Alistair Michener

Founder @Drawboard. Building collaborative drawing and document markup

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@NotionHQ how can I remove paid seats? I have lots more paid seats than active seats, so it's costing me a lot. There's no way to find out and no support. So now I'm reduced to asking publicly on X

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard ..it stood when they purchased in 2013->2019, the app wouldn't work in today's env or be broken in some way. We have a model where we only have one current version. If we all the above were different we would have sold the app for much more than $10.

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard I'll try my best to explain the nuances, but over X is hard. First, we never had that model of milestone releases (where updates stop and you need to buy the next milestone release). Secondly, software breaks. In July 2017 it was Windows 10. If people downloaded the app as...

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard Thanks Dave, glad to hear your support (truly, no sarcasm). As a user, I empathise. But from my experience now on the dev side, it's not so simple. If someone pays for software 10 years ago, expecting to retain exactly the same is not workable. I'll elaborate if needed

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard We are on a journey to generate enough revenue from commercial users to make the basic free for personal users. Not quite there yet.

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard The only way I know licenses disppeared back then is because either (1) the account you use in the Microsoft Store changed, or (2) there was a bug with Microsoft Store.
I get that the needs are simple, but we still need to make a crust.

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard I can evaluate this - some things like this are difficult because of the MS frameworks we use, but I can take a look. To be clear - if I drop multiple JPGs while on the document list/dashboard it will open them as tabs. If I drop them while in a document they drop as annotations?

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard Secondly - happy to take on more itemised feedback. Some of them we might already be working on. Some might be good ideas. Some might not work. I'll try my best to respond to them

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard Happy to take the feedback on Dave. Firstly, we announced a Legacy program for once off purchases if you want to take advantage of downloading the app as it was in 2020 before some of our major changes. Or to get a 'Pro Legacy' license - https://t.co/lbyOrMmjc3

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard Ideally we'll make better delineation between tiers but we're on the journey to driving enough revenue in some of the top tiers to make this happen. I get this might not make sense to the end user as we go through the journey, but it's necessary without knowing all the details

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@eevblog @drawboard Still doesn't clarify which one I'm asking about - is the JPG as an annotation on an existing document (i.e. an annotation), or to become a document? Both can be drawn on.

Thanks for the feedback on pricing. It's hard balancing pricing to match development to revenue

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@C3DK_COM @Bluebeam Drawboard. Happy to get someone to help you to take a look

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@shadenfrau @brianthehuman Great to hear Jonnie. Let me know if you'd like a hand to make Drawboard PDF more successful at your office!

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@shadenfrau @brianthehuman We are making it work better and better for PCs (mouse and keyboard). I'd love to hear any feedback on how you think we need to achieve this even more?

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

https://t.co/KmlrLxZXCo

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@Guerrerotook @drawboard But subscriptions are the only way to grow a professional team. The transition is always going to be painful. Especially when you need to get the balance right on features for subscriptions, in an app store world.

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@Guerrerotook @drawboard You're free to, and I'm responding. I can't respond to the 100s/1000s of reviews and critiques in the last week.

I'll tell you though - starting a tech biz in your garage and starting selling it fo $10 per copy is the only way to get going

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@Guerrerotook @drawboard I know full well what the reviews are currently saying. Doesn't make it right

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@Guerrerotook @drawboard Paying 10€ 8 years ago.. you are still way out ahead - you've got so many valuable updates and the app, despite recent changes is streets ahead of what it was in 2015

[Alistair Michener @almichener]

@Guerrerotook @drawboard The product is so different to what it was in 2015 when you bought it. It's so much better. You can still use it and use it very well. We need to get the balance right for the investment we put into it, by getting enough subscribers vs. non-subscribers.