30th APRIL - LEE'S UPDATE

[LAP]

Hi Beta Testers,

A warm welcome to Jennifer aka MimeticMouton to the Literature & Latte team to assist with vital support on the forums. [url]Welcome aboard, Jennifer!] There was some pretty funny responses to this post particularly fgriesers and wocks. First thing I have to do now is get me a decent avatar logo: Keith, Jennifer and others are way ahead of the game here. Seriously, Jennifer it’s a privilege to have you on-board.

In response to my previous post on the 27th April, thank you all for your fabulous-continued-support. I know I keep using those standard words, well, but, dammit, you folks just - rock!

They’ll be no payment plans, but once again, I’m touched that many of you keep raising and supporting the issue. We will deliver awesome software before we charge for it. For both Keith and I, Scrivener has never been about the money. It’s all about passion and the writing.

Turning my back two years ago on an excellent career, huge salary, bonuses, and ridiculous share options as a previous senior banking IT executive was the best thing I ever did. And no, the Global Financial Crisis was not my fault - I was just responsible for building some of the systems that tracked all our loses. Seriously though, Scrivener rescued and rejuvenated me. I’ve never worked so hard in my life, or now, ate so much boiled rice. Just kidding with the rice part. I love every moment of it - well almost every moment - beta 022 save bugs aside - which I’m still gutted about.

Here’s an extract from an email that I sent Keith almost 9 months ago about what Scrivener means to me:

I’m sitting here in my new home office. My faithful little dog curled up snug at my feet. There’s bookshelves full of books, papers scattered across my wrap around desk, a fine bottle of Drambuie winking at me under the desk lamp and a twenty four inch monitor beaming Windows Scrivener ‘is alive’ into the shadows. A cold wind howls outside, but in my man-cave it’s womb like. There’s a faint heartbeat of a clock and the sound of fingers tapping keys as I write to your good selves. I sit back, clasp my hands behind my head and ponder…

Wow! What a year it’s been – both the toughest and best yet on many fronts. I feel like I’ve been transformed; broken down bit by bit; ground to a paste in a mortar and pestle, and put together right for once. I feel like I’m me again, but not the me I was two years ago – the real me. Scrivener has been my medicine and crucible for transformation back to the boy I was before the world instilled in me a whole load of rot.

Since then, we launched the beta and the workload rose exponentially. 90-98 hour weeks become common for many months (Keith did warn me about that too - but pain is often the best teacher), but looking back all these thoughts remain poignant and true today. I love doing what I’m doing. Scrivener for Windows and Linux will be amazing when it’s released. I’m learning to pace myself now for obvious reasons that many of you kept prodding this stubborn mule about for months so I actually make it across the first finish line. All of you are integral in making this amazing thing we’re all involved with happen. I’m not sure how much each of you really understands the difference you all make - but to me this community is highly significant in the evolution of Scrivener. It’s the most genuine, positive, proactive, responsible, funny, cranky at times community I’ve had the pleasure of being part of. It’s also rescued me a few times when I’ve swam too far offshore.

Thank you.

Lee
P.S. Well wishes to the newly wed Royal couple. Come on, own up, I know you all watched it too.

[garpu]

Turning my back two years ago on an excellent career, huge salary, bonuses, and ridiculous share options as a previous senior banking IT executive was the best thing I ever did. And no, the Global Financial Crisis was not my fault - I was just responsible for building some of the systems that tracked all our loses.

Know what you mean there. Going into composition was one of the scariest things I’ve done, and I still don’t know how it’ll play out. But, hey, might as well enjoy the ride!

P.S. Well wishes to the newly wed Royal couple. Come on, own up, I know you all watched it too.

Was sound asleep until my fiance put coffee within reach and backed away slowly. He’s learned. :mrgreen:

[rowanfae]

I feel like I’ve been transformed; broken down bit by bit; ground to a paste in a mortar and pestle, and put together right for once. I feel like I’m me again, but not the me I was two years ago – the real me. Scrivener has been my medicine and crucible for transformation back to the boy I was before the world instilled in me a whole load of rot.

This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing it with us.
We will, of course, continue to be here to support this journey as best we can …

And no, I didn’t watch the wedding.

[kewms]

@rowanfae

And no, I didn’t watch the wedding.

Me either. I thought scheduling it on my birthday was terribly inconsiderate, and boycotted it because of that.

Katherine

[Grandad7]

There was a wedding? Who got married? Who got an invite?

[Lunarclipper]

@LAP

P.S. Well wishes to the newly wed Royal couple. Come on, own up, I know you all watched it too.

I didn’t watch it, but then I don’t have TV right now. I am sure I will be able to watch it on the net sometime soon. Best wishes to the Royal couple!

And thanks for all your hard work Lee and crew!

-Lunarclipper

[bargonzo]

I didn’t watch the wedding, but I did catch a replay of the bride entering the church. Can’t say I saw the bride, but the rearward shot of her sister/bridesmaid (Pippa) holding the train definitely caught my attention!

[AmberV]

@Grandad7

There was a wedding? Who got married? Who got an invite?

Well, now we know who isn’t Elton John.

[altocumulus]

[scribbles]

I’m so glad to hear you managed to get some downtime, Lee, and it’s so great to hear working on Scrivener has made such a positive impact. The best things come not just hard work, but also a great deal of passion in that work, and I think those of us here have all had the privilege to witness that–and why we’re all so very willing to support you guys in anyway we can. It’s also so very awesome that people continue to step up in here and go above and beyond.

Btw, on the topic of recruiting more help (yay for MM!), I was wondering if we could have someone keep an eye on the email newsletter? I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but hadn’t seen any new email updates–and I figured it’s probably one of those things that gets overlooked in favor for more urgent/important tasks.

I personally depend on the forums for all the latest updates, but I think there are a lot of people who don’t check the forums as much and/or who believed they would be kept up to date just by signing up for the newsletter. To be fair, the web page does say: “If you want to be sure you receive the news as soon as we have it, though, you can also join our Windows newsletter”. I think just having someone to copy and paste Lee’s updates (maybe just about new versions, if we’re worried about spamming) and sending them out could be a small thing that could go a long way.

[KB]

@scribbles

Btw, on the topic of recruiting more help (yay for MM!), I was wondering if we could have someone keep an eye on the email newsletter? … “If you want to be sure you receive the news as soon as we have it, though, you can also join our Windows newsletter”. I think just having someone to copy and paste Lee’s updates (maybe just about new versions, if we’re worried about spamming) and sending them out could be a small thing that could go a long way.

Hi,

The trouble here is that there are lots and lots of people who have signed up to the newsletter who want to know about when Scrivener is released and who aren’t interested in using beta software, so would quickly get annoyed at receiving news about betas and most likely unsubscribe - we know this from our Facebook and Twitter pages. So we keep newsletters for official releases and related news. In retrospect it would have been a good idea to have had a separate newsletter for beta testers, although I’m not sure it would be worth it at this late stage.

All the best,
Keith