Some people think that thanking Fractal on these threads is brownnosing. Some have written that the thanks are "performative." To me, these are cynical assumptions, and just plain wrong. As I'm sure many forum members can relate, I've dealt with many guitar gear companies that just plain suck. Few updates, bugs never fixed, gear that's poorly designed, bad customer service, etc. It really is so different with FAS that it just continually surprises me. To me the business model here is a little example of the way it should be: someone follows their heart to create something their way, they improve on it because of their passion, and it's rolled out as it's ready for primetime.
One could flip the characterization the other way: is the vocal stoicism criticizing gratitude performative? Is it the most weird and awkward attempt at machismo, or some weird level of trying to keep fellow students in class in line? I'm not trying to denigrate those who disagree with me, I'm just pointing out that insults don't win arguments, and they aren't divining rods to truth. I do understand that developers need an efficient way to sift through bug reports, and I do think it would be good to have labels on posts, the same way we have labels for threads that are marked Bug. And I still have no idea what the people at FAS want from beta threads, if it's just bug reports, or if suggestions for more helpful implementation are good, and where the line is for when Cliff gets pissed off and thinks people are just complaining and not just trying to offer helpful suggestions. To me, I just see enthusiasm for new technology, and a ton of people offering ideas to make features work better in particular contexts. But I'm not an engineer, electrical or software, I just play guitar.
I can't stand rude people, in person or online. It's too common, and I mean that in both senses of the word. Ezra Klein interviewed a journalist specializing in internet culture, asking for advice on guidelines for people to act online. She responded, "Try not to be insufferable." God, I want that tattooed on my forehead. I think it's right, and classy, to say thanks, especially when the gifts are extraordinary. I understand also that Cliff wrote that he agrees with the idea of replacing thanks with a click. Okay, no problem. But I think denigrating those who show gratitude is really a vindictive spinster librarian vibe.
If you want to see actual brownnosing on this forum, just write something critical of any famous rocker, and you'll see enough naked sycophantism to last you a lifetime. But I don't at all consider gratitude here to be the actions of a lickspittle; to me it's just class and good manners.
That said, I can't wait to have a chance to play guitar again and try the new cabinets as well as the transpose feature. Again, in lieu of thanks, I've emotionlessly clicked "like" to suppress the fervor with which I think these updates are freaking incredible.
