Anniversary bash

After a decade of gripes, is it time to be a bit more positive?

I’m taking a break from fielding gripes to mark the 10^th anniversary of The Gripe Line. Yes, believe it or not, it’s been 10 years since I first hung my Gripemeister shingle. Time sure flies when you’re having fun. So it seems like a good time to reflect a moment on changes The Gripe Line has seen these past 10 years, and perhaps ponder how we might want to change it in the future.

One thing has never changed: InfoWorld readers sure have a lot to complain about. The Gripe Line was conceived in a meeting InfoWorld editors had with a group of influential IT managers. All of us from InfoWorld were stunned to hear the problems even these big-budget customers were constantly having with the product vendors. That’s when I decided to devote my editorial space to airing some of those problems.

While some of the names of the vendors we talk about have certainly changed over the years, they haven’t changed as much as you might expect. There has always been a handful of companies that I could write about every week, just because I get such a heavy volume of different complaints about them. Intuit has been at the top of that list pretty much from day one, as has Network Solutions, although now we have to call it VeriSign. And between Network Associates and Symantec, I could write about the anti-virus space every week as well.

Of course, Microsoft is the now biggest gripe-generating machine of all, but the funny thing is, it didn’t used to be. For about the first five years or so, I heard a lot of noise from the Microsoft-bashers, but little of it represented the kind of specific issues we try to deal with here. Although Microsoft came up occasionally, mostly with regard to support topics, it by no means dominated The Gripe Line. Nowadays, any time I download my Gripe e-mail I can expect to find one or two meaty items about what they’re up to in Redmond . Why the change? I don’t know.

A few companies that used to keep The Gripe Line busy, such as Gateway and Iomega, no longer produce an unusual number of complaints. Gateway was off the charts for the first few years with all the problems it was having with support and customer service. Gateway eventually improved and became roughly even with other major brands, but that was made possible in part by the recent deterioration of service and support from Dell and HP/Compaq. No mystery, though, as to why this is the case. When manufacturers want to cut costs, support is the first thing to go.

If the names have changed a little, the issues readers are complaining about have changed a lot. Bad support was by far the most common topic in the early years, but now it’s just one of many. The emergence of the Internet meant InfoWorld readers would have to deal with a whole new set of problems. So spam, spyware, domain-name ripoffs, online marketing scams, ISP comings and goings, and many other subjects began to make frequent appearances.

Then, of course, there’s the whole range of subject matter I refer to as sneakwrap licensing. Little did I know 10 years ago that I’d wind up so familiar with the ins and outs of software maintenance contracts, clickwrap licenses, SLAs, evergreen clauses, etc. I would not have thought it possible that I’d ever be writing in InfoWorld about threats to the First Amendment or fair use. Nor would I have imagined that 10 years later I’d be addressing a column to delegates of an American Bar Association meeting about something called UCITA. It’s good thing, too, because had I foreseen how deeply I would have to delve into legal matters, I might very well have decided the whole Gripe Line idea was a bad one.

On sum, though, Gripe was a good idea. If readers have led me down some strange paths, at least I’ve had good company. And because a few readers recently suggested a slight change in course, let me elicit your opinion on where we go from here. (When it comes to reader feedback, by the way, one thing about The Gripe Line that has changed dramatically is the speed of response to the e-mail newsletter version of my column. I would encourage all regular readers to sign up for it at www.infoworld.com   .)

Some readers are of the opinion that the Gripe Line doesn’t have to be only about the bad stuff. Instead of focusing on the negative experiences readers have with vendors, why not also report on the companies that seem to be doing things right? Perhaps, they suggest, we could consider renaming the column while we’re about it, because The Gripe Line doesn’t reflect everything we do.

Well, OKI want to keep an open mind on this, so let’s consider it. I will say, however, that this isn’t the first time the idea has been raised. Long-time readers may remember that previous attempts to look at the good as well as the bad pretty much fell flat. There’s never a shortage of gripes, but warm and fuzzy tales are in short supply. Ultimately, this column is reader-driven, and I can’t talk about positive things if that’s not what I’m hearing from the readers.

Drop me a line and let me know what changes you think should be made. I’m more than willing to keep on going where readers lead me. Even after 10 years of griping, I’m not one to complain.