I've sat back and thought about these 'solution packs' that WA have been providing for some time, and in a way I think they conflict with the audience of their 'Extensions'. 
Totally agreed.
I'm actually quite concerned about the future of Web Assist.
Again agreed.
... concentrate on the extensions, which, apart from the CSS Form Builder and iRite have all been pretty good.
I bought both. Form Builder was a complete waste of money, because once I had worked through the tutorials that came with Security Assist and Validation Toolkit, Form Builder was a complete waste of time, did not do what it said it was going to do etc.[/QUOTE]
I understand that WA need to make a profit
Yes please. Do make a profit. And please do not go out of business any time soon. !!!!
... but they are doing this by providing solutions that compete with their own customers and it doesn't take much intelligence or common sense to realise that this is going to jeopardize one of their types of customer.
Totally agreed. The only reason that I have benefitted from WebAssist products is because of that clear sense of direction that previously existed. I could also see where I was headed, and go there. Both WebAssist and I benefitted ... them, by receiving my hard-earned.
In a previous post, I divided WA's potential market into four types:
(A) Designers
... whizzes at presentation of sites. Then they get e.g. SuperSuite and want to extend themselves ... and then don't have a clue what to do.
(B) Coders
... whizzes at programming who also get e.g. SuperSuite and then say to themselves ... I can do that ... and then find that CSS is not nearly so easy as they thought.
(C) Large-Scale Professional Organizers
... who know quite a bit about both above fields, and have access to any other expertise they need, and so can pull large projects together using their own contacts and skill sets, to the client budget.
(D) Small-Scale (and Non-Professional) Organizers
... some with lots of experience in all above areas ... and others being people like myself who know nothing currently, but are struggling & working hard to build up knowledge and skill set.
I am not insulting anyone, but one thing I'm gradually learning is that programming and so forth is not really that difficult -- what's really difficult is thinking through very clearly what you are trying to achieve within that context,, and then figuring out how to achieve it. That's what's hard. Actually writing the necessary code is pretty straight forward once you have got the idea, and even tracking down what is not making it work gets easier once you analyze it properly.
The problem I see with some of the things WA is doing, is that it is trying very hard to make programming simple when actually it isn't always. Getting people to THINK simply (and successfully) is why I was originally attracted to these products. But trying to MAKE it simple is another thing altogether, and I find it discouraging, because it makes the products less attractive and makes even me less inclined to buy them. So I agree ... WA will lose an important part of its market share if it keeps on doing what it is doing.
The profit has to balanced against the increased workload (many more mails to these forums, and the loss of the experienced people who can answer those questions) that is inevitable for WA if it keeps on with its present direction. Whether or not that is worth it will have to be seen.
Bye now.
