Email users about new releases
by Blame · in Torque Game Builder · 11/09/2006 (8:50 am) · 5 replies
Here's how I updated from TGB v1.1.1 to TGB v1.1.2:
1: Heard a rumour from a guy at work that TGE had been updated.
2: Looked at the Garage Games site's main TGB page (http://www.garagegames.com/developer/torque/t2d/) and find nothing saying what the current version is.
3: Look on the forums and find nothing saying what version is out.
4: Post to the forums and get told to go to the My Account page, then click download.
5: Click download and there it is, a page saying what version is available and a link to get hold of it.
This is unbelievably hidden!
There's nothing to suggest that you would ever use the download link on the My Account page again, once you've bought and downloaded the product that first time. At the very least, this could be labelled "download latest version" or have some text saying "Here's where to get the latest updates as they are released." I'm more surprised that you don't just email users when there's a new update.
Cheers,
Blame
1: Heard a rumour from a guy at work that TGE had been updated.
2: Looked at the Garage Games site's main TGB page (http://www.garagegames.com/developer/torque/t2d/) and find nothing saying what the current version is.
3: Look on the forums and find nothing saying what version is out.
4: Post to the forums and get told to go to the My Account page, then click download.
5: Click download and there it is, a page saying what version is available and a link to get hold of it.
This is unbelievably hidden!
There's nothing to suggest that you would ever use the download link on the My Account page again, once you've bought and downloaded the product that first time. At the very least, this could be labelled "download latest version" or have some text saying "Here's where to get the latest updates as they are released." I'm more surprised that you don't just email users when there's a new update.
Cheers,
Blame
About the author
#2
First of all, thanks for the reply to my fairly moany post. :)
In my opinion, having an opt in email notification accessible from the My Account page would be a good solution and I can see why you don't want to email everyone every time anything changes. I understand you'd probably get people complaining about getting spammed, etc.
I've just had another look at the What's New page, from the Community menu and I can't see any mention of version 1.1.2 on there. If you go to News in the bottom pane, there's a post titled "Torque Game Builder 1.1.1 Now Available!" but nothing obviously mentioning the next version.
I will take your advice and look into using the rss feeds that are available. Please can you help me by pointing me to them, though? I have had a root around and can't find out what rss feeds are available. I've not used rss much, but from other sites I've learned to look for the little orange icon and start there. Is there one somewhere for TGB?
Thanks for taking the time to help,
Blame
11/10/2006 (4:15 am)
Hi David,First of all, thanks for the reply to my fairly moany post. :)
In my opinion, having an opt in email notification accessible from the My Account page would be a good solution and I can see why you don't want to email everyone every time anything changes. I understand you'd probably get people complaining about getting spammed, etc.
I've just had another look at the What's New page, from the Community menu and I can't see any mention of version 1.1.2 on there. If you go to News in the bottom pane, there's a post titled "Torque Game Builder 1.1.1 Now Available!" but nothing obviously mentioning the next version.
I will take your advice and look into using the rss feeds that are available. Please can you help me by pointing me to them, though? I have had a root around and can't find out what rss feeds are available. I've not used rss much, but from other sites I've learned to look for the little orange icon and start there. Is there one somewhere for TGB?
Thanks for taking the time to help,
Blame
#3
I would like to ammend this suggestion, now that you mention that, haha ...
Can the "Community" page have an easy to find "RSS Feeds" icon on it somewhere? :)
I found it, because I was specifically searching for it -- and assumed they HAD to have one ... and took advantage of google to locate it :)
11/10/2006 (6:44 am)
Blame, what I did was type "RSS" in the GG Search box and the first google result was "RSS Feeds @ GarageGages".I would like to ammend this suggestion, now that you mention that, haha ...
Can the "Community" page have an easy to find "RSS Feeds" icon on it somewhere? :)
I found it, because I was specifically searching for it -- and assumed they HAD to have one ... and took advantage of google to locate it :)
#4
I agree that your re-worded suggestion would be a Good Thing. :)
Cheers,
Blame
11/10/2006 (7:02 am)
Hey David,I agree that your re-worded suggestion would be a Good Thing. :)
Cheers,
Blame
#5
11/11/2006 (2:49 pm)
If you go to the top menu bar that says "Company" you can select "RSS Feeds" from there.
Associate David Higgins
DPHCoders.com
There was a news article and a .plan (blog) written notifying users of the upgrade -- both of these can be found in the "Community" menu on the top of the page.
I, as I'm sure most other users do, subscribe to the RSS Feeds and found out the day that 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 were posted.
I use Thunderbird as my mail client, which has built-in RSS feed subscription functionalities but almost every mail client I'm aware of has some form of add-in or plug-in to add this functionality -- as well, there are blog subscription services online that allow you to have blog messages email to you -- perhaps look into this as a possible solution to the problem?
I don't believe emailing everyone is the greatest idea -- maybe an "email me about important product updates and notifications" option in our account profile -- that's opt-in, I don't see a problem with that -- but for the specific reasoning you mentioned, unless you otherwise can't subscribe to RSS feeds, the RSS feeds should be suffecient.