ADM -- in case u were wondering

>Date: Monday, February 12, 2007
>Subj: ADM
>situation
> >Hi Arne, We’ve not corresponded before but—in desperation…
>well,
>maybe extreme frustration & a little anger—I’m writing you as a
>last
>resort.
> >From early in ADM’s development, I spent hours & hours of my time
>testing,
>suggesting, discussing, helping & proselytizing for ADM. My
>testimonial for ADM
>appears on http://www.adm21.net/testimonials.html.
>I had the time to spend on ADM
>because I’m semi-retired & I was
>interested in the product as I have been in Lotus
>Agenda, Ecco Pro,
>& Zoot.
> >As a consequence of my participation in ADM matters, Eric
>Sommner
>voluntarily offered me a free lifetime license to ADM &, later, a
>‘piece’ of
>the company if I would help write part of the help system.
> >Except for the ADM license I
>excused myself from any formal
>relationship w ADM. And to be honest, I would have paid
>for an ADM
>license & told Eric so.
> >I continued being supportive, reporting bugs,
>making suggestions &
>helping other users master ADM. I started a support email list
>on
>yahoo (which I eventually folded for lack of interest). When Eric
>moved to China I
>helped debug betas via Skype, a tedious process to
>say the least.
> >Then ever so
>slowly, it became apparent that Eric was withdrawing from
>the process &
>communication with him was sporadic despite pleas from a
>number of users to tell us
>what was *really* going on. Everyone
>understood that there might be financing
>problems & I believe all
>anyone wanted was some kind of *realistic* status
>report.
> >Some of us became privileged members of the development list and some
>of us
>took that membership & the responsibility that came with it very
>seriously. I know I
>did. So did others. Those who were most critical
>of ADM’s seemingly haphazard
>development path were removed from this
>list early on. Communications with an
>editor at the SKYPE journal was
>severed for perceived slights on Eric’s
>girlfriend.
> >After asking for clarifications & asking about further
>communications
>and after asking about the status of the program & after trying
>to
>mount intelligent dialogue about the direction of ADM & after getting
>responses
>that seemed less than candid from Eric & after closing the
>users list down for lack of
>interest—there hadn’t been a posting in
>months—Eric summarily removed me from
>the developers list because
>he thought I was being negative. He recently removed
>another
>supporter, citing a program he saw in China about censorship. Can
>you
>imagine what this looks like in the public domain when someone pops up
>& asks
>about ADM & is told this story?
> >I had a guy write to my personal address (from
>somewhere in Europe)
>asking about ADM 4 because he had been unsuccessful contacting
>anyone
>@ ADM. I responded & forwarded his email to every ADM address I had. I
>don’t
>know if he got his answer but I certainly had no response.
> >So why do I tell you all this?
>Not for a pat on the back. Not for a
>thank you. Not for money.
> >But to say that, in my
>opinion, the current state of ADM—from all I
>know—is truly shameful. It’s a good
>product. I use it even today
>but w/o tech support, no sense of progress for western
>markets, an
>uncommunicative CEO who seems immature, vindictive & petulant
>at
>times, it’s hard—nay almost impossible—to remain committed to
>the project.
>It seems I am by myself when it comes to ADM.
> >But what do I know? Not much. And why is
>that? Because Eric, the front
>man for ADM, has alienated so many of us that everyone I
>know who, at
>one time, were enthusiastic ADM supporters, have moved on for lack
>of
>communication from Eric, no customer service or tech support, nor a
>meaningful
>road map of product development, and a sense that they paid
>for a beta (true) since—
>to date—a commercial, final version of
>ADM 4 has ever been released to the best of
>anyone’s knowledge. I
>can’t defend that any more as, at this point, even I have to
>admit it
>seems to be true.
> >As I understand it, Arne, you have a viable company with
>many
>impressive clients. The only way you got there was with a good
>product, hard
>work & customer support. This is what was lacking with
>ADM.
> >Zoot, a 16 bit
>competitor is now being converted to 32 bits & then
>moving into RTF, etc. Yet this 16
>bit, text only product still has
>thousands of users & supporters. These people, who
>constantly,
>periodically & respectfully communicate with Zoot’s author, Tom
>Davis,
>even volunteered to give him up front money if it would help him in
>his
>development because they have confidence in him, something he has
>engendered
>simply by communicating with the Zoot community in an up
>front manner. This is what
>Eric missed out on.
> >As a practical matter, I don’t actually know what purpose this
>email
>will serve. I have nothing against ADM or Eric, certainly not you but
>I am
>frustrated.
> >The only practical matter that I can think of is that I’d like
>my
>testimonial on the ADM site removed since I can no longer support
>the
>product.
> >Ref: http://www.adm21.net/testimonials.html
> >Well, Arne,
>thank you for your time & early support of ADM. I don’t
>know what your interest is in the
>program at this time but I wish all
>this had turned out differently. I’m convinced it
>could have but I
>fear it’s time has passed. Hopefully, I’m
>wrong.
> >Sincerely,
> >|—————————————- [ End ]
>—————————————| 

