God I hate software vendors. Does anyone else have to spend a crazy amount of time toning down emails to them from "Reasons you suck" speeches to actual productive emails?
And if you're assuming the software vendor I'm dealing with was the lowest bidder, you are correct.
After my third "per my previous email..." or "I've asked thrice for documentation regarding..." I realize I need to basically scrap the whole response and start over.
Working with FOSS software has set extremely high expectations that vendors cannot seem to meet. Like, all these projects are built by unpaid volunteers and have amazing documentation. We're paying you a lot of money - what's your excuse?
Like, all these projects are built by unpaid volunteers and have amazing documentation. Weâre paying you a lot of money - whatâs your excuse?
This is so true and it boggles my mind.
I understand the open source side of things. I write good documentation because every minute I spend on that saves me an hour in answering questions. It also helps any new employees get up to speed. And honestly, it helps me keep up to speed because I'm way too old to keep all this stuff in my brain long-term. I can't remember half the shit I did last year. Not in sufficient detail, anyway. I'm kicking myself now for not documenting all the steps I took configuring my personal Linux desktop, because I hopped distros and now I have to re-learn things I haven't done in years.
I don't understand the commercial side of things, because...aren't you paying your support people? Isn't that time costing you money?
Is the issue that the salary of the people with the technical knowledge to write good documentation is much higher than the support staff? Is it that paying customers by and large will not read documentation anyway? Is it because they are reserving the right to change everything radically without notice, and to hell with semantic version numbering?
Or is it that operational/ongoing expenses are easier to justify to beancounters than capital/one-time expenses in general? (Which seems totally backwards to me.)
Here's the thing, people who suck at what they do are usually either
A. Stupid
B. Overworked
C. Under-qualified
D. Under-compensated
It doesn't matter which one(s) of those apply to them, your interactions with them should be adjusted the same regardless of why they suck. Limit all emails, all requests, and all questions to one topic only. Don't try to get answers to 3 different things because it's not going to happen. Address one subject, and only move onto the next after you have resolved that subject. Trying to do anything else is an exercise in futility.
EXACTLY! I mean I'm coming from a sysadmin side, but I've definitely been spoilt by all the manpages, flexibility, stability, etc of foss. It's insane how some vendors can ship a product with pretty much no logging and call it a day.
Worked with several enterprise tier products that were far pricier than the rest of the market.
At an end user forum where the lead software engineer says, "our next release is February and should have these new features. But, you know how we are. It probably won't be February"
The important thing to remember is that the "you suck" emails go to real people. So keeping professional even when "you suck" is deserved is an important balance.
I remember when I was in school, I'd sometimes write a joke paper for an assignment I really hated, before scrapping it and writing something real. It was cathartic to write a page or two on why the material was dumb as nails, and sometimes I'd even get some usable material from the process.
I feel the same way writing emails to vendors. Next time, I think I'll take my initial draft and send it through an LLM to make it more "professional".
Be professional but donât hold back with the criticism. Companies need to be held down and force feed their own shit back to them with every opportunity.