NewTek - please read this link

[biliousfrog]

Please go through this article and pay close attention to the first 3 and last points because, although I know that there are plenty of good intentions at NewTek HQ, a lot of us feel that you get so caught up in bells and whistles that you miss the important stuff.

http://www.freelanceswitch.com/freelance-writing/7-inspiration-sources-you-should-pay-attention-to/#more-1789

The article is actually about inspiration but it raises several points that I feel NewTek should take particular note of, especially as many of the points refer to reading blog and forum posts.

Listen to your clients, listen to the negative stuff and listen to what's important to users rather than what NewTek thinks is important to them. There's a wealth of information on these boards and it isn't just the loudest or most 'pro-NewTek' people that should be taken notice of.

[hrgiger]

Are you under the impression that Newtek only listens to the pro-newtek stuff? I've never found this to be the case.

[LazyCoder]

You also should know that if a company does only what the consumers want it to do... nothing gets done! There used to be a game called Stick Soldiers 3 in development... they made the mistake of listening to what the public wanted... they tried to do too much... and now they're gone.

Of course, Newtek is a professional company, whereas in the example above it was just a few college students in their spare time... but I think there is still a grain of truth to it.

[cresshead]

You also should know that if a company does only what the consumers want it to do... nothing gets done! There used to be a game called Stick Soldiers 3 in development... they made the mistake of listening to what the public wanted... they tried to do too much... and now they're gone.

Of course, Newtek is a professional company, whereas in the example above it was just a few college students in their spare time... but I think there is still a grain of truth to it.


well blender flies in the face of that..
developed by the users for the users

of course you can use/find examples to represent either case..

[lwanmtr]

Are you under the impression that Newtek only listens to the pro-newtek stuff? I've never found this to be the case.

Actually, there was a point in time that regular users got very little attention from the LW dev team..had to be a pro or studio before they would even listen...Thank goodness we got a new team.