This is my very unofficial take on what's going on with Bryce Talk. Although I discuss recent things that Corel has done, I do not intend that this is their perspective on the BryceTalk server situation.
Background I worked on BryceTalk's development when I was on staff at MetaCreations. Not the code, that was Ian Gilman's baby, along with server stuff that was done by George Tracy. Additional supporting database and web-based signup work were done by Chuck Richey and Dawnne Gee, respectively. But what I worked on was all the surrounding community aspects, from signups to running the chats, to the Bryce web site.
BryceTalk is a small application that may run concurrent with Bryce 4. It is integrated with Bryce 4: From Bryce you can launch or activate the Bryce Talk client from any place inside of Bryce except for a modal dialog box (the ones with the gray strips at top and bottom). This makes it damn handy for Brycers to talk to one another about "how do you do blah-diddy-blah?"
Spring and early summer, 1999 For many Bryce users who'd first started using the software during the days of the old Tuesday night chats in the HSC Software chatroom on AOL, the appearance of BryceTalk harkened back to "the good old days" of HSC/MetaTools/MetaCreations, before the company soured (i.e., got so consumed with making a buck and making its quarterly numbers that it did things that ended up shafting the users, its customers). For others who hadn't been around during those times, the existence of a chat application used "in" Bryce and only by Brycers opened up new doorways and experiences, and a users-helping-users 24/7 help arena.
I used to run the chats. I'd get an agenda or theme, send out email to the registered user list of BryceTalk, and then host the chat. First there were only once-a-week chats, and then we added another one that was friendly to Europe evening hours.
The integration of BryceTalk with the Bryce application allowed for chats that were step-by-step tutorials -- such as the Deep Texture Editor tutorial that went two sessions and lasted a total of 6 hours, and generated 50 pages worth of text. (The first half was done while I was running a fever, too. Needless to say, I'm proud of that accomplishment and the advantages that it had for Bryce users.)
Summer, 1999 In time, I began to look for something else to do with my life. My work for the company where I either telecommuted from home or else commuted 95 miles to the office (I stayed at a friend's house during those time) made it hard to find sufficient blocks of time to work on my portion of the book on Bryce. Plus, I was wearying of the whole software industry in general; I wanted a change. Last summer I made plans to resign from the company. Originally, I wanted to continue hosting the chats on a diminishing basis, to make a transition to the point where they were self-running, but MetaCreations and I couldn't reach an agreement on that. I left at the end of August of last year.
Fall, 1999 BryceTalk was still operating last fall, on an informal basis. There were no more structured chats. People would show up there to shoot the breeze with other brycers, and I even ran a looong private tutorial chat to generate the rough draft for a step by step tutorial I was writing for the book. But, all in all, attendance dwindled without a structure.
December--The Divestiture In mid-December, when MetaCreations shocked the world with its announcement to divest itself of its software products, BryceTalk was filled with users who were trying to get more information and who were reacting to this harsh news. A few staff members who'd just been told that they were laid off came to BryceTalk as part of their way of dealing with the shock, as well as to say goodbye. It was one place to hangout to digest these new, uncertain circumstances.
As the furor died down, it went back to a place where some regulars came to hang out, to post URLs of their most recent Bryce images, to swap techniques and ask questions and to discuss primary election politics or whatever else happened to be worth discussing.
End of Q1, 2000 -- The End of BryceTalk? Sometime in March, someone from MetaCreations showed up in the BryceTalk lobby and mentioned that the server would be going down at month's end. I'd been staying away from BryceTalk (it was a matter of counting the minutes before someone would ask me when the book would be done, and since I would usually show up in BryceTalk for a break or for procrastinatory reasons, being pestered to know "when" was pretty sure to find me slinking toward the exit), but was told by someone that the server would go down. I sought to find out more (specific date) and I set up a final farewell chat on March 30 by advertising it on the Bryce email list. At the chat, a whole buncha people showed up and we all had a great old time, but the server did not go down. BryceTalk continued.
