Martin,
"At the end of the day," as you say, I too expect that you're right.
To say the least, there hasn't been an outpouring in this forum of new-
manual requests. If users, or that portion of them who look at this
forum, aren't interested then probably very few others would be as well.
All well and good to have some "experts" who are willing to contribute
to an Amadeus WIKI; better than nothing. (But, I haven't seen many
volunteers even for this. In all likelihood, this too will amount to
nothing.)
An interesting point has been raised about whether those who'd
potentially like a re-done manual really are asking for more clearly
and comprehensively written instructions about operating Amadeus, per
se? Rather, though they may not realize it themselves, aren't they
really in need of sound-editing advice or a general primer on digital
audio issues as a whole? It'd be foolish, I think, for anyone to
pretend to have an answer. (Your own experience with user requests is
by no account a representative sample of your user base as a whole.)
Also, keep in mind that, in practice, well written manuals inevitably
cross these boundaries. Even the current "kitchen" version of the
Amadeus manual crosses this line occasionally. Anyway, as things now
stand, the whole thing is academic.
Martin, one of your comments particularly caught my eye:
The "tricking" part of my sentence was referring to the commonly seen
practice of providing an "opt-out" option for marketing emails that is
purposedly hidden in a place where it can easily be overlooked, so
that more customers "consent" to being contacted.
Yes, this is annoying. But, what does it have to do with sending an
email straightforwardly asking users for their opinion? There is not
really an issue of "opt in" or "opt out" here. You can, of course,
make it seem like this. If one is super-sensitive to receiving
unsolicited email, as you seem to be, then anything constitutes an
intrusion. Nevertheless, software makers constantly send announcements
and reminders to their own users apparently without endangering their
users' goodwill.
It is generally considered as bad practice (I certainly consider it as
such and I know that I am not alone by far) to contact people without
their prior consent.
Martin, a little caution here is warranted. We haven't been talking
about *any* unsolicited email. You'll have to keep this in mind if you
don't want to muddy the water. What has become contentious is whether
it's okay for a software maker who has a *pre-established
relationship* with a user (having sold him software originally,
possibly, also having provided online tech support, and, not the
least, having stepped in [Martin, are you listening?] to offer support
on user forums)? Despite your personal super-sensitivity, scarcely
anyone would be offended when they are contacted by a software maker
with whom they have such a pre-existing relationship.
And so, unless a number of forum members who still want a decent
Amadeus user manual speak out, this latest outbreak will go the way of
all previous ones. (Even then, given that you are against it , not
much seems likely to happen.) Still, I find it hard to understand why
you are not personally embarrassed.
Dave
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