Note to Eric / Blogging

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neal007
Posts: 225
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:13 am

Note to Eric / Blogging

Post by neal007 » Sat May 26, 2007 11:12 am

Eric,

I read and enjoy your blog, but what comes to mind is I am no expert in using your source code control tools. I've been using SourceGear Vault for years, love it, recommend it, swear by it, but I'm in no way comfortable in understanding all of the features. There are a lot of "actions" such as share, branch, label, pin, cloak (and from the menu snapshot). I've read your Source Control How-To article, it was "so-so" to be honest. I didn't come away too much smarter on how to use YOUR product. I have reviewed the documentation, I have read the articles in these forums, on and on. In fact I listened to the recent dotnetrocks radio show you participated in, and in the hour, there was a small portion in which I really keyed in, that was when there was some discussion on the use of Vault's features, branching, etc. But it was more of a teaser, we need more of that! The rest of the show really wasn't too great, but the part where educating was going on, was very good.

So my suggestion, from one business owner, trainer, to another... TEACH YOUR USERS how to use your products.

I do enjoy your blog but instead of the topics you cover, some of which are extremely unrelated to your products, consider taking a new approach on your blog, educating your customers in a building block approach. You have a great product, but do your customers really know how to use what you all have worked so hard to incorporate? How much of what you have designed do people really use, and why don't they should be a study.

Blog on source code control fundamentals, build up from there, talk about scenarios for each action available in Vault such as when to branch, why, here's how we do it, here is when we remove a branch. I really want to "know" your product better, all of our disconnected developers (not located in same location) use it to team develop, but do we all know how to use it? no!

So please take this constructive feedback to maybe redirect your blogs for a few months and instead of ranting about something else, instead rant about YOUR product. That effort would be greatly appreciated and time better spent from your customer's point of view, help us learn!

Thank you!

P.S. Video tutorials are the wave of today (i.e. Camtasia, etc.). Show us Vault in action and the use of each Vault method available, labeling, sharing, pinning, cloaking, branching, and how they are used, maintained, etc. EDUCATE!

ericsink
Posts: 346
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2003 1:52 pm
Location: SourceGear
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Post by ericsink » Tue May 29, 2007 10:52 am

No disagreement here. In fact, you're asking for some things we are already working on, such as Camtasia videos highlighting specific features.

Do note, however, that some of the stuff you want may show up on the SourceGear website instead of on my blog. And some of the stuff on my blog that you'd rather not see will continue to appear there. I agree that SourceGear needs to do a better job educating and teaching people how to use our products, but that doesn't mean my blog is going to transform to be entirely focused on that topic.

Thanks for the note!
Eric Sink
Software Craftsman
SourceGear

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