Mike Jordan Com-Dat BBS Author of M & S Software Doors Fido: 1:105/314 and 1:105/317 Main Call-in Numbers: Node 1: (503)681-0543 Node 2: (503)640-0278 Node 3: (503)681-8324 email: mjordan@europa.com ============================================================= Welcome back to another issue of Door World. It seems like just the other day I was sending in my first article to RoAnn for editing, thinking I had plenty of time to come up with something for the next one. But as editors like to keep the writers on their toes, she shortened the lead time a bit. Maybe after my last article she felt she needed more time to proof my work . As a door author, one of the things that I try to keep in mind, is the image I present to the people I come in contact with, both directly and in-directly. This is not hard to do, as I've been in customer support type work for a long time, and I understand that you have to put forth a good image if you expect to do very well. True, it helps to have a good product, but if your image keeps people away, you can have the best product in the world and it won't do you a bit of good. This is the same whether you are selling cars, houses, pizza or BBS doors. I frequent the Fido door echos; DoorGames, Doorware and Online Games, and get to see a lot of door authors in action as they mingle among the echo crowds providing information on their doors, answering questions, helping with problems, and providing support before and after registration. Over all, most door authors bend over backwards to provide support worth much more than the $15 - $30 amount most doors cost. On the other hand, there are a few authors that seem to have little regard for the business of doing business. If you think about it, this is not hard to understand, as most door authors have little business experience and even less at customer service. Customer Service is something that is hard to teach and is usually learned along the way, although some never do. Although many lack experience in dealing with people, this should never be an excuse for rudeness or total disregard for the customer. Most people are tolerant and forgiving of someone that is new as long as they are making an effort to satisfy that customer. Disregard for the customer is something that I hear about, have seen in the echos, and have experienced myself, over the years. I don't know if it's a sign of our times or maybe I'm just over sensitive, yet it amazes me that not only is a door author rude to the people that he hopes to make a sale too, but that so many people accept it as part of doing business. Last year I put one of the popular InterBBS doors on my BBS to try out. I don't really get into the adventure type of doors as a rule, but I really liked this one the first time I tried it. After only a couple of days I decided to register it (I register most of my doors based on how I feel about them, as well as how my callers feel). I even wrote the check out and had it sitting by my computer, ready to go out. I then joined one of the local leagues so I could see how my board would stack up against some of the other boards in the Portland area. It did fine for the first 3 days of InterBBS play but then locked up with a corrupted data file. Ok, these things happen, no problem, I just reset and started over. Three days later, it does the same thing. Once is one thing, twice might be the start of a bad habit, so I carefully check everything out; setup, batch files, mail run, etc. I couldn't find anything wrong. At this time I figured it was time to bring in an expert so I sent off a Netmail message to the author, asking if anyone else running a Wildcat! BBS had run into this kind of problem. I got nothing back. So I reset the game, and once again, 3 days later the same data file is corrupted. At this point most games would have been history, but I really liked the game and wanted to get it to work. I called the author's BBS and left a personal message to him explaining what was going on. I called back a couple times each day for a week but found no answer waiting, even after leaving additional messages. I know he had to be around, because mail was being left for other people. I sent another netmail message, and still no response. This went on for 3 weeks and even though I really liked the game, this was just too much. My board can't participate in the InterBBS league because by now we are so far behind we'd never catch up. So I delete the game and tear up the check that was still sitting by my computer. Four weeks after I'd sent the first Netmail message, I get a Netmail response back from the author. His suggestion..."Reset the game". I don't remember my exact words back to him, but I politely (with no smilies in the message) told him that it no longer mattered because the game was history and they would not be getting a registration from me. Now I don't know if it would have done any good or not, but if he had come back and apologized and offered to help get the game going, I very likely would have reconsidered. But again, I didn't even get an answer back. Since then I have heard others with similar stories about lack of response from this author, with the same results...they didn't register. At least those of us that didn't register are the lucky ones. Those that did register and ran into problems were out their money, with their only recourse to let others know about their situation. Who knows how many registrations were lost directly, like with me, and indirectly because of what people heard as the stories went around. I can understand being busy or a message or two getting lost in the mail, but to ignore repeated requests for help is just plain bad business. If I get a request for help and can't help that person right away, I will at least acknowledge their message and tell them I'll get back with them as soon as possible (and to not hesitate to remind me if they don't hear from me soon). I've kept an eye on this game and if the number of people playing are any indication, the game seems to be doing quit well, registration wise...but you have to wonder how much better it would be doing if the author had showed just a little more consideration in his dealings with the public? One of my more popular doors, Tri-Bingo, resulted from another incident like this. I had a registered bingo door on my BBS, which was being played regularly by a number of people. It was an older door and had a couple of bugs that only showed up every once in awhile (like when someone got a bingo). Finally several of the players brought it to my attention and asked if there was anything I could do. I contacted