Corel buys Bryce Then the announcement came out that Corel bought Bryce. One of the first things I did was try to find out from Corel if BryceTalk would continue. In what was a time of mad scrambling all around, I wanted to talk to folks at Corel --about Bryce, their plans for BryceTalk, some book-related matters, and to offer my own perspective as someone who'd been there since 1.0. I eventually got ahold of someone named Steve Albert, who told me that he was the product manager. In his email to me, dated 20 April 2000, he said:
"Yesterday, I was email-ing with Neal Burt from Renderosity.com who wanted me to participate in a chat session to inform users of Corel's plans for Bryce. You can all relax because nothing will be dropped (including BryceTalk). Everything with Bryce is full steam ahead and I am absolutely thrilled to be at the helm. I've used Bryce since version 2 and have loved the program since. I am a user by nature who went over to the engineering side of things.
I still have a bit to learn about Bryce so communication with people like yourself is most welcome." (emphasis mine)
I eventually found out that there are two product managers, one for marketing and the other for product development. Steve is the one for product development. I had other things on my plate (such as completing certain chapters of the book before I left for a family wedding) so although I'd established contact with a coupla folks at Corel, we didn't have an opportunity to get more acquainted w/ the new Bryce staff before I had to leave. I did have a conversation with someone who worked in the business end of things, and I supplied him with names of people who were familiar with the workings of BryceTalk, however.
More recently... It's amazing how a two week trip manages to push damn near everything out of your brain that had been occupying it before. The "talk to Corel" ball got dropped and has been slow to be picked up again. The marketing product manager, Theresa Howe, scheduled a conference call for yesterday morning with various Corel folks to talk with me about various and sundry about Bryce. The call's been postponed due to the inevitable difficulties of assembling certain bodies in one room around one phone, what with illness and vacation and all. First thing yesterday morning, I heard that it wouldn't happen and we rescheduled.
The other shoe drops Later yesterday, I got a fone call from a friend who said, "Did you hear that Corel is shutting down the BryceTalk server *today*?"
What?!?
(gulp!) and I was thinking about my first thing in the morning call postponing our conference call with Corel. No indication of any shoes dropping there. Hmmmm.
I went into BryceTalk to find out more information. Eventually someone with the BryceTalk nickname of lafinca identified himself as a Corel employee, a Program Manager. I asked if he was Steve Albert, whom I'd corresponded with earlier. He said no, Steve had left the company for greener pastures. I introduced myself and asked to talk to him by fone. We did so, and here's the gist of their situation as it came out in conversation with additional background information.
Why BryceTalk is being shut down The servers (there are two) for BryceTalk are Sun Sparc machines physically located in a server cage in some co-location facility in northern California, right on a major onramp to the internet. The price tag for said server-cage real estate is kinda "up there"--$8000/month. At just under $100,000/year, that's an expensive service to maintain.
Technicalities Ultimately Matter Even while at MetaCreations, once BryceTalk was well underway, there'd been some talk about moving the server off of the pricey colocation facility. However, there was a fundamental problem with that, involving how the BryceTalk client works and what happened in its final days of development. The client application uses TCP/IP to talk to the servers. It has an address it refers to in order to talk to the proper host machine. For some reason, there was a glitch with the client; it couldn't find the host by machine name (such as chatserver.metacreations.com). The advantage to finding the host by machine name is that the location could be changed, and the Metacreations DNS (Domain name server) would read the host name and direct the client to the proper IP-addressed host. A machine name would provide some flexibility. Unfortunately, time was way so tight, the software had to go golden master *now* so that it could be shipped before quarter's end. A perfectly workable solution was available: just use the actual IP number of the host. It worked, but did away with any flexibility. That BryceTalk client looks for that IP number, which belongs to that co-location facility, so it must be assigned to a machine in that expensive server cage.
