![]() If you’re looking for older versions of software, you can find them on websites like. They serve no useful purpose.īarring that, the best course of action is to ignore them - which, I’m guessing, most of you already do.How to find and download older versions of software # Ideally, the folks at TechTracker would come to their senses and just remove the user review feature. That the user reviews are so uniformly bad detracts from the VersionTracker brand. But what’s useful about it is narrowly focused: it’s a frequently-updated comprehensive listing of newly released Mac software. Indeed, it’s one of only five news sites listed in the sidebar for this site. Small UNIX book and btw you gonna learn some useful things And an inordinate number of them focus mostly on price, such as this gem from “7up”, reviewing Bare Bones Software’s Super Get Info:ĭamn, pay $20 bucks just to don’t have to type in the shellĢ or 3 commands. Most of them are poorly written, poorly spelled, and riddled with technical inaccuracies and faulty logic. And there is no credibility whatsoever in VersionTracker’s anonymous review forums.īut it’s not just the anonymity that sinks the VersionTracker forums. Real criticism - whether it be for software, cars, books, or movies - hinges upon but a single thing: credibility. First, nearly all the reviews are anonymous a quick glance through the reviews for Panic’s Audion reveals authors like “Tazintosh”, “SkunkBrand”, and the aptly-named “whothehellareyou”. Everyone knows that marketing is usually bullshit - only the gullible believe unverified marketing information.īut there’s even less credibility in the VersionTracker review forums. But that goes for consumers in any industry. He’s correct that users don’t trust software companies. It is an “us versus them” battle that benefits absolutely no one in the long run. Users, because of the abuse I mentioned, do not trust software companies, even when they’re telling the truth. I mean, are there any reasonable people who actually give any credence at all to VersionTracker reviews? ![]() (For example, Maarten Hekkelman bemoaned VersionTracker reviews in our interview last month.) But I wonder if it’s actually warranted. Teeth-gnashing over preposterously misinformed VersionTracker reviews is commonplace among small developers. It’s baffling if you’re going to take the time to write a report about the bug, why post it to the VersionTracker forums without having first emailed a report to the developer? Is the goal to see the software actually improve, or just to get off on pissing all over someone else’s work? What’s completely unreasonable, however, is option (3): lambasting the developer and the software on the web. Perhaps you reported bugs to the same developer in the past, and never heard back. Perhaps the software in question isn’t very important to you. When you encounter bugs in software, there are only two reasonable ways to respond: (1) report the bug to the developers or (2) keep it to yourself, and either work around it, or, if it’s a show-stopper, abandon the software.Ĭhoice (1) is the only option that has a chance of helping the bug get fixed it sounds totally obvious, but developers only fix the bugs they know about. The shitty developers who ignore their users aren’t bothered, since, well, they ignore their users. Worse, when you think about it, they only annoy the good guys: developers who are actually trying to be responsive to their users. ![]() Users like this are, thankfully, few and far between, but when they rear their heads, they’re a real pisser. Him posting a scathing review on a popular version tracking webĪnd people ask me if I miss working for Bare Bones. Immediately or our company and product would be besmirched by ![]() When a response was not forthcoming after an hour, saidĪfter the second hour, a third email arrived, this time Seems only fair to answer emails in the order they arrive, after Support email, it went into a first-in, first-out email queue. The other day we received an email from a paying customer, who hadĪ fairly simple routine inquiry about the software he had purchased.Ĭertainly nothing life or data-threatening. Steven Frank, clever programmer at Panic, writes about the clueless underbelly of the Mac user community, the VersionTracker user review forums: VersionCrapper User Reviews Tuesday, 24 September 2002 ![]()
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