Tough Love
By WellcomeMat on Jun 27, 2007 in WellcomeMat
What do Fred Light, Virginia Engelsman, Mike Bond, Philip Fay, Jay Williams, Dave Herring, Tim Kent, Lucas Lechuga, Chris Staples, Michael/Kris Schneider, Doug Heddings and Markus Azadeh have in common? They are WellcomeMat’s most militant members and some of our most valuable players. They never take it easy on us, never miss a bug, and stick with us while we collectively fix their problems. The rest of our members (and we missed quite a few in our short list I am sure…apologies if we left you out) benefit hugely from their attention to detail, and tough love. This post is about saying a big THANK YOU to everyone that, in a respectful way, never takes it easy on us. We are a better company, team, and website because of you.
You’ll notice that The Neighborhood (”The Hood”) has unintentionally become a support mechanism of sorts. New visitors might think to themselves, “wow…WellcomeMat has a bunch for issues with their system.” I’d love to say that this statement is incorrect (it’s not). But, The Neighborhood is all that is beautiful, and ugly about WellcomeMat.com. It is where our shining stars hang out, and where our team keeps it real with our members. There is not a single technology company worth talking about that doesn’t have their share of bugs. And, in the end, the companies that win are the ones that listen to customers/members, and take action with the most diligent level of urgency. If you don’t have a healthy feedback mechanism, you don’t have a solid company. We thank whatever God we pray to individually every day for our toughest users. You are part of our team, part of our family, and-when we have our way-part of something beyond any of our imaginations. Thank you.
Popularity: 5% [?]
On Jun 27, 2007, Dave Herring said:
Great, now get back to work
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On Jun 28, 2007, Fred Light said:
Wow…. Militant, huh? Flattery will get you everywhere… that’s been a lifelong goal of mine… LOL
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On Jun 28, 2007, WellcomeMat said:
Fred,
Now if you’d stop ripping on Flash and realize that it’s going to be the standard for a long time, we’d really appreciate it. Kidding buddy…we appreciate your opinions.
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On Jun 28, 2007, madegreen said:
How many startups do you know that encourage and cultivate a forum for transparent communication with their users?
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On Jun 28, 2007, Fred Light said:
I love Flash. I love Flash. I love Flash.
Better?
Honestly, I think it will get better over time. I hope it does, because I’m not particularly fond of doing 3 times as much work as I would have to if I loved Flash as much as I wish I did….
Oh.. .yeah… I do love Flash. I do love Flash. I do love Flash………
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On Jun 28, 2007, WellcomeMat said:
Disliking Flash is kind of like disliking Microsoft (although Flash has nothing but advocates): you can do it, but chances are you won’t get very far in avoiding it. They have the distribution, have a system that allows developers to do their creative work (hence our video editor/player), and have a huge fan base. Pretty soon, when Flash does get cleaner in playback (and it will), the other formats will be in even more trouble. Even right now it takes a Fred Light to truly see the difference in playback quality. You have the eye for it, and most don’t. When Flash gets cleaner and the gap between formats is even less, the format war has been won (by Flash).
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On Jul 1, 2007, Fred Light said:
Oh, I KNOW. It’s better than it was 1 year ago, and I assume that it will continue to get better - seriously, I hope it does. One standard format would be awesome. However, I would HOPE that I’m not the only one that sees that the quality is not as sharp as something like QuickTime, as it seems very obvious to me. BTW, yes… I also DESPISE Microsoft, and am proud to say I’ve only (reluctantly)owned only one of their products, which I almost never use… LOL So, I definitely swim upstream - I know (although I think most people secretly dislike Microsoft!).
Not sure where the iPhone is going or whether it will live up to it’s unbelievable hype, but it currently does not support Flash.
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On Jul 1, 2007, WellcomeMat said:
No surprise that the iPhone doesn’t support Flash. Rediculous, but no surprise.
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On Jul 2, 2007, Fred Light said:
Hmmm… this is interesting… http://tinyurl.com/2hh7cj
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