to me).
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Well we read things that were said before:
I don't like to be force to upgrade each year.
This has never been the case. Concerns about prices are also read there, and it's understandable.
The new policy about support also raise concerns.
A lot of questions are raising again about FileMaker, even here and on the official Community. Claris is shuffling again about licenses, and we all know that during last years that always ended up in price increases.
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To be fair, some have said the same about some of the content here. People have their opinions. And it is what it is.
I agree. Although we sometimes let our frustrations out, this whole forum is built around the fact we are all passionate about FileMaker and love the majority of what it can do and, in fairness, how FMI have evolved it.
As database developers we tend to focus on the 5 to 10% of any project, which is the nature of the job we do as mostly 90% is obvious or we’ve been there before. Hence, we tend to not repeatedly post that 90% of FileMaker is actually brilliant.
Joseph Pine, Co-author of The Experience Economy, talks about how, when operating in front of others, we are always “on stage”. Performing as it were. Every action we take, or don’t, is seen by the audience, and they make judgements based on what they see.
On the forums, we are “on stage”. Our audience, Claris’ audience, etc, all see what we do. Readers, who represent our clients ( current or potential ), and Claris’ customers ( current or potential ), read what is written here. Some of it reads, ‘I am passionate about the platform, and I want to see it continue to grow’. Unfortunately, I can’t say that’s true of a significant portion of the comments I read. It looks like more like a platform ‘one should stay away from’. ( the quoted part has been said to me by more than a few people based on what they have read both here, and the community site )
How does that impact us? Try selling a project to a client who has done research on FileMaker, and has read many of these posts. The on-stage presence of many “veteran” developers makes them uneasy about the platform. In some cases, from personal experience, they are soured by talk about a perceived problem for a feature that doesn’t even impact them. I have, personally, lost 3 projects based 100% on what the owner read on the forums.
We are “on-stage”, for anyone to read. Our actions, how we speak, and the words we use change based on the scenario. We can insist that we can speak however we wish, and that is kind of true, but it comes with a cost. The reality is, most of what is complained about by some, typically doesn’t affect 95% of the user-base. Secondly, the more I listen to and work with developers on other platforms, or using a chest-full of open-source tools, still have many of the same problems…and other problems that FileMaker devs don’t have to deal with.
We are “on-stage”, and what we say has an impact. That impact can be a significant cost, a soft cost, or it can be boost to our business.
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Everyone is on stage in a forum or a website. Even those who do not answer questions if these questions do not serve their purpose. Make no mistake: marketing is the art of manipulating people.
And working towards the leader does not make up for bad marketing.
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You say that like it's a bad thing? We "manipulate" people all the time, EVERYONE, we just have a different name for it. Marketing, and manipulation, doesn't need to be negative or deceitful.
Saying a company is being deceitful or greedy, is in itself, manipulation. My point in my last post, is that whatever space we are in, we can have a negative impact or a positive impact. We can have a negative impact on a positive event, or even a positive impact on a negative event. It's a choice. Choosing negative words, and words meant ( intended ) to cast a negative light on something isn't typically a positive move forward. There are exceptions to that, like when we cast negative light on a naturally negative and harmful action/event. For example, crime or acts against humanity.
In the end, casting a negative light on FileMaker or Claris, is not in our best interest. We can point out flaws, without being negative. That's all I'm saying. Constructive, not destructive.
I find ignoring questions is destructive and negative - and shows a lack of education.
I find thinking ignoring questions is destructive and negative shows a lack of education. Not trying to be crass, but sometimes no good comes from answering a question. While I don’t question your intent in asking a question, for Claris, they can’t be casual with the answering of questions. Having been in the position of having to handle some tough business questions/decisions, I can only say, it’s not always possible to answer some questions.
That leaves me speechless.
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Firstly, I agree with everything you’ve just posted.
Secondly, I believe that in the original Jive based platform, we had a pretty good stage. Those on-stage were FMI representatives who were creating a much appreciated openness, an evolving core of helpers and enquirers. The overall impression was positive and frequently commented upon.
For whatever reasons, that is no longer the case with the current community. This forum is a young child, exploring it’s capabilities and boundaries. Only time will tell where it will go, but I hope it will attract enough attention to encourage the enquirers again and that the helpers will appear.
