Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Feedback frustrations?

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    Feedback frustrations?

    I admit I have only skimmed through comments made in other posts which criticise Alpha, mainly because I do not wish to waste my time on topics which are going nowhere. Some comments do seem to go very much over the top but perhaps most are made through frustration.

    In an effort to summarise the problems I have concluded that there are two issues here, but others may not agree.

    Firstly the feedback from Alpha, or lack of it, causes frustration particularly for smaller developers who are concerned with the cost of future versions. I'm sure most recognise that Alpha cannot disclose secret information which might be used to their disadvantage commercially. However the standard of information from Alpha on the general nature and pricing of future versions when developers do expect to have to the point answers to reasonable message board questions does lead to frustration and adverse comments.

    This frustration prompts smaller developers, who are perhaps 'not in the know' compared to a few of the larger ones, to look at other options for their desktop and maybe tablet etc apps. This reaction appears to be mainly price related and may mean that they stay with Alpha anyway.

    Secondly some of the comments made in other posts are poorly phrased and do not take into account the fantasic service that Alpha has provided to many thousands of users worldwide over many years. That causes Alpha to refrain from comment and, as in a recent case, pull the offending post to close it down. Personally I don't blame them for that.

    Just thought it useful to make these points. I'm happy to stand corrected.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Feedback frustrations?

    Mike, in the harsh reality of commerce, a history of "fantastic" service counts for nothing when it comes to what is and what is not working in your business model. Uncertainty about aspects of that business model is not a good thing and frustrates progress. As to service, if I pay top dollar for something I expect a good level of service, I shouldn't have to thank the supplier for providing what I am paying them good money for.
    Personally, the accusation of people like myself putting the blame on Alpha is a moot point. Who else can I direct my frustrations at? Foxpro, Microsoft, you?
    Feel free to point out corrections to the phrasing of this post. You won't upset me, if I consider your points valid and something I can adopt to try and improve myself as a person, I for one will listen to valid criticism and take it on board if at all possible.
    Please understand, everything I have said above is not meant in a flippant way and is not meant as a rebuke to your post, I genuinely want answers to my questions in the other thread and I currently know of no other way of raising them with a slight possibility of getting some answers.

    Paul

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Feedback frustrations?

      MY opinions only!

      Please all! Put your criticisms into positive wording. Don't complain about small issues that have very little meaning to the whole. I admit to having done the "bad boy routine".

      If I were Alpha:::

      I would not want information about what the next step I would be taking to be loose on any site or where competition may see it. There are other companies that want to know where I am going, so they can get a jump.

      This is in a complete swap to what I(as alpha) worried about 30 years ago. At thatr time, NO one cared what i was doing, because I was not considered a threat or one to be watched.

      Customer service, from the git go has been mediocre at best unless you happened to get Richard or Selwyn. Brett is not so bad either, but rare to get hold of. The other side of it is, when did you get a one on one of any kind from Bill Gates, or any head of a software company that was not a fresh startup?

      As far as their track and where it is going: The chose to go the windows server/application path long ago. I did/do not agree with that path. It would have been a better path to go unix/linux, but they already had a large windows user base and it seemed logical for them. Had they to do it opver, I don't know if they would have done that.

      windows/ms based is higher hosting, but you can host your own :: a larger install for the developement - not such a big deal :: different terminology - I dont think many pure web developers want it - already inhouse user base seems mostly ok with it.

      Had alpha turned their efforts to mysql and either PHP or Javascript?? Boy, could that be amazing!
      Dave Mason
      [email protected]
      Skype is dave.mason46

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Feedback frustrations?

        Originally posted by DaveM View Post
        Had alpha turned their efforts to mysql and either PHP or Javascript?? Boy, could that be amazing!
        Xbasic is the heart of Alpha. I don't think that php can replace that in any way. With xbasic Alpha can do whatever they want and thanks for Alpha they have. For example in v11 they have these two new functions:a5_genericTableCRUDAction() and a5_mergeDataIntoTemplate (). Both are amazing functions. You would never find these kinds in php.

        If Alpha would have gone php/linux road I don't think it would be anymore in the market. Php and Linux customers are used to get everything almost free.

        I think MySql works just fine with Alpha so they support it, but SQL Server is hard to install to Linux.

        Any Javascript framework works with Alpha so Alpha has 100% support for javascript.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Feedback frustrations?

          SQL Server is hard to install to Linux.
          I installed it to my Linux server and thought it was super easy and it is almost a standard on most Linux servers.

          Remember, I am talking web for this area, not desktop. I use and have a lot of fun with xbasic too.
          Dave Mason
          [email protected]
          Skype is dave.mason46

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Feedback frustrations?

            Almost a standard?

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Feedback frustrations?

              almost every host I have visited has mysql installed as a standard.
              Dave Mason
              [email protected]
              Skype is dave.mason46

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Feedback frustrations?

                MySQL and SQL Server are very different animals when you are talking about Linux.
                Bill Griffin
                Parkell, Inc

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Feedback frustrations?

                  Hi Dave,

                  'Don't complain about small issues that have very little meaning to the whole. I admit to having done the "bad boy routine".'

                  Assuming this is directed at me, then in my case, more the bad grandad, 5 girls and praying for a boy...

                  BTW - point taken.

                  Paul

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Feedback frustrations?

                    LOL

                    I had one daughter - Had a mind of her own like me - Became a dentist though after I was not sure she would make it through high school. 31 and gets married next may.

                    Paul, I am 66 now. Where I came from, I could easily be a gtreat grand dad or more.

                    LOL
                    Dave Mason
                    [email protected]
                    Skype is dave.mason46

                    Comment

                    Previous template Next
                    Working...
                    X