[Ham-Mac] Software Reviews on Mac Ham Radio web page

[Steve Muncy]

Dick,  I think you put too much emphasis on positive and negative 
aspects in a review, and not enough on how a program is used. I've read 
many glowing, highly positive reviews of products that just wouldn't 
work for me because it didn't do what I wanted it to. I've also ignored 
  highly negative reviews when the real source of negativity was 
something I could care less about!  In some cases, a well-written 
review has saved me significant bucks because I found out that its  
significant features weren't features that were important to me.

Any review that says "this program is perfect" should be taken with the 
same grain of salt as a review that says "this program is worthless." 
I'd want to know why -- not just the evaluation.

I've hacked together a few programs, and have received a lot of direct 
input from users -- usually helpful. Helpful comments, in  a review or 
directly to the software author, should be a  part of the development 
process. Dare I say it? Any person programming that can't take honest 
public suggestion or criticism  probably isn't going to write software 
that is of appeal to a wide audience.

As 'editor' of the site, I don't intend to allow emotional outbursts to 
be included in a review....but I definitely hope that reviewers will 
provide an honest assessment of features.

Over time, we may get a  lot of reviews or only a few. Reviews are  
already available for some products, and Don Agro hit the nail on the 
head when he said that eHam reviews are PC-centric. That is the primary 
reason I added a review section to the Mac Ham Radio site -- I'd like 
for Mac users who are hams to have a place to go that is unique to 
their interest -- a community of sorts -- where there is access to 
information about Mac amateur radio software, news and forums.


On Nov 12, 2003, at 11:06 AM, Richard Kriss wrote:

> My after-posting concern is some of us may get carried away in review
> comments that may be taken wrong by the the software developers.  What 
> one
> person thinks is constructive criticism may be considered offensive to 
> the
> developer and others.
>
> Maybe comments about someone's creative work is better sent direct 
> rather
> than posting on a web page?  This may be why the computer magazines 
> refuse
> to review software products until they are formerly released for sale.
>

_____________________________________________
Steve A. Muncy       <mailto:smuncy@mac.com>
Dallas, Texas          <http://homepage.mac.com/smuncy/main.html>