In the past, new features tended to be announced on this forum (often by @Timo-Martosatiman-MRA). There’s even a special section for it - it’s called ‘Announcements’!
This one has been foisted on customers unannounced. I don’t recall a single request or suggestion for such a feature and I haven’t seen any positive reaction to it at all. I know people are often more inclined to complain than to praise, but that has tended not to be the case on this forum in my experience, with plenty of enthusiastic feedback to features announced, in the relevant place, and introduced thoughtfully.
It seems that MRA has undergone some changes and, in the process has acquired the kind of arrogance displayed by huge corporate players such as Apple, Google and Nike and is no longer responsive to customers, or even listening to them. Those huge organisations have got away with it having created such a strong brand that many see them as indispensable - often for quite misguided reasons such as snobbery, perceived image and ‘lifestyle statements’, exaggerated marketing claims (now there’s MRA all over) and broad abandonment of critical faculties among consumers. Yet MRA is a tiny fish in a huge ocean, and while such arrogance is never good, for small, developing companies to display it is suicidal. Particularly for one that continues to claim that it does listen. MRA is not even a brand yet. It certainly is not indispensable - even for the poorest of reasons and, as that small fish, it is very vulnerable to ‘predators’ and to being ousted from its tiny niche.
My question is, who are the management and owners of MRA listening to now? Not it’s forum acolytes, who continue to seek to justify such moves as this invasive and childish ‘development’, that seems clear. Is there some new, influential person or team calling the shots, perhaps? That’s conjecture of course, but to me this development smacks of sudden undue and misguided influence bouncing around like Tigger.
MRA not seeing the problem with this introduction is symptomatic of a wider issue - that they no longer see any customer issues, needs, suggestions and requests as their problem. And that really is a problem… For their business, not me. I vote with my feet…
It all seems that MRA does not have a community manager anymore, and the RouteXperts now sort of need to fill that gap. We all have seen Hans and Nick reporting stuff to the developers. Imho that's the job of the so-called forum moderators.
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Reinhard-32