What would be required to change the server If the server's location were to be changed, a new client would have to be provided to *all* Brycers, one that would look for the server in its new location. That involves a whole migration plan. A new client would have to be provided to everyone. Then everyone would have to be notified, given adequate time to download the patch, set it up and know that which one to use after which date. Then on the day at the time, flip a switch. Maybe keep the old server up to tell people to get the new one, but anyone who signs on with BryceTalk 1.0a (expensive IP) couldn't talk to those who'd migrated to BryceTalk 1.0b (new IP). Messy, but doable. But it was messy enough that it wasn't done by MetaCreations. Instead, toward the end of last year, they sold off their graphic software assets.
So the transition time is now.
Corel's deciding factors Immediately after the purchase decision was announced, Corel spent time learning all about technical particulars with the MetaCretins who were still at MetaCreations. They found out that the machines were SunSparcs. They were told that the service is being used by a small number of people, maybe all of 50, and no more than a handful at a time. (Well, yes, I guess, but when it was then unsupported without structured chats and the future of Bryce was in question, the traffic would naturally decline. I personally think that the estimate of 50 people is a little low. In any case, that's what Corel was told.) They looked at 50 people versus $8,000 per month. It's no surprise that they decided to migrate the server to a less expensive location, inhouse to Ottowa, Canada.
Further, for whatever reason, Corel didn't want to support a Sun workstation. Having the source code of the server in hand, it's their intention to rebuild the BryceTalk server on an NT server.
In the meantime, with the transition between MetaCreations and Corel, MetaCreations is getting set to shut down various support things by the end of this month. (I talked to someone at the company not too long ago, where I was told that there were all of about 10 people left in the Carpinteria office.)
Yesterday was the last day that the BryceTalk server was guaranteed up and running. (It's up as of this writing, but could go down any time now, depending on when someone from Meta goes to the server cage in Northern California and physically retrieves the machines.)
Corel's plans, as told to... So what is Corel going to do? I asked lafinca (first name: Doug) if that meant that what Steve Albert told me in email was still true--that Corel was going full steam ahead with BryceTalk. Doug told me about the new chat client, available in a web browser. (I'd had it open, and was not impressed with the fact that a) it's open to any user, not Brycers, and that b) it was totally open for impersonation. Anyone could use my nickname and I could use, for example, lafinca's nickname. Not good for identity and trustworthiness, besides the fact that the implementaion is inferior. Okay, okay, I'll say it. It sucks. And this is being called BryceTalk 2.0. 2.0 implies an upgrade. Heh. How about BryceTalk BOGU? That's a better version name.
But the other thing that Doug told me is that this is temporary. They will get a server running on their own turf, and will come out with BryceTalk 3.0.
Bad Will Hunting I asked Doug if he was aware of the kind of badwill that this was creating among the installed Bryce user base. That involved making the distinction between a personal decision and a corporate decision (sigh. I'm well aware of those distinctions. After a while all a person can do is resign from the company that makes those kinds of decisions, as I did last summer. sigh sigh sigh.).
A Brief History of Grime (er, badwill) Anyway, about this badwill thing. What's it been like for the devoted Bryce user? First there's the news that right before Christmas, MetaCreations dumps tons of staff and the software products are gonna be sold. The people that they've contacted at the company are either immediately out the door, or are gone in time. They wonder and mutter at whether their beloved Bryce (this is no exaggeration; this app has a devoted following!) is gonna ultimately die. All communication from MetaCreations anymore tends to come out in overpolished press releases that have any human voice removed by PR and legal folk. The quarter's nearly over, we haven't heard news about Bryce. What's going on? Do we have reason for hope? The server's going down end of March. arrgh, gnash, razzum frazzum.
(Okay, I'll admit it. I was the one who told the news far and wide. Then, when I heard that BryceTalk was gonna stay, I told that news far and wide too. I may spread rumors, but I am just as vocal about retracting them if I'm given new information!)
