Tom's dashboard

workcloud replied on September 30, 2008 14:52 to the question "Is 37signals stopping development of Highrise? (aka Export All Data)" in 37signals:

Seems to be lots of complain in many places, including 37Signal's own forum and now here. I'm on Highrise and I agree, it's our data and they should get it back if they leave the service. But I've used Salesforce and it is a pain to export notes from there too. There's lots of good CRM around though. SugarCRM, Rave (by Entellium). Follow me on twitter for the latest apps I'm trying.

evbart replied on September 26, 2008 23:26 to the question "Is 37signals stopping development of Highrise? (aka Export All Data)" in 37signals:

Yeah, its getting frustrating. The more and more I use the software the more and more I get hooked, but the more frustrated I am with it because it could be soooo much more.

The contact management/CRM space is rife with terrible software, but you're not going to win in the end by being completely inflexible.

Håvard started following the problem "Does the Campfire 'live chat' from the Help section of the Beanstalk website work?" in Beanstalk.

Tom replied on August 18, 2008 13:32 to the problem "Can't access help pages and deployment problems" in Beanstalk:

Hi Ilya,

It does seem to be working now, but that's the first time it's managed to load for me all day.

Thanks for looking into it.

Tom

Ilya Sabanin replied on August 18, 2008 13:17 to the problem "Can't access help pages and deployment problems" in Beanstalk:

Tom, could you please provide more details about the problem?

According to our server monitoring software, help center wasn't down anytime recently.

And it did work for me right now: http://help.beanstalkapp.com

Tom reported a problem in Beanstalk on August 18, 2008 11:26:

Can't access help pages and deployment problems

Are there problems with the server at the moment (18th Aug 12:25 GMT)? I can't get onto the help site at all, and I'm having problems deploying sites. Have been trying off and on for a couple of days.

Tom started a conversation in Colovo on August 15, 2008 11:06:

Finally - notes for Basecamp

I love that we can now add notes to Basecamp time entries. Thanks guys - this now makes Timepost a usable (possibly indispensible) product for my business.

Chris Nagele replied on August 09, 2008 19:22 to the problem "Does the Campfire 'live chat' from the Help section of the Beanstalk website work?" in Beanstalk:

For some reason I did not receive any email notifications for this thread.

When we are not able to stay in the chat, we lock it. The problem is that Campfire does not have a graceful way of saying "be right back." Instead it just kicks you back to the login page.

We try to be in there as much as possible.

Chris

evbart replied on July 29, 2008 20:05 to the question "Is 37signals stopping development of Highrise? (aka Export All Data)" in 37signals:

I'm checking out Pipeline deals as an option. It has the pipeline functionality that I want, AND it lets you export your data whenever you want. Sounds like a good match.

Is 37Signals going to allow data export or add CRM style pipeline tracking anytime soon? I saw a survey a few months ago within highrise asking for feedback, but I havnt heard anything since.

Allison replied on July 29, 2008 11:45 to the question "Is 37signals stopping development of Highrise? (aka Export All Data)" in 37signals:

Hear! Hear! Your three points are absolutely critical, Evbart.

This seems to be the general consensus. Personally for my company, it's a deal-breaker. I'm not going to invest the time/training/data entry in a system which I'm then held prisoner to, regardless of what the developers decide to do/not do in future. I was seriously looking at both Highrise and Backpack until 37Signals policy on this became clear to me.

Luckily Google Sites has now solved one of my problems, for a fraction of the cost of Backpack, and with no strings!

evbart replied on July 28, 2008 14:12 to the question "Is 37signals stopping development of Highrise? (aka Export All Data)" in 37signals:

I agree, I'm on 37 Signals, and Im generally a pretty happy user, but I'm really questioning whether or not I should continue knowing that I can't get my data out.

There is a discussion similar to this on their forums, and they keep saying their servers are more secure than any place that we would store the data, but they're answering the wrong question.

People don't want a full export of their data just because they don't trust you to store the data, they want it so that they can leave, and if you have any confidence in your product, then you'll provide it just for peace of mind.

As I said in their forum, if you run a Software as a Service business, then by default just to keep up you have to provide:
- a user readable privacy policy, so I know what you'll do with my data
- an import, so I can get on to your service
- an export, so I can get back off of your service if you ever do anything I dont like. It helps keep the software company client focused!

Lawrence Sinclair replied on July 15, 2008 08:04 to the question "Is 37signals stopping development of Highrise? (aka Export All Data)" in 37signals:

It is never wise to even begin to use a product unless you can see how you can get out in case you grow out of it, or it fails to meet your needs over time. If a company doesn't build an exit strategy into its product it shows a lack of confidence that they can meet ongoing user needs or stay competitive with rivals.

So fool you if you're already a customer: 37signals won't introduce full export until they are confident their product is clearly superior. The fact that they add other bells and whistles while ignoring this feature suggests they do believe their product offers an inferior value proposition compared to alternatives.

tomd replied on July 01, 2008 10:34 to the question "Is 37signals stopping development of Highrise? (aka Export All Data)" in 37signals:

Can import tagging have been requested more than bulk export? JF said, in March 2007, "It’s important and it’s planned". I can't leave Highrise because 37signals won't give me my data, and I'm very unhappy about it.

Tom replied on June 24, 2008 14:05 to the question "Anyone else having trouble with Releases and Deployment?" in Beanstalk:

Great. Please let us know when this is implemented.

Ilya Sabanin replied on June 24, 2008 13:40 to the question "Anyone else having trouble with Releases and Deployment?" in Beanstalk:

“Would it be possible in future to apply any deletions made in the repository to the ftp servers?”

Yes, we are already thinking about implementation of that feature.

Tom replied on June 24, 2008 13:31 to the question "Anyone else having trouble with Releases and Deployment?" in Beanstalk:

The deploying does seem to be working much better now - thanks.

Would it be possible in future to apply any deletions made in the repository to the ftp servers?

Tom replied on June 24, 2008 10:26 to the question "Anyone else having trouble with Releases and Deployment?" in Beanstalk:

It does seem to be working slightly better, but I'm not sure if it's completely working for me yet.

I haven't fully tested it, but one thing that's definitely not working is the status report (eg releases/stream_log?id=897) this produces the message: "The page you were looking for doesn't exist."

Tom marked one of ibalosh's replies in Beanstalk as useful. ibalosh replied to the problem "Does the Campfire 'live chat' from the Help section of the Beanstalk website work?".

Tom replied on June 24, 2008 09:35 to the problem "Does the Campfire 'live chat' from the Help section of the Beanstalk website work?" in Beanstalk:

Good to know, thanks. Might be helpful to make this obvious on the website.
Tom

Ilya Sabanin replied on June 24, 2008 08:45 to the question "Anyone else having trouble with Releases and Deployment?" in Beanstalk:

We've just updated our deployment tool and it seems like the problem is now fixed.