Posted by Jan Rifkinson
Jul 5, 2007 at 08:56 PM

Daly de Gagne wrote:
>Jan, given the gentlemanly way you wrote that letter, and the lack of response,  I
>wonder how you would write it today.

Me too, Daly. I’d like to think that I could still make an impassioned plea for the program w/o being rude but I can’t guarantee it would happen. I had to accept the idea that I had been taken for a ride, nothing more was probably going to come of it, & that it was time to move on. In the interim, I was able to use an interesting program. I might have been in Katrina’s path & that would have been far worse. :-)

-jan

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jul 5, 2007 at 09:08 PM

Jan—a crazy thought!

Do you think ADM has wind of what might be in Zoot32, and decided it couldn’t compete.

The assumption is that the Admiral is simply going to give us 32-bit version of Zoot 4—but what if he has added some new features, as advanced and sophisticated as the existing features were (and still are ) when Zoot first came out?

That could tip the PIM worlds on its head!

Daly

Jan Rifkinson wrote:
> >
>Daly de Gagne wrote:
>>Jan, given the gentlemanly way you wrote that letter, and the
>lack of response,  I
>>wonder how you would write it today.
> >Me too, Daly. I’d like to
>think that I could still make an impassioned plea for the program w/o being rude but I
>can’t guarantee it would happen. I had to accept the idea that I had been taken for a
>ride, nothing more was probably going to come of it, & that it was time to move on. In the
>interim, I was able to use an interesting program. I might have been in Katrina’s path &
>that would have been far worse. :-)
> >-jan

Posted by Jan Rifkinson
Jul 5, 2007 at 10:31 PM

Daly de Gagne wrote:
>Jan—a crazy thought!

>Do you think ADM has wind of what might be in Zoot32, and
>decided it couldn’t compete.

Nope, I think it imploded because of Eric’s approach to development, communication, etc. At some level I think he was in over his head, i.e. he was not given an inappropriate responsibility based on his talents. OTOH, at this stage—& here comes a bit of testiness—I’m not sure what would actually have been an appropriate responsibility for him @ the end of the day.

>The assumption is that the Admiral is simply going to
>give us 32-bit version of Zoot 4—but what if he has added some new features, as
>advanced and sophisticated as the existing features were (and still are ) when Zoot
>first came out?
> >That could tip the PIM worlds on its head!

Yes, it might but I think Tom Davis has stated that he will first make sure that Zoot 32 is working sans bugs before moving on to any other ‘stuff’.

Personally, I think it will be years before seeing substantial differences in Zoot. He’s a methodical guy &, as a result, has a very stable program. I don’t think he’s going to abandon that approach at this late date.

Posted by Jan Rifkinson
Jul 5, 2007 at 10:52 PM

Edited later to make more sense..

>>Do you think ADM has wind of what might be in Zoot32

Nope, I think it imploded because of Eric’s approach to development, communication, etc. At some level I think he was in over his head, i.e. he was miscast based on his talents. OTOH, at this stage—& here comes a bit of testiness—I’m not sure what would actually have been an appropriate responsibility for him in the real world.

>>The assumption is that the Admiral is simply going to
>>give us 32-bit version of
>Zoot 4—but what if he has added some new features, as
>>advanced and sophisticated as
>the existing features were (and still are ) when Zoot
>>first came out?

>>That could
>tip the PIM worlds on its head!

Yes, it might but I think Tom Davis has stated that he will first make sure that Zoot 32 is working sans bugs before moving on to any other ‘stuff’.

Personally, I think it will be years before seeing substantial differences in Zoot. He’s a methodical guy &, as a result, has a very stable program. I don’t think he’s going to abandon that approach at this late date. Nor, incidentally, do I think his user base would want him to change his modus operandi.

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