topic Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey in General discussions

I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Ignacio Azpiazu — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 11:59:50 GMT

How do I get rid of this reminder of the cluelessness of the leadership of this company?

AC26 AUS. I want to quit, I need to shut down, the last thing I need is the process stopped for some marketing research.

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Balint Kezer — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 16:16:57 GMT

Hi @Ignacio Azpiazu

I’m sorry to hear about your frustration. It’s clear that the timing of the pop-up was inconvenient for you. Would it be more suitable if this pop-up appeared when you first open the software, rather than during shutdown?

I’d also like to extend this discussion to others in the forum. When do you think would be the most convenient time for a pop-up like this to appear?

I also want to clarify that your responses to these questions are helping us shape the evolution of our software.

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Eduardo Rolon — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:44:10 GMT

IMO this should not be part of either start up or closing since it is basically a marketing survey.

Imagine an office with 50 AC users that have to go thru this in order to start working on their projects plus add how they will feel if they are on a serious deadline.

You will not get any valid data.

I am basically a solo practitioner and hate it when it pops up and my first instinct is to fill it with "0". Granted it is once every 6 months.

Same thing goes for the requirement to login with an gs user account.

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

DGSketcher — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 17:00:43 GMT

@Balint Kezer as you asked...

This is one of those horrible Farcebook spin offs to check their apps popularity, they should not be appearing in professional software at the price we pay. Not sure who is behind the current marketing but this is yet another representation of crass & inappropriate milking of customers opinion. And as @Eduardo Rolon has indicated it would not be well received and would be counter productive to the survey at my end as well.

If you have a worthwhile question to ask, and I can assure you "How likely are you to recommend..." isn't one of them when we've paid $$$ to use the software, then try asking in the forum for comments particularly with questions more orientated to assist in product development.

I'm hoping the new CEO will rein in some of this marketing rubbish like the latest attempt to convince us AC is faster to use just because the M3 chip is quicker... AC is still an overloaded lumbering beast regardless of what you run it on.

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

runxel — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 17:41:26 GMT

Sadly I can like your comment only once, @DGSketcher.

The best time for popups is "never".

Everyone who disagrees should stay away from professional software.

Also, you have this bad boy slapped in the Activity Center:

So just use the thing you already have in place?!?

But for real, just stop this nonsense. Tbh if I'd be presented such a dialog I would just hit "zero" for sure, just for the fact of asking alone. Don't shove it into the face of the user. This enshittification (Cory Doctorow) of our software really needs to stop. Let's hope DC puts an end to this madness!

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

torben_wadlinger — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 22:33:32 GMT

You know what, GS reminds me more and more to the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, especially because of their marketing methods.

https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation

Hail to Douglas Adams, great philosopher and marvelous author.

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

mthd — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 08:58:36 GMT

Surveys are not that helpful because they are too broad in scope and vague at times and don’t really provide specific feedback. There is no substitute for direct consultation when one has the time to do so or to fill out a request list.

Why not just send us a request to think carefully about in the next few months, like: What are the 5 most urgent things that you would like implemented in AC in order ?

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Ignacio Azpiazu — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 16:51:11 GMT

@Balint Kezer wrote:

I also want to clarify that your responses to these questions are helping us shape the evolution of our software.

My question was: How do I get rid of this reminder of the cluelessness of the leadership of this company?

Is there a component, like the GSReport thing, that the user can delete or zip in order help “the GS experience” by removing this irritant?

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Eduardo Rolon — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 23:03:17 GMT

Easy solution there, just remove the %$*&#! Activity Center…

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Barry Kelly — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 01:23:50 GMT

@Balint Kezer wrote:

I’d also like to extend this discussion to others in the forum. When do you think would be the most convenient time for a pop-up like this to appear?

Never when running the actual software.

Not at startup, and not at shutdown.

Fortunately the survey can just be closed.

If it is closed once, then it should not appear again, or at least there should be an option no not show this survey again.

I am assuming it does not re-appear once completed (I wouldn't know as I probably will never complete it, as when I am shutting down, I just want to shut down).

You can send out a marketing e-mail to those that have agreed to receive them.

Or of course you could post the survey in this Community as a banner as has been done in the past.

Barry.

Re: I quit because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

DGSketcher — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 08:49:50 GMT

Or at least make it so it only appears when there is something that REALLY needs checked, not you've moved a line, better check the whole drawing set. Or give us a button for the user to initiate a file status report.

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Balint Kezer — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 09:29:34 GMT

Thanks for your thoughts!

I get it, the survey can be a bit of a time-eater. But here’s the thing - it’s one of the best ways we have to hear from all our users. Not everyone hangs out in the community, but everyone uses the software. So, this survey lets us catch the views of the many, not just the few. I also understand that this is not the best way to have detailed feedback about the functionality of our software, we have other means for that (e.g. this forum).

All in all I understand that this is annoying for you, feel free to let us know how we can receive the same amount of feedback, with as little hinderance to your daily work as possible.

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

DGSketcher — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 12:39:22 GMT

To use an old phrase... "You can't see the wood for the trees" can you?

