Open letter to RealMac/RapidWeaver - RW7 Publishing Issues

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Is it possible to create a positive, facts-only thread or area of this Community (thanks, RM, for making it available!) which can log and get progress on known areas of failure with updates on fixes?

Which are not limited to publishing!

In my experience they chiefly concern moving Addons from the 6 to 7 environment, Styles (we have been told the management has changed; but not how) too.

I’d like to feel we were all trying to give RM as much support as we expect from them.

There are bugs, some of them major. Some of them are preventing us from moving on.

Silence and denial will foster rumour acrimony and more failure; as, I believe, will recrimination.

Transparency will make us all feel more confident.

Thanks!

(I’m not a preacher :slight_smile: )

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Thanks to Tom for beginning work on the 7th bug on my list!

Just what is being asked for!

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I can understand your frustration, but it should be clear that we’re working hard on fixing up any outstanding issues in RapidWeaver. We can’t wave a magic wand and magically fix every issue (I wish we could). Some of the posts here make it sound like we’re ignoring our users and not publishing regular updates, this could’t be further from the truth.

To fix a bug we need to be able to recreate it here. Rather than just saying “This doesn’t work”, we need step-by-step reports on how to re-create the issue. You need to email this information to its, not post it here (we can’t monitor and track every thread).
For example, If you’re having publishing problems, we need your project, your FTP details, and exactly what issues your seeing and how to reproduce it. Without sufficient details, we can’t fix it.

RapidWeaver is a complex application, we have some amazingly talented people working on it full time and we’re doing out best. The release notes here are testiment to our dedication: https://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/releasenotes/

It’s worth remembering that 99.9% of users are happy with RW7. The users with issues are always the most vocal.

I also take issue with the title of this thread, we pride ourselves on giving good support. We have a top notch support page, with videos, a manual and FAQ. Every email we get receives a reply. Sometimes replies can be delayed due to volume of emails we’re receiving, but we always reply and do our best to help our users.

We’re busy working on the next update to RapidWeaver 7, this will bring more fixes and improvements. What more can we do?

Thanks,
Dan

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I’m with @MarkSealey on this.

I don’t think anyone doubts the dedication - or ingenuity - of the RealMac team but I’m convinced it would make cautious types like myself less cautious if there was a ‘sticky’ summary of the state of play in the forum. That summary could include:

  1. The number/percentage of users who are experiencing problems. If that 99.9% is an actual figure, that would be a great encouragement to us slowcoaches.
  2. If there’s any common thread to the problems people are experiencing. i.e. it seems more prevalent on older Macs or older versions of the OS or if you use a lot.
  3. A list of the broad, known issues that people are experiencing (i.e. publishing or preview) and some kind of broad timescale for resolving them.

I’m absolutely committed to RW and will upgrade but after the 5-to-6 kerfuffle, it would be reassuring to have a summary like this - or better/smarter/more useful - so I can get a sense of how smooth my path is likely to be. If all you read on the forums is complaint after complaint about things that don’t work, then you get scared off.

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A ticket system with numbers assigned would be nice. Dan, I hear what you are saying and I can sympathize with what it must be like handling the issues of a new release. My title stemmed from the fact I had sent a support email. It is YOUR auto response that says that you respond within 48 hours and usually quicker. If you cannot do that then the blurb should be changed.

I am not looking for miracles. I am simply looking for a little communication and some type of support system that actually tracks items.

Is that too much to ask? If it is going to take 6 days or 60 days then please tell me. Then I can make some decisions as to go back to RW6 or not. I can handle things. But with no communication as to any the of status of my support email… how do I react and how do I know what to do?

Thank you for listening.

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Why not just download the trial of RW 7 and see if if works for you?

RW7 won’t touch or interfere with your RW 6 install or projects. You’re safe to give it a go and see how it works for you.

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You should have received a response by now, if not. Expect one soon.

We’re trying our best.

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Doesn’t really matter now. I could not publish nor export my blog. The blog has always been an issue for me with new releases and I’ve decided too change the 730 page blog into individual stacks pages. (That will take a while.) This is my own choice, not due to RW7. RW7 just made me “pull the trigger.” I did get a reply to my request 3 days after I submitted it. I will reply to the email and tell them to cancel my request.

Meantime, I’ll submit a couple new ones for other publishing issues.

Thank you very much. I do appreciate your response.

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I’ve used 5, 6, and now 7. Frankly, I wish I were still on 5.3. Yes, I have a ka’zillion backups of projects to go back to but I have now made too many changes in my six RW7 projects to return to RW6.

Things will eventually work out I guess…

btw… I modified the title of this thread…

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Dan,

I love RW 7; love it! It’s by far the best version of RW in my ten years’ experience of it. And, IMHO, the best of breed for (Mac) web creation tools.

Having listened to every podcast since your first one, I also feel I have a pretty good sense of how you all at RM work; as a result I have not a second’s doubt about your dedication and talents.

But - I have reported three or four significant bugs by email over the last two weeks and received one auto response and one actual reply, acknowledging the bug in the use of Styles. I also wrote to you and Ben asking if you could help with these, and the fact that metatags appear to be duplicated in this version, and how moving Addons is a but… shaky :slight_smile:

Obviously you too are overwhelmed - and sunning yourself here in California :slight_smile: Good for you!

But to feel that requests and reports are mounting and may be going into some sort of vortex, never to emerge for days on end is discouraging to users struggling with them.

I think the vast majority of users support the whole enterprise and wish you well. We’re grateful for such a fantastic tool.

But probably puzzled about how some of the faults mentioned elsewhere in this thread slipped through the beta testing process. A process for which, BTW, we all owe you and the participants a huge debt of gratitude; no question!

Particularly, in my case, the changes to managing Styles that now make it impossible to modify Themes and the bug in Local Folder paths, which - as acknowledged - is being worked on. Thanks!

In any case, please don’t take any of the points in this thread personally, nor as mere whingeing.

I believe that - rightly - we’re on your side, and want to work with you to make 7.0.3 or 7.1 the best it can be.

I’m also totally confident that you can do so. Good luck!

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Please re-submit each issue you’re still having with steps on how to reproduce it to support@realmacsoftware.com (btw. I’m pretty sure some of your issues are being fixed or due to be fixed in 7.1).

The more details your include in the email the quicker we can fix it. If it requires your project to re-create the issue please include that also. We might also require your FTP details if it’s an publishing issue.

I cannot stress enough how important step-by-step details are, if you include this the issue is much more likely to be fixed. It’s hard for us to fix something that we can’t reproduce as we have no way of testing if it’s fixed.

Make sure you mark your bug reports (with the step-by-step guide for recreating the issue) for my attention “ATTN: DAN”

Thanks,
Dan

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