The unRAID target demographic (from "Requesting IPV6 in unRAID kernel")

[Dissones4U]

tl;dr >> if your target audience is the "mass market" ease of use and documentation may need to be prioritized higher than specialty fixes for semi-pro users.

 

@jonp I want to preface this Op-ed by saying that my current feeling is that unRAID meets my needs and I will be purchasing after the trial. My opinion on this subject is more general and focuses on your "target demographic", is it semi-pro users or the mass market? From the perspective of a potential customer, if ipv6 sucks up heavily from other development resources it may not yet be an immediate need unless your target customer is the IT, semi-pro, user. (I'd assume, perhaps wrongly, that your target customer is the "mass market" with a generally lower technology quotient, to whom ease of use is priority #1) Most home users can't forward a port much less map out an entire small network. With that said, my skills are better than average yet nowhere near that of even a semi-pro. My experience with unRAID thus far suggests that, again IMO, resources might be better spent on further developing the UX through improved ease of use and documentation. My guess is that you lose a fair percentage of potential customers due to the scattered nature of documentation and lack of "officially supported" plugins. Between the wiki, the unofficial manual, the blog, various videos, and the copious forum threads there's a ton of contradictory information, as well as deprecated plugins that take a considerable amount of patience to sift through. As an example, one of the first things I'd found was the S.N.A.P. plugin and after much reading it led me to a newer S.N.A.P. v2 due to the original developer's lack of updates (which is currently my biggest concern about using unRAID). Once I finally decided to install it I found the CA plugin and so installed that first, but I couldn't figure out why SNAP wasn't available from CA. After yet more reading I found the thread labeled DEPRECATED (I wish that I'd found this first but unfortunately I didn't).  Then that thread led to Unassigned Devices v1 which was again, deprecated due to lack of developer updates (I'm seeing a pattern here). That finally led me to Unassigned Devices v2 which I have installed, but wow, what a ride to find the latest and greatest plugin that provides, what is to me, critical functionality. Please don't take this as a critique, it's simply meant to demonstrate that if your target audience is the "mass market" ease of use and documentation may need to be prioritized higher than specialty fixes for semi-pro users.  In the end I'd gladly pay twice the current asking price for something with:

• The current functionality of unRAID 
• More officially supported plugins like dynamix, preclear, UD and several of the dockers
• Complete autonomy from proprietary hardware
• A similar UX with the same focus on ease of use that the big brand solutions offer

As someone who wants their home server to be a tool, not a part-time job I want flexibility when I choose to tinker yet I don't want to be forced to tinker if I don't want to. Unfortunately, unRAID forces you tinker due to the quasi supported community plugins. As stated above my current feeling is that I will continue on and become a paying customer. However, my guess is that there are many people less technically minded than I am who try it and decide to go with a more all inclusive solution from one of the big brand providers. This is just my 2 cents as a less technical user who may better represent the "mass market" than the majority of semi-pro users currently on the forum. No disrespect to them by any means, from what I can tell they have provided invaluable development, supporting critical functionality, and they all deserve a raise . Maybe I'm way off base and your target market is in fact the semi-pro user, if so than simply ignore this post. Hopefully I haven't offended anyone as I look forward to becoming a contributing member of this community but I do feel like the subject of development prioritization might benefit from a more "average joe" perspective.

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by Dissones4U

[RobJ]

I split this off because it's not directly related to IPv6 inclusion, although I understand why you started it there.  But it's certainly worthy of more discussion.

 

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this discussion.  You brought it up in relation to what types of features are appropriate for different target audiences, and where should LimeTech be putting their emphasis.  It can be moved if desired.  (as you can see, I'm not a very good wordsmith!)

 

I have to start though by saying this is a very small company, not currently able to spend the millions that might be needed for mass market appeal and support.  For a long time, it was just Tom, and during those days I'd say the target was technologically advanced hobbyists, those with higher media storage needs, and generally able to use the command prompt, at least follow instructions there.  Since then, it has been gathering a much wider following, from gamers and less technical home users to small companies and higher end techies.

 

Personally, any attempt to woo low tech users just scares me.  If we suddenly gained a large number of them, the amount of support they would need is way beyond what we could do.  I already feel swamped at times.  I'm of course just speaking for myself, not for Lime Tech.

 

Slightly off-topic, I was rather shocked by your statement that SNAP was one of the first things you found, and shortly after that you found other long deprecated tools.  We've tried hard to put the right info out there, but there seems to be no way to intercept everyone's preferred way of locating info.  For example, we constantly see users asking for support with no syslog or diagnostics, even though we post about it every place possible we can think of!  Obviously, we need to be all ears for additional ideas.  But we're just users, unpaid volunteers, unable to keep up with all of the needs.  And the company is just not big enough, or well-funded enough, to meet all needs.  I think they have done a terrific job so far, with what they have.

 

I'm curious how you found SNAP?  While old stuff isn't actively hidden, it's buried rather deep!

Edited March 11, 2017 by RobJ
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[Dissones4U]

29 minutes ago, RobJ said:

I'm curious how you found SNAP?  While old stuff isn't actively hidden, it's buried rather deep!

 

Actually I'd had a very nicely documented  post with links and all last night but then I clicked one of the links to verify what I was writing and rather than opening in a new window it scrapped my well developed post

 

If I remember correctly I was searching for ways to add an external drive and do the initial data load to the array that way, I'm not certain of the exact key words I used. once I get my stuff together and flying straight I may be able to determine exactly how I found it. As of now I've spent way more time than anticipated setting things up.

 

35 minutes ago, RobJ said:

Personally, any attempt to woo low tech users just scares me.  If we suddenly gained a large number of them, the amount of support they would need is way beyond what we could do.  I already feel swamped at times.  I'm of course just speaking for myself, not for Lime Tech.

  

I don't presume to know the LT marketing plan nor their target demographic, the idea of appealing to the mass market is simply an assumption on my part. If implemented thoroughly suspect that the need for support might actually diminish rather than grow. If it were truly error proofed then quality documentation would take care of many common problems. Just like Apple, engineer a highly capable, yet idiot proof product, and you've hit a grand slam. Frankly I feel like the product isn't that far from being idiot proof but if I've struggled with certain aspects then I'm certain that the "average joe" would have even more difficulty. Cleaner documentation without all of the "unofficial" vectors would likely make a big impact. After that, adding official support for a handful of essential plugins and dockers would just about do it IMO. The whole sifting through deprecated plugins was frustrating, I had a similar experience with preclear, it took me some time to figure out that the original by gfjardim was actually still good because it said (somewhere) that it had been abandoned. Now that I've found CA it's less of an issue but first impressions as they say...

 

Anyway, my primary motivation was to provide an average joe's perspective to development "needs" but if the target demographic is in fact the semi-pro user then the team is right on track! As I said I expect to be a paying customer after the trial period.