Zipabox in general / Changelog / Variables / Beta Functions

@Sebastian Popovic

First of all I´d like to thank you and our team for commitment. I really see a lot of problems being resolved and there is quite some progress visible.

But there are three problems that drive me mad sometimes and they could be solved easily and provide a much better user experience:

1. We all know, that we are in beta status. Let´s take the "repeat" tile. There has been quite some discussion about it. My question: Why don´t you just mark such a tile (or whatever function is concerned) as "beta" as long as there are serios concerns about the use of it? (not together with join, not working the first time). I spent hours with the repeat rule. Just knowing, that there are some problems would have prevented me from using it until the problem is solved (and it would have saved me quite some hours, searching for a fault I could never find). I think with a policy of advertising functions, which doesn´t work from the beginning, you

might loose some customers (as can be seen in some recensions on amazon)

2. There really should be a changelog for beta versions. At least a place to look up, which beta is the latest. I always read through all topics to find someone, complaining about a beta version, than wait some time before updating, not knowing, which beta I get then. If it is to much work to maintain a changelog, couldn´t you just publish a list which betas are out and when they´ve been published? And it would be even better if we could select, which beta we would like to install (for a crosscheck if there are problems with a new beta; I´me quite sure, that is exactly what your stuff does in case of problems).

3. I think the box is quite cheap for what it does, even with an upgrade to "pro" (which I haven´t bought yet because right now I don´t need most of the pro features, I´ve got no thermostat, no camera, no crosszoning and no cluster ). And I also fully understand, that you aim for two groups: Average users and pros. But I do not understand, why just looking at variables is a pro feature. For troubleshooting its often necessary to see variables, especially for inexperienced users. In my opinion that should be a basic feature. (even sending variables in a message can be archived by creating a very long rule (If var=0 send message "Var=0", If var=1 send message "Var=1"....If var=n send message "Var=n") but it destroys the otherwise fine user experience. I think that would also take some pressure from your support and help users to describe their problems more clearly. Or perhaps you could think of reintroducing a cheaper package for a third group of users (intermediate)?

Those are just my two cents

Klaus