[Users] Zimbra's bug fixing process?

[David Touitou]

Hi.

> 2. Successfully delivered crowdfunded Zimlets and maintained a lot of
>    orphaned Zimlets: https://github.com/Zimbra-Community

I'm one of those crowfunders, like other people here and elsewhere.
We're should be able to push a new version of the birthday zimlet too.

> 4. Kept weekly conference calls that are open for everyone to join and
>    talk at. The conference call summaries are on the mailing list
>    archives. We also have the agenda's of the weekly meetings at
>    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xDyBJFjnfZYxuXJHiDzsXjjMuGGtIl7J

"Open to everyone" is not "pushed to anyone".
I don't know how to explain my feeling about this.

Participating to the call means you have to lock your time, you have to be able to understand/speak spoken english (see below my answer to Marc).
Good things get out of the call. 
But it's not "public", it's not a web forum (or an IRC channel or a Discord - let's be crazy).

BTW, thanks again Randy for your tremendous job with the feedback posts to the forum.
And you for your efforts (here, github, everywhere). 
And anyone else from the Zeta Alliance.

> On a few occasions an issue on the call was raised, that was then
> brought to Synacor via a letter or one of the attendees reaching out
> with everyone else backing. So I do not think the call is an obstacle in
> any way to improve the product.

The very same thing should happen with issues raised on the forum.
And/or with direct communication with support/sales people (Frederic's problem).
And/or with issues that are so old we're all fed up repeating.

That's why I used the expression "partners call with Synacor".
Having to raise isssues in the Zeta call to get a reaction is not good. 
It should not happen, it should not be needed.

Synacor people leaving the forum was a huge community management mistake.
I've seen John seems to be back on the forum, this is nice.

> It's true I am more familiar with the partner world, but at many meetings, both
> in person and virtual, very few people are willing to voice their opinion to
> Zimbra senior management. At the last forum France (2018 iirc), as you pointed
> out, people asked questions after the presentations which clearly indicated
> dissatisfaction, but then at the partner technical meeting, nobody voiced their
> true concerns or articulated the root cause of customer concerns. There were
> around 30 partner people in the room iirc and it would have been the perfect
> chance to feed back to key senior management.

This meeting was limited to Gold (maybe Silver) partners.
I wasn't invited, neither were most of the french partners (VAR and/or BSP).
 
> This same dynamic happens time and again on partner calls and at partner
> meetings. Very few people speak up.
> I have wondered why.
> Is it because the conversations are conducted in English and, for non native
> English speakers (which are the majority in EMEA), keeping up with a fast paced
> discussion where sometimes more than one person might be speaking, can be
> impossible.

I think you are right about this, it as an impact on who can join the weekly Zeta call.

> Or is it because there are commercial concerns - competitive
> pressures / worries over upsetting relationships etc. 

Definitively.

I didn't know it was a technical meeting.
>From the outside, it looked like a "let's present the new roadmap to the gold partners and talk about business perspectives".

I'm not sure tech guys, the one dealing with end-users issues (or managind infrastructures) for the invited partners were there.

David