Xojo: a Productive Action Plan and Customer's Specification

Question, is it possible for a few polls to be created so that we as a customer group can begin to define exactly what we all want to see happen as a cogent specification? We can start very broad and simply using 50,000 foot view issues and work our way down to exact details and by using polling, we can ultimately all agree on.

Since Xojo leadership refuses to offer their plan for remedy, we need to do this for them; as nobody knows the customer needs better then the customers themselves. Once we have a solid answer to the most pressing questions and a clear and undeniable consensus on the new priorities, specification and methodologies needed to make good, we can deliver this official demand with a unified voice and with no ambiguity, and THEN shove it down their throats until they relent.

It would be helpful to have actual polling, rather than just forum likes, because of anonymity always allows people to be themselves, but any system of consensus will do. We should tackle each question progressively and not proceed to the next until we have a clear consensus or the timer runs out. Also a dedicated thread for suggestions, ideas and the next question must be opened to solicit the customers as to their needs, both individually and as a whole. There needs to be a hard limit on time, both for each poll question and for completion of the entire consensus specification so that it can be acted upon quickly both by the customers and leadership.

For example, a poll question could be:

"Should Xojo place a temporary moratorium on new feature development and implementation in order to direct engineering resources to the most malfunctioning areas of the API?"

  1. No, Xojo should not do any of this.

  2. Yes, Xojo needs to dedicate the next release exclusively to addressing outstanding bugs.

  3. Yes, Xojo needs to dedicate the next 6 to 12 months exclusively to addressing outstanding bugs.

  4. Yes, Xojo needs to dedicate the next 12 months and beyond until the outstanding bug count is reduced to under 25% of current total and that no known showstoppers have been reported in the prior 6 months.

  5. Yes, Xojo needs to address bugs for the next 2 releases with only the required Apple Silicon updates being considered during that period.

Above is just an example not an actual poll question, but you get the point. We need to start acting in the way that will have an impact, not only issuing complaints. (although that is very important too)

First few actual questions should be procedural in nature I think, like “How long a time period for each poll question to remain open?” and what percentage exactly defines a reasonable consensus?, finally what would be the deadline date? Then we can get going on a serious push for the change we all need.

What do you think?

For example, a poll question could be:

“Should Xojo place a temporary moratorium on new feature development and implementation in order to direct engineering resources to the most malfunctioning areas of the API?”

As the exact definition of what the “most malfunctioning areas of the API” actually and literally translates into is yet another series of polling questions. Hence why we start with very high level questions and work our way down into the sub-atomic level as needed, all the while with the overall deadline looming to prevent mission creep.

FYI you can create polls in posts
Click the little gear icon about the editor area and it says “Build Poll” and off you go

1 Like

Exactly what I wanted, thanks Norman! :+1:

I was considering something along the lines of this as being the core question that supports the mandate itself. The exact details are intentionally missing as we need to define and vote on them later, but this at least agrees in principal at the general destination that we all want to get to.

(open draft)

Should Xojo Inc. call a temporary (Duration To Be Determined) moratorium on all new feature development in order to focus all engineering resources on bringing the existing API and IDE and (Existing Targets To Be Determined) up to a given standard (Standards To Be Determined) of reliability and quality as per their published specification. (Major Bug Sweeps: AKA OSX Snow Leopard style maintenance release(s) to be placed in front of the feature roadmap)

  1. No. Xojo should not do any of this.

  2. No. Xojo should continue on its current and historical path.

  3. Yes, Xojo needs to dedicate the next release exclusively to addressing outstanding bugs.

  4. Yes, Xojo needs to dedicate the next 6 to 12 months exclusively to addressing outstanding bugs and performance considerations.

  5. Yes, Xojo needs to dedicate the next 12 months and beyond until the outstanding bug count is reduced to fewer than (TBD)% of current known total.

  6. Yes, but more in depth discussion in needed to clarify the exact questions (not the details yet to be determined)

Any suggestions, additions, omissions, pitfalls, gotchas or brilliant ideas, (excluding Xojo will never go for this) :grinning: I would love to hear them.

Thank you!

DaveS

Based on historic responses from the Managment of Xojo, Inc. I think at this point it would be a waste of time to exert the effort to create such a Poll, and an equal waste of time to collect responses. As we know based on past, and present attitute, none of that information would come under any consideration that would lead to a postive change.

One thing I was taught long ago.
If a task does not result in a change in progress, be it positive or negative, then the effort exerted on that task would be better suited to another task

Noted and a completely valid and validated position, but a few issues are at play that do make this endeavor potentially worthwhile. (copied to this thread because it will be a prime question for many)

  1. World economic forces are going to force many people to change consumption patterns.

  2. Larger concentration of dissatisfaction and discontent causing desperate actions from leadership.

  3. More and more users (many prominent, with a lot to lose) are standing up.

  4. Large scale active, concentrated and coordinated campaigns have never been tried as far as I know.

  5. Others are watching. This is not a purely academic exercise in a vacuum. With a proper specification and list of demands, interested competitors and well funded individuals may take notice of the scope of enthusiasm of many customers willing to go any place or pay any price for the relief they seek.

  6. Many are posting of politics in here, what do you have to lose?

  7. Primary mission of the site (find an alternative, circumvent censorship) both continue unimpeded.

  8. Xojo is spiraling out of control with bugs with each release. Perhaps this is overwhelming to leadership and some of our ideas can be cherry-picked for a good effect.

  9. Many minds focused on the problem will arrive at novel solutions.

  10. Audentes Fortuna Juvat.

I have responded with my opinion to each bullet point on the superfolus duplicate post

Hi @xojo_spartacus,

Here is one aspect of your potential questions which may be partially covered by question poll 5, and it could possibly be reworded something like:

  1. Yes, Xojo needs to dedicate the next 12 months until the outstanding bug count is reduced to lower than 25% and this will be the first Long-Term-Release.

I still get many emails from Xojo customers asking which release is the best for a certain platforms, and having a stable-long-term-release product may create a starting point for the definition of quality.

I like where you are going with this type of questioning and taking a pro-active approach.