Just to make sure I’m not misunderstood: I did not intend to imply that EllisLab is using the clues given as a planned virus marketing strategy. I just tried to bring to attention that it sometimes comes to the same result.

Personally, I have arranged with the communication strategy of EllisLab and I’m a loyal user since the first beta releases. However, I can understand users that would like to know more - especially if transparency “moments” highlight coming features. Perhaps one should rethink if this “part-time transparency” is able to work?

And to add another spin: I truly miss Paul and especially Rick in the forums because they have often given insight on the strategic ideas behind EE. Of course, non of their (sketched) - or better: user-implied - schedules (based on statements like EE 1.5 being the last major release before 2.0, the ECM running an Pauls developer machine) did work out as expected from the users. But it might be part of the transparency to give more insight in between, especially when things change or develop in another direction.

-Markus

Hi Markus (and everyone else who posted in this thread),

My response was not targeted at any one person, I’m just commenting in general. Asking for a roadmap is the #1 most common email that is spammed privately to everybody on the team and its just getting old as our stance on it is so obvious, honest, and straightforward. Yet people email repeatedly, sometimes in a very angry fashion (thank you everyone in this thread for being so reasonable and well-spoken about your concerns, most aren’t) as if that will change our minds or the way we work, which it does not.

I really should make a blog post about it so our team has an answer we can just refer back to easily.

To chime in again, as was mentioned before, there’s a bit of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” when releasing such information, but there is an upside to it.  Some deeper clues about what’s going on can make your customers more comfortable, and can help out third-party devs a ton.

As your base grows you can take a little more risk IMO.  You’ve got a solid, loyal audience here and you probably all have thicker skin by now too.

I’m not sure anyone here (at least in this thread) is expecting some bullet-point list of what and when everything is being done.  Maybe it’s because most in here are devs (messy devs?), who knows.  I understand where you’re coming from when you don’t want to post about what you want to do.  What I would think is that while development is taking place and the foundation for a new feature or modified feature is being/has been completed, the team might open up about that.

To be frank, the current policy reads as “we’re covering our butts”.  Well, maybe it’s time to moon a few people and see what the reaction is.  Ok, a stupid analogy, but it’s so dumb I can’t delete it.  What I’m getting at is: test the waters with just a few details about things that are completed or that are near completion.

I’ve created a few add-ons for other products.  Most private, but I’ve released a few.  I’ve never been given a “real” roadmap for any, but I always had a feeling that I knew what the next step was.  I never knew step two or three, but that next one was right there in front of me.  Rarely had more than a vague timeframe, if even that, but it still let me know whether or not to invest my time or money having myself or someone else develop something I need/want.

So, to toss out an idea, something low-key, maybe to consider at some point in the future: In the Feature Requests forum, make a sticky post.  Whatever the next version is, have a short list of some of the feature adds/changes and maybe the more commonly reported bugs that have been fixed.  As I said above, only stuff that’s done or close to completion so you don’t feel like you’re sticking your neck out.  Some of us would then have more of a clue about what’s coming, and it seems like an appropriate place, makes the forum a little more two-way.

Either way, thanks for listening and communicating in here, it’s appreciated.

VodkaFish - 08 May 2007 07:09 PM

To chime in again, as was mentioned before, there’s a bit of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” when releasing such information, but there is an upside to it.  Some deeper clues about what’s going on can make your customers more comfortable, and can help out third-party devs a ton.

Now, can we please leave it at that? I think the various points have been made, EllisLab have explained their position and why it’s not going to change anytime soon, so I suggest we all respect or at least accept that reality. This discussion is leading nowhere.

Ingmar - 09 May 2007 04:20 AM

VodkaFish - 08 May 2007 07:09 PM

To chime in again, as was mentioned before, there’s a bit of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” when releasing such information, but there is an upside to it.  Some deeper clues about what’s going on can make your customers more comfortable, and can help out third-party devs a ton.

Now, can we please leave it at that? I think the various points have been made, EllisLab have explained their position and why it’s not going to change anytime soon, so I suggest we all respect or at least accept that reality. This discussion is leading nowhere.

I don’t know where else this conversion might go (it has obviously gone a bit wider than the OP), but I can’t imagine a reason to just shut it down completely. This is obviously an important issue to many people as it has been said that the question does seem to keep popping up.

We’re all paying customers, and it is not only in our interest to let Ellislab know our thoughts, but in their interest as well to hear those thoughts. If we just blindly accepted that we would never be privy to any kind of roadmap and never let it be known we would like that to change, how much chance is there that it ever will? I would hope that if enough people came forward with valid reasons for releasing information about the direction of EE, that the powers that be would at least revisit the issue.  And if not, at least our position is known.

Now…

Down with the establishment! Mob rules! Lets storm the lab and find that roadma….  eerrrrrr.  Whoops. Nothing.

I’ve been very open about our position and if you go back and read it Brain it has nothing to do with marketing or business and everything about how we work as people. The community has had their say, most of it well put but nothing that we haven’t heard before.

We really need to concentrate on getting 1.6 finished up, so this thread is closed. No disrespect, its just a big distraction. People keep treating us and this issue as if we’re some big corporation with 100s of employees. We’re just 4 guys doing our best to work with a 50k + community. We’ve been honest, open, and transparent as we possibly can be without compromising what we need to keep things running smoothly. Some people like it, others don’t.

Thread closed.