Mr. Olson,
First, let me say how wonderful it is that you're stepping in to continue
to develop such a valuable and versatile product. I've used SmartCAM at
several companies since I became a full-time programmer 11 years ago.
Except for one 3-day basic class, I've taught myself, or learned with the
help of the good people on this list, to use the product with remarkable
proficiency.
Unfortunately, the last company I worked for that used SmartCAM closed down
their CNC shop and moved, laying us off. I found my current job with a
company that was using several different CAM packages at the same time, and
because SmartCAM was no longer being supported/developed, I was unable to
sway the decision to buy it. Instead, they went with Mastercam. I'm still
trudging my way through the learning curve, finding it very frustrating to
do with 8 mouse clicks something I could do with 2 in SmartCAM, and
learning "how to walk" all over again.
To make a long story short, I am no longer what you consider part of the
"'current' customer base", not by choice, but by circumstances beyond my
control. I don't own a personal seat of SmartCAM, nor can I afford one. I
am on the current e-mailing list at my job, and at home, so I can continue
to expand my knowledge of the product, to offer help when I can to others
on the list, and hopefully better my skills for when and if I go to a
company that is still using it, and I know many in my area still are. I
understand there are costs associated with maintaining the list, but I
won't be allowed to pay a fee to join the list through my work, which is
where I read the majority of these emails, and by the time I get around to
checking my email at home, it might be days, sometimes a week or more
before I could respond and maybe help someone that needed more immediate
help, not that there isn't more than enough talent to help them on this
list already.
I guess my point is that the 333 current subscribers on this list, many
that have been loyal members for years should not be charged a fee, small
or not, to remain on the list, when in my opinion, without them, most
SmartCAM users, including myself would have had to change CAM packages long
ago after development and support was stopped, effectively "carving the
headstone" for SmartCAM.
If need be, I will pay the fee to keep current at home, only because I want
to continue to learn everything I can about SmartCAM so I can go to a shop
that still has it and get back to using what I consider a great product.
Just my thoughts,
Bob.
Robert T. Callahan
Greene, Tweed & Co.
CNC Programmer
Corporate Manufacturing
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
215-256-9521 ext. 1569
"Gregg Olson"
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12/18/03 01:44 AM
Hello everyone!
I'm sure some of you were wondering if I really existed or whether I was
just a product of John Gent's imagination.
Its been great to see the response on this mail list, and I thought the
first thing I should share with you are my thoughts on the list itself.
I've seen a couple questions on what's going to happen to this list?
Well ... eventually MRS is going to have to take over responsibility for
the list So at the very least, its going to necessitate a server change
at some point. But we'd like to take it further than that. Currently
there are only 333 subscribers to the list and not all of them are even
SmartCAM customers. Even so, that's only a tiny fraction of the number of
people we estimate who are still using SmartCAM in the world today. What
we'd like to do is make it a membership based list that's for active
customers and subscribers and other key SmartCAM community members. That
way we will be able to share more confidential support information and
business planning information with the list than I feel we currently can
give out, given the current list membership. (I'm sure the gentleman from
Gibbs who is a current member of the list would understand.)
I see membership in the list being included if you're a part of the
'current' customer base. That means if you're on active maintenance or
have a current version from MRS that includes maintenance you would
automatically have free membership. If you were a customer but not
active, in other words, you have an older version and you're not on
maintenance, then you could join the list for a small admin fee. If
however you're not really a customer, dealer or some other trusted member
of the community (but say a competitor for instance) you would not be
allowed membership to the list. I understand that things we publish to
the list will eventually get out if someone wants it bad enough, I just
don't want to mail it to them directly.
I'd like to see the list continue to carry the kinds of technical
discussions and Q&A that it currently does, but I'd also like to develop it
as primary vehicle for delivering company and product announcements, tech
tips, support info, etc. For it to be truly effective however we need to
expand it to include a much larger segment of the customer base. This can
have both positive and negative effects. It makes for a much larger
knowledge pool to tap into, but it might also have the effect of lowering
the standards for communications on the list.
That leads me to list etiquette. This list has always operated at a very
high level. If the list membership begins to expand, we would like to
count on the original membership to set an example and help maintain that
high level of integrity. We see the members of this list as probably being
the most representative of the type of customer we want to have and keep.
Surprisingly, when we conducted our survey last year, we discovered there
are still a small number of SmartCAM users who are completely unconnected
with no internet or email at work OR at home. Unfortunately we may have to
leave some of them behind. We aren't going to have the resources to do
onsite visits. We will need to conduct a lot more business (product and
services) over the phone and internet.
Finally, I saw a comment in one of the earlier responses to 'buy American'.
I want to remind everyone that SmartCAM is a worldwide product, and the
membership of this list reflects that. We all need to remain aware of that
as we post here. Now, having said that, I think I understand the sentiment
behind the statement, so given the global nature of SmartCAM, I think the
phrase 'support a living wage' conveys that same sentiment and honors the
global nature of this forum, and is something we support here at MRS.
Thanks again for all the encouraging responses,
--gregg
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