New quarter. Hey, the server's still up. Some days later. It was bought by Corel!! What?! By Corel?! Hmmmm... Does that mean that the Mac will go by the wayside? And so the buzz continues. Well, will BryceTalk continue? Will we be left out in the cold? Does anyone care about those of us who've already bought the software? It was gratifying to learn that, yes, BryceTalk will continue.
And now it's going down. Replaced by a java client that's not integrated with the software. Hard to find information on it. (Tho today I did find that Corel's web site has a new Bryce 4 section and a BryceTalk page, and a FAQ. Easy to imporsonate other people. "All connections to and activity on this server are being logged."
It ain't easy taking over a software product--er three software products But enough of the badwill, Doug. What do you do for Corel? That conversation led to a review of what all the company had to do in its transition to purchase the products. I don't envy them their situation. I'd heard from one person in the training department at Corel that "we all were as surprised by the announcement as everyone else!" It's that pesky thing of insider information being on a need to know basis. So, apparently, Corel's been scrambling after the announcement was made. First off, they just gotta get the goods-- get the source code in house, do the basic branding change (remove MetaCreations logos, put on Corel logos on all product packaging, software splash screens and the like), get a web site up and make sure that there's a smooth transition between all the KPT/Bryce/Painter links from the metacreations.com web site to their own web site. They're looking at deadlines of when support and the web falls directly in their own hands (soon man, soon!). Oh, and get up to speed on the products themselves, too. With all that immediate logistics, they've not been able to pay close attention to the users. Alas.
Trial by Fire In any case, I now had an explanation for what was going on. News that the web-based thing was temporary. A little background. Plus, later Doug (lafinca) told everyone that making sure that the news was known to users was his idea. It was a trial by fire, and as he put it today, he found it "motivating." But I respect that. This is new news for the folks of Corel, at least as far as personal experience goes: you got a bunch of users who are *passionate!*
They'll grill you on your plans, they'll poke holes in your offerings, they'll call your bluff, they'll make you squirm. . . . and they'll help you implement changes (I believe that a couple of BryceTalk regulars helped test and improve the new temporary BryceTalk IRC server).
Basically, your new users want to be treated with respect. Talk to them; tell them what's going on. Find as many ways to keep an open dialog with them. Do not insult their intelligence. Tell them that you know that there are things about new interim server that totally suck. Don't try to make it better than it is. Talk to them like a person to people and they'll treat you like a person, too. Seems to me that, as time went on yesterday, tho there was still grumbling in the old BryceTalk, there was more of a willingness to engage lafinca as a person.
(I've been in your shoes--in a very unpopular situation, following a decision that came from higher up. I didn't like it but had to take the lumps and get out there among the people who also didn't like it. I know what it's like to sweat while listen to people speak to me very passionately and tell me how upset they are and respond with, "I know, I know. I wish it were different. I totally agree that this is not a good situation." I've been there. It's not fun. But I learned, later, that I earned respect from that. I earned respect for *me*, and not just being some shadow underling of John Wilczak or Kai Krause.)
My wishes for Corel I wish for lots of things with the folks of Corel.
- I wish that the server migration for BryceTalk goes ridiculously fast and that it defies Murphy's Law.
- I wish that there's lots of communication from Corel to the user base, using already established places where users tend to hang out.
- I wish that I'll see Corel folks subscribe to the Painter list and the Bryce list and the KPT list and end up hanging out there. Yes, I know you have other news forums, but so do your establish users. Come join us, too.
- I wish that this transition to a new company is a transition to more clueful being (a la cluetrain).
- I wish to be able to help the folks of Corel understand what's going on with the users, and to help the users understand a bit more about what's going on with Corel.
- I wish that the day will soon come where we can look back on this and laugh.
I prolly wish for a few other things, but if you've read to this point, you need no more wishes, only my gratitude for having read as much as you have.
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