Misc.'ing in Action
The pun may be a bit of a stretch, but nonetheless, lots of ground to cover, dear reader…
Item #1
Over at Steve Lacey’s blog there’s a nice post about what our users call err… affectionately, the blurries. Be sure and read the comments section.
Item #2
Also noticed at Mr. Lacey’s blog, is another new Flight Sim related (not affiliated or employed by MSFT) blogger, who has a very nice post. Thank you Mr. Bruce, and you’ve been added to the blogroll.
Item #3
There’s a big brouhaha post over at Avsim regarding the 777 challenge. This has been covered to some small degree in an earlier post of mine, and also by Mr. Gilbert, as well as on the FSInsider.com website. Doesn’t seem to have been an issue over at Flightsim.com, while over on Simflight.com, poster westv (victor) beats us to the punch with a timely link. Cheers Victor!
Item #4
In the thread mentioned above, poster mgh still has some doubts as to the authenticity of the insider site. I know Mike's covered the issue once (as have I), but I thought that I’d quote some of his concerns here, and try and provide some answers. I’m willing to bet that mgh represents some number of people who quite rightly are cautious about people representing themselves as being from big corporations (phishing anyone?). So in that spirit, here goes…
“Some reasons for doubt about the site are:
-The poor visual appearance. Compare it with other Microsoft sites”
I think this is really more a matter of opinion than anything else. I’ll agree that there needs to be some changes (what’s up with that serifed font on the 777 image? Ewww!!!!!), but throughout MSFT, various orgs have different looking sites.
“- The absence of Miscrosoft or MS in the URL”
Ummm… what about bungie.net (the makers of Halo) xbox.com (the makers of xbox 360), or ageofempires3.com (Makers of Age of Empires 3)? Heck, try typing “mactopia.com” in to your browser. It’ll redirect you, but *someone* got the name mactopia.com…
“- The inappropriate Terms of Use. They are actually an AGREEMENT for using MSN websites and include "You represent that you are at least 18 years of age and have attained the age of majority in the province, state or country in which you reside...". So no one under the age of majority should use it. Compare there with the Terms of Use for Microsoft's main Flight Simulator site that are far more appropriate”
Agreed, seems kinda weird to me too. I’ll look into it. I’ll try and post an answer in a few days.
“- The absence of any link to FSInsider from Microsoft's main Flight Simulator site
- The absence of almost any original content. Almost all the links are eventually the same as on Microsoft's main Flight Simulator site “
Well, I was pretty sure that the “official” site was supposed to redirect. There may be some (good?) reason it’s not. In any case, we’re in the process of carving the Insider site off of the “official” site, and to give it more of a real “Insider” feel. For a while you can expect some of the content to be identical (or nearly so). But you may have noticed that the last time the “official” FS 2004 site was updated was September…
“- The link to the shop run by eCompanyStore without any indication that you are beng transferred to a non-Microsoft site.”
Well, I’ve called out before that both bungie.net and xbox.com send you to a non MSFT site to handle merchandise POP. I’ll also point out that both of these sites don’t mention that they’re sending you to a non MSFT site, but they do pop up a window, which IMO is just tacky.
“Reasons to doubt the 777 Challenge are:
- It's now 19:45 GMT on the 3 November 2005 and yet nothing promised is yet available despite the deadline of 23:00 on 7 November”
Which points to the urgency in making sure we made the community aware that the whole shebang wasn’t quite fully baked… J
I’m going to skip over a bunch of other points which all pretty much just make the point mentioned above over and again; the whole shebang wasn’t quite fully baked.
“I suppose this could all be due to the Microsoft Flight Simulator Team's incompetence as some posts suggest. I do hope not!”
Umm… can I just point out that sometimes things don’t work exactly the way people expected them to? And also that, well… we’re not perfect…. J
But let me reiterate:
The FSInsider.com site is from ACES game studio. ACES is part of Microsoft Games Studio, which in turn is part of Microsoft Corporation. And we really work next to a coyote infested gravel pit.
Item #5
Again, staying with the Avsim forum theme, J giladhu is worried that blogs are from Microsoft, but are part of a calculated effort of misdirection and manipulation. Again, I think this worth speaking to, because I’m willing to bet a lot of other people think the same thing.
The thing is this, yes we are a part of Microsoft, and MSFT has embraced the idea of interacting with various constituents of its community of users. Of course, there are limitations: “Microsoft's Role: Microsoft does not offer formal support for the communities you'll find here. Instead, our role is to provide a platform for people who want to take advantage of the global community of Microsoft customers and product experts. Microsoft may monitor content to ensure the accuracy of the information you'll find, but any information provided by Microsoft staff is offered "AS IS" with no warranties, and no rights are conferred. You assume all risk for your use.”
Basically you will not (should not) find material here that’s considered truly “secret.” MSFT bloggers (not just ACES bloggers) speak for themselves, NOT for the corporation, and can be held to account for letting stuff slip or causing too much grief or trouble. We blog at our own risk, and do so because, for the most part, we are passionate about what we do for a living. Passionate people like to share that passion with others who are likeminded.
I’m proud of what I do, and what I’ve built. Do I make mistakes? Sure. We all do. Do I hope that a blogging effort will instill or generate a greater degree of trust with our customers? You bet your sweet bippy I do.
Am I fed what to say by Management ™?
Nope.
Item #6
And on a final note, as I cruised over to Simflight I saw that the October screenshot winners have been announced. (Scroll to bottom of page) Congrats to the winners! Looking forwards to November’s contest.