One might wonder if it were easy why it wasn’t put in there from the start considering the feature was in the previous edition I suspect people were under the impression that the feature would be carried forward into the new version. Ah right, yes, probably lack of time, lack of initial design, tunnel vision or the concept of keeping things as simple as possible to the detriment of the product.
I’ve just searched my email body and subject for survey, the last one I had from Xojo was 2nd July 2019 titled “Will you tell us about your Xojo experience?”. Do you have the dates of the “several surveys a year” so I can check that I got them? Maybe the lack of responses is because they aren’t getting to us?
Do you hand on heart actually believe this or is this a comment you pass around when trying to make a point? I lost all faith in the feedback system and I lost faith in the usefulness you personally take in it and that Xojo takes as a whole in the content of feature requests and feedback when the following happened on a ticket I put in:
<https://xojo.com/issue/52698>
52698 - Getting Started where next?
The new Getting Started screen could really use a “Lets Go”, “Start Creating” or some similarly worded button to show new people to Xojo what needs to be done next as crossing the window to continue is a little counter intuitive. There is literally nothing that says what someone should do next to get stuck in.
The feature request is still marked as visible to me, prerelease testers and Xojo even though the feature has now been in the public domain for over two years. This means that regular users can’t see this feature request, and therefor cannot assign points to it, something that you repeatedly say that users should do if something is of concern to them or its something they think Xojo should consider to be addressed.
I posted that suggestion as soon as the (then) new getting started screen became available for testing. I could see where your UI failed for new users who will be the target demographic for such a feature and I made a simple suggestion trying to improve your product.
The ticket was seen by Greg 5 days later, 15th July 2018 and has not been looked at since. I know its not been looked at because you made the exact suggestion 1.5 years later.
<https://xojo.com/issue/58919>
58919 - Welcome to Xojo window doesn’t make it clear how to create a new project.
When a new user first launches Xojo, they see the Welcome to Xojo window. See the enclosed screenshot. Unfortunately, this window doesn’t make it clear how to start a project. It gives a lot of resources, but if the user wants to just start exploring the IDE, it’s not obvious that to do that, you must close the Welcome to Xojo window.
I suggest that we expand the section at the bottom where the “Don’t show again” button is and add a “Explore Xojo” button the left hand side. All the button has to do is close the window.
Don’t be under any illusion that what you see above was an isolated incident, it has happened many times in the four years I’ve been putting feedback tickets in but this one was literally the straw the broke the camels back. What rubs me up the wrong way is that your feedback request was seen and implemented in under an hour and my suggestion was simply ignored for 1.5 years which left me to wonder why even bother putting feature requests in if they aren’t being properly seen, categorised and considered. The case was of utmost importance in terms of UI and first user impressions of your software to potential new users, yet Xojo couldn’t see that and didn’t give it due consideration.
What cuts right to the bone is when you keep on making the same comment over and over again about us having to use feedback and “all we have is the information you provide”, those of us whom have/are regularly using feedback to literally give you free testing and quality control on your product are routinely ignored as is clearly shown above and the huge list of outstanding verified and reproducible issues the vast majority of us all have. We literally spend hours researching and reporting issues to provide you with the information and you systematically ignore it, either through fault of your own, fault of the system or fault of the processes in place. The ticket I linked above has been marked to be closed since 24th January 2020 because of the ticket you put in, my ticket is still there, being ignored just adding to the waste pile that is feedback.
It certainly shows, maybe you should, because from our perspective the current system isn’t fit for purpose, from where we are the flexibility you seem to enjoy just lets things build up and the tighter your grip on things the more issues slip through your fingers.
Time after time, things are missed, if you’re a frequent user of feedback you get to see the problems. For example <https://xojo.com/issue/61268> 61268 - WebListBox dynamic data not always shown after scrolling is still under Needs Review since August, deep in the beta. It was brought up on the forum under a beta topic of Showstoppers yet its still being ignored, it has literally fallen through the cracks in the system, it is a showstopper and it is a glaring issue in the implementation of a core control of your new web 2.0 product.
There are lots of tickets like this, and countless more that are stuck behind testers only visibility which should have been made public a long time ago which aren’t getting any attention because they can’t be seen by the majority of users.
Chuck a couple of grand at it and let a company dedicated to creating a world class bug tracking system take care of things because no matter how much time you dedicate to it, no matter how many engineers over the years you have working on it, you’ll never, ever be able to match what can be created by a company who’s sole existence is dedicated to a bug tracking solution. What you have now is just a massive waste of time and resources that could be put into actually improving your product.
. I understand the pain Xojo goes through.