the author about it to see if there was a newer version or if the bugs could be fixed and though I don't remember the details, the bottom line was that it couldn't be. As any sysop knows, there is always 14 variations to any door available, so I started looking around for other bingo doors. After searching my file areas and all the CD files I have, I only found 3 other bingo doors...with one being an exact clone of the other, (right down to the misspelled words). I thought I'd gotten two copies of the same door until I looked closer and saw the author names and registration information was different. Of course since they were clones they had the same bugs as well . Since it's obvious that there wasn't an existing door available, and I, being a door author after all, decided to do my own. Not being someone that likes to settle for a mere copy, I made it into what I call, "_THE_ Best Bingo Door Available". The name, Tri-Bingo, was originally chosen to reflect that you could play up to 3 cards at a time and had 3 different bingo games to choose from. You can still play up to 3 bingo cards, but by the time I finished adding to it, there were a lot more games to choose from. Sysops and players must agree with me about it being _THE_ best, because it's doing very well, thank you . This is another case of poor support resulting in lost registrations (the original one I had on my board was registered but I was willing to register another one if it worked), except in this case, everyone that has registered (and will register) my bingo door, didn't register one of the others. **Note: There have been several bingo doors come out since the above situation and I want to point out that the authors of E-Z Bingo (Bob DaCastello) and Challenger Bingo (Bill Hicks) are very supportive of their doors and are part of what I consider the group of good guys. What most businesses fail to realize (and in this case, door authors), is that it doesn't really take a lot to satisfy a customer. Sometimes it's not even the fact that you fixed what ever was broken that matters...but the fact that you listened and at least tried. You might loose a sale because you couldn't meet their needs (this time), but at least they won't go away with a sour taste in their mouth, infecting everyone that will listen. The only thing that gets around as fast as a rumor, is bad press for a product. And this kind of bad reputation is hard to shake, once it's "earned". What can you, as a sysop, do when you run into a situations like this? There is actually a lot you can do. The most obvious and one that impacts the door author the most is not register his door. But don't leave it at that. If you can, let him know why, in a polite but concise way, what he did to turn your business away. Who knows, maybe it will do some good . If you have already registered, then you have several options depending how you paid for the door and how long ago. The best way to register a door is by credit card. With a credit card you have more protection than if you registered by check or money order and can even get your money back under some situations. Before you go this route, I would recommend that you talk with the author and try to resolve the problem. But, if after your attempts have failed, don't hesitate to call your credit card customer service and explain the situation to them. They will outline your options as they apply to you. Whatever you do, don't let it slide by. There are a lot of good conscientious door authors out there, and most people don't remember names, they remember situations, and it only takes a few to make us all look bad. But there is always a flip side to the coin and for us door authors it's..."The Registration From Hell", that we all dread . But I'd better save _THOSE_ stories for another time as I'm fast approaching RoAnn's deadline, and I suspect she hates to be kept waiting . But before I go, it's shameless plug time . Since last months issue, I've been working on my door, Jewel Thief, to add in more features, and hopefully make it even more popular. One feature that has taken up most of my time is the addition of InterBBS play. InterBBS play seems to be something that a lot of players want, although it doesn't always work well with all doors. There are a couple of different types of InterBBS doors available, one type being where you actually play against a player or group of players on another BBS. You send attacks, defend yourself, arrange alliances, take over territories, etc., by sending them over the modem. The other type is were only the scores are sent between boards, while individual play is done on a specific board. Although sending scores may not sound as exciting as sending over an army to take over the world, it still spurs some exciting competition among boards. This second method is how Jewel Thief will be played. The idea behind InterBBS play of this nature is that there is a group of boards that join together to create a league. One node of this league acts as the Hub Node and is usually the person that initiates the game. It's this person that creates the league list, determines the common parameters for the game, receives the daily score files from each participating node, and compiles them all together to create the master score file that is sent back to all the nodes. At the end of the month (or sooner in some games) the high scorer is displayed in the "Hall of Fame" list for all to see. I have just gone into local, pre-beta testing of Jewel Thief to work some of the kinks out of it before I send it out to all my remote beta testers. For all the Jewel Thief fans out there and for those that like InterBBS games, I hope to have it released by the end of March. If you are one of those Sysop that wants to get your hands on a new program, even before it's released, it is available as a "Pre-Beta" release. File name is JT-IBBS.ZIP and can be file requested or download from my BBS at the numbers listed at the top of this article. Please note that it is a "Pre- Beta Release" and though it is working on my board as well as almost a dozen others, you never know how it will run on yours. One other, much requested feature, that was added, is the ability to save the level you are at when you quit. This way those that have to quit before they run out of lives can come back and pick up where they left off. The regular released version is JEWEL16.ZIP and is also available. The file M&S_INFO.DIZ is also available that lists all of my doors, with discriptions. Well, looks like I'm out of time, so I'd better get this wrapped up and off to RoAnn . Until next time. þ