The lack of ASP.NET 2.0 support is not grave (although it is annoying); more importantly, there are lots of small pent-up bugs and wish-list items and also general desire to have more features and see this product move forward.

Question:  Is there a future for this product?  How about a realistic answer?   If we have to migrate to a different vendor/different product, I need to start planning for that and I certainly would prefer not to abandon InstantKB, but OTOH can't wait forever and there's been no guidance here at all to help shape our decision.

Hi Robert,

I'm sorry about the delay. We're working on InstantKB2.0. We don't have any release date yet, though we will probably release a beta version towrads the end of this year. 

How firm is the commitment to release a beta in the next few months?  Since we haven't seen anything in over two years and most dates here in the past have been woefully lax in being met, do you see this being realistic or is Spring 2007 more likely?

In terms of features and enhancements, I realize nothing is firm until the code is almost released, but do you have a roadmap of intended features/enhancements or even just features under consideration that you can share?

We need some visibility.  The only thing worse than waiting for Godot is not knowing what we are waiting for....

Welcome to the club! I now see it was a big mistake to invest my staff's time in InstantKB. As much as I like many aspects of the product I am convinced it has no future. It really annoys me that when I was making a KB decision in Nov 2005 I received personal emails assuring me that InstantKB was being developed and was delayed due InstantForum development.

Following this saga for almost a year now it boggles my mind how InstantASP treats customers who WANT to stay with their product but just need some information to be able to plan. All we've been getting for well over a year is "we're working on it" along with a road map with no foundation in reality. Don't they see that we can make decisions in a vacuum and are therefore are forced to look elsewhere. My recommendation is to start looking. I've already made the decision to switch.

My last post on this topic (http://support.instantasp.com/FindPost11560.aspx) pleaded for transparency and promised to put my money where my mouth is but even this did not merit so much as a reply. Given the way InstantASP is handling questions about InstantKB's future I think the only rational conclusion is that the product is orphaned. I hate to say it, but I also have no choice but to conclude they don't want to officially announce this lest they lose sales and/or maintenance renewals. 

Currently I'm leaning toward Absolute FAQ Manager by Xigla (http://www.xigla.com/absolutefmnet/index.htm) but haven't had time to do more than look at some online demos. I also need to do some more research on Xigla as I don't want to be in the same boat a year from now.

Anybody else have any suggestions or products they plan to look at?

As you say, devoted customers can tolerate a lot, but being left in the dark isn't going to keep our loyalty.

I hadn't mentioned other products until now because I did want to see how InstantASP responds.  Give the time elapsed since my first post, I too have decided to move on.

Xigla FAQ is my first choice right now.  We started using Xigla ALS (Absolute Live Support) as our "online help / real-time chat system" and I have been very happy with them.  We started with the ASP.NET 1.1 version and they already upgraded it a while ago to ASP.NET 2.0

Their UI is clean and the product is solid. We've never had a crash or any problem with it.  Although Xigla FAQ integrates with ALS, that isn't a main requirement for us (the integration is just a button that operators can use to launch the FAQ easier.)

The price is right, $169.  Probably like most folks, we can tolerate anything up to $500 without a huge decision process, it's the investment in time to convert to a new system and the reload data, etc. that is the real cost.

I am attracted to Xigla FAQ because the end-user interface is simpler - the screen is less busy and less intimidating. Our users are not computer experts find the InstantKB screen to be too 'busy' and they are confused and don't know where to click.  Also, the support in creating articles with inline graphics, multimedia, and attachments seems to cover everything we need.

Anyhow, as a result of browsing this forum Joe sent an email addressing his concerns. Surprisingly, he got a detailed response from Ryan which he forwarded to me. Ryan's response is both encouraging and a slap in the face at the same time. If prospective customers merit the 15 minutes it took him to write the response, why can't he post a weekly or even monthly short HONEST update about the status of InstantKB 2.0? Again, I like InstantKB 1.3 and could live with it for a while longer if I had confidence in InstantASP. Their customer relations are baffling, truly baffling

Below is the response which Ryan sent to Joe. In it he seems to think that a 2.0 which "blows everyone away" will solve all. He just doesn't get it. It is not the delays that are the main issue, rather it is the lack of honest communication that is so frustrating. He obviously made a mistake in his April 2005 post announcing InstantKB 2.0 with a wildly optimistic timetable. We all make mistakes. I'm in IT, I know what it's like to work 80 hours in a week and still leave 40 hours of important work undone! I myself tend to be too optimistic and constantly have to check my tendency to promise more than I can deliver. Ryan made a mistake, so what! It would be a non-issue if a year ago Ryan leveled with us, admitted that his timetable was wildly optimistic, and gave us an honest assessment of the state of InstantKB 2.0. Instead, he's compounded his initial mistake over and over by either ignoring us or giving vague meaningless assurances.

OK, I'll stop. I'm ranting because I really like InstantKB and don't want to switch and thus am incredibly frustrated by InstantASP's handling of this.

Ryan's email did not ask to keep anything in the email confidential so I don't think it is wrong to post here. I've also attached the screen shot he sent of InstantKB 2.0.

From Ryan to Joe:

Hi Joe,

Many thanks for your email. I can certainly appreicate your apprehension.

Unfortunately we've experienced several delays with InstantKB.NET v2.0.These delays have really been due to feature creep and integration issuesbetween InstantKB.NET v2.0, InstantForum.NET. We are working towards ashared authentication model and integration between our software and as suchwe've had to develop both products at alongside each other which hascontributed to further delays.

I can tell you InstantKB.NET v2.0 is our highest priority and we are workingto make this available as soon as possible. We've learnt some hard lessonsfrom providing dates previously however we have now finalized the featureset and certain areas such as article work-flow, admin/staff permissions,tickets and shared authentication. As items are finalized we just need toimplement the code. I'm aiming for a public beta within the next 2-3 months.

I've attached a brief screen grab of InstantKB.NET v2.0 in it's currentstate. Please remember this is still in development and the interface willbe more complete upon release. This will hopefully assure you we are workingon this release and will certainly make it available once everything is inplace and tested.

We are sincerely sorry for the long delay with this release and we've learntsome hard lessons. We will ensure these type of delays don't happen again.We are very much looking forward to making InstantKB.NET v2.0 available ASAPhowever I just want to ensure it's right, fulfils all the requirements we'vegathered over the previous year and most of all blows everyone away

I hope this helps and provides a little assurance. Please don't hesitate tocontact me if you have any further questions.

Kindest Regards,

Ryan Healey
InstantASP Ltd - ASP.NET
Collaboration & Support Tools

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