At the moment the number of contributors is too small and any post has quite a noticeable impact. However, the forum is also independent and does allow free speech and that should be applauded. I also encourage native English speakers to appreciate that we have a (very) significant contribution from non-native English speakers and naturally translation needs to be taken into account, as well as cultural differences - another reason to celebrate this forum.
Without some regular problem solving to respond to, then naturally opinions and news snippets will be added to keep the forum from becoming static. We are in a period of change and uncertainty, hence it is only natural these uncertainties will be upper most in people minds. If there is any debate about this, please listen to Matt Petrowsky and Martha Zink discuss this in the 3rd October FileMaker Podcast.
I sincerely hope we become positive soup, but without censorship. Josh, you continue to provide a very balancing influence here and do please continue to do so.
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They definitely have a lot going on. The intention is to continue and grow that openness to the point they can. We just need to wait for the dust to settle, there are so many changes happening for all of them right now.
I completely agree. I think people often get confused about what I actually object to, even when I try to spell it out. Most often, I'm not bothered by what is said. If fact, rarely am I bothered. It is only when people throw in destructive words to try and make their point. I can provide examples in a PM if you wish, but I think we both understand what I am referring to.
More often than not, I get great benefit out of exchanges with others that don't see things the same way I do. It's how I, personally, continue to grow. Kindness and decency are not a culturally-dependant ubiquity.
100%, but when I listened to that episode when it first came out, the questions in my head were very very different than what they had. Neither good or bad, some things that were questions, seemed very clearly defined in the keynote, and reiterated by Srinni in the Roadmap.
Srinni is getting quite a bit of airtime at the moment.
Oh boy, that thread gives food for thought.
@Torsten, @jormond and @AndyHibbs, your comments bring a new way to look at what’s going on.
Passionate people have passionate opinions and most of the time that reduces the number or grey shades to two: good or bad. Technically speaking many Filemaker users complaint about the lack of functionalities and weakness on some others. Lets just think about reports and printing.
Thing is FileMaker can’t be compared to MS SQL Server, Oracle and the likes. To use an image, think about old planes where handles were connected to parts by metal cables and about recent planes where handle or controls are connected to a computer that control the plane.
SQL Server, Oracle etc are like old planes: the developer must take care of everything. With FileMaker, there is no direct control over what’s going on. Those who haven’t watch yet, you need to watch ‘Under the hood; FileMaker Layouts’ YouTube The amount of things that FileMaker does for the developer is incredible. That means adding a single feature to FileMaker is quite a job, because it does a lot you don’t need to.
Is FileMaker perfect, no. Is there a perfect development tool, the answer is no again.
One big grief is about the price for FileMaker. Unfortunately, FileMaker is not a large player in the databases field. Should the sale’s numbers be greater, then price could be smaller. Question is: how can FileMaker become much more popular.
But that brings a new question: is the product that sells most the best one ? Android phones outsell iPhone, are they better.
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A colleague that I work closely with had some 1-on-1 time with him at DevCon. His vision is pretty clear. And his clarification of “Cloud-first” is positive. Not that it can’t change over time, but as he said cloud and on-prem are considered equal citizens in the “Cloud-first” vision.
The licensing, I can’t comment on, there is just no info. I would guess they haven’t finalized the details, which is expected. Talking about it now isn’t being coy or deceitful, they are trying to be open and give us the info they have, which just isn’t much right now.
This is a mentality that hinders a lot of developers. What do you charge clients? As little money as possible? Or do you charge them the value of the outcome? Value is different for everyone. So what is considered "expensive" is all about value. Why does one person buy a watch for $30, but someone else would spend thousands on a watch? Value.
If FileMaker had 20 million subscribers, instead of 1 million subscribers, would the price be lower? Probably not. Why? Value. You don't have to sell to every client. And if you want to make more money, get better clients. ( quote from Jonathan Stark ).
I digress. We can save this conversation for another thread.
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A wee bit of balance. I was looking at Appian, which looks interesting until I saw the price of £90 per user per month. Then after that ‘starting at 100’, so minimum spend of £9000 per month if I’ve interpreted it appropriately.
Ist is the public pricing. They aim at the big corporations market, not SMEs.
I think that it's developers that get the value of FileMaker. Do customers get the value ? A big part of what they feel is the price. Thing is SQL Server and Oracle are not cheap, the prices are quite high.
Could it be the model that picked Claris, that is renting ? Sure you can buy permanent licenses, but they are expensive upfront.