This official community / forum has consistently delivered the feedback you need for AC to prosper, unfortunately for too long those views, and I don't just mean those from the vociferous minority, have been ignored. Your users highlight problems on a daily basis yet rarely do we see any official feedback to their pleas.

"Would you recommend..." tells you very little, it only tells you if your users can be bothered to use the application, not what's right or wrong. If they stop using it you wouldn't get any feedback any way. The best answer to this question is to ask your CFO what's happening with the real subscription numbers.

Meanwhile, if you want to know what is wrong with AC and what you need to address, then start reading and engaging with this forum. As a customer I shouldn't need to be telling you this, GS should be all over this in terms of managing the Roadmap and assisting users where the questions fall outside the expertise of the long time users (e.g. @Barry Kelly & others), who have gone out of their way to assist, while Graphisoft hide in their bunker. A successful company is the one that delivers what their customers really need, not what some out of touch CEO thinks they need.

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

hevi — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 10:13:47 GMT

"So to get the best trained people from the university, from technical point of view, was easy.
However, the large challenge was to train them to like the market, to like their costumers.

To have an emotional empathy for the architects.

In a certain sense to turn software engineers into architects."
Gábor Bojár

Based on your recent experience - to what extent do you think GS has succeeded in overcoming this challenge?

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
No extent										Full extent

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

mthd — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 10:16:30 GMT

🤣

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

torben_wadlinger — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 10:23:06 GMT

ouch!

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

DGSketcher — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 10:28:14 GMT

Nice find. Confirms a few things I think we already knew.

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

torben_wadlinger — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 10:37:45 GMT

You haven't been around long enough to really know Graphisoft and to understand why we are so outraged by these surveys. At least in Germany there was a distribution network down to the local level. Our direct contacts for problems and suggestions were always these Graphisoft partners. The information was collected there and passed on to the national partners and from there it went directly to Budapest. We knew each other and had a personal business relationship.

Huw Roberts destroyed all that.

That's why you have to do these stupid surveys - because you don't have the real feedback.

And as many others have already written: take a look at the forum!!!!! Amazingly, there is a worldwide consensus on what is going wrong with Archicad. You don't need to do surveys. Just analyse the forum. And make the roadmap binding with a possibility to vote on individual aspects. And be more transparent in what you do.

Get out of your bubble, stop drinking chai lattes and get back to your core business.

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

Eduardo Rolon — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:55:37 GMT

@Balint Kezer the data you are getting in those pop-ups is not dependable. If possible check how many pop-ups are closed without filling them out or are marked as "0". The users that contribute most (+2 moderators) are indicating that they don't like them in very strong terms.

Because it is the "easiest" way for you doesn't mean it is the correct way or it that it is well received. This has been the pattern for the last few years, GS decides to do something, users give feedback that it is wrong, GS decides to ignore users because it is either too late, too difficult or by some hidden reason.

@torben_wadlinger comment is the correct one. If I have an "real" issue the first phone call is to my local reseller, second to another one, third to my contacts within GS.

The correct way to do this surveys is to send them by email once a year, maybe right after we pay our SSA.

If you don't get enough answers back that gives you an answer that can be interpreted as: 70% will not recommend - 30% didn't want to fill the survey.

On another point if your users do not fill the surveys the solution will never be "I will force them to fill it". That will just make things worse.

Reading material (again):

https://every.to/p/breaching-the-trust-thermocline-is-the-biggest-hidden-risk-in-business

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Re: I quit the software because I need to leave, and GS gives me a survey

runxel — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 15:32:17 GMT

This part of the message is moderated according to Community Posting Guidelines.
It kinda looks like an attempt to grab the last straw, in the (unfulfilled) hope that the wide user base would just selects a high number please, so that to the management we, the vocal users, can be presented as the outliers, while in fact all is fine and GS does not need to listen to us.

I really wonder how much more pushback you need to repent the ways y’all doing.
It is in a way like we need to observe a catastrophic accident happen in real time and there is always the worst decision being done (like those cheap horror movies, where it's more funny than gruesome, because everybody just facepalms instinctively).

@torben_wadlinger's comment says it all.
GS has shoveled their own grave. Now get out of it on your own and leave us alone with surveys you can not even reliably use, as @Eduardo Rolon said.

(Also on a sidenote: Those architects, who are not on this forum are not the ones, you'd need to make a program for. You got that all completely reversed. Also, you don't lack communication from us – we are very vocal –, but we from you.)

I'm sorry, Balint. I know, you're doing just your job. But we feel everyday a bit more helpless, so if this appears aggressive it is just that we feel bitten in the arse quite big.

By now you can actually just throw a dart at ANY part of Archicad and you will find endless stuff to improve and we would love that. But since ARCHItects are somewhat neglected in the world of ...um, *checks notes*... ARCHIcad, it is hard for us go down this route, we can not understand. The big price increasing, another one coming soon, the end of perpetual licenses... And we do not get any service in return. Just have a look at that casualty called a Roadmap. There is like nothing architecture related in there at all. (Openings and Keynotes are relevant to the other trades as well)

PS: @hevi May I please choose a negative number?