Scrybe: Silence and Server

Yesterday, many Scrybe users, including me, couldn’t see their data. We can now do so again. Here’s (some of) the activity from the Scrybe forums.

So the time between the problem being noted and its being fixed was about 24 hours. I don’t regard this as unacceptable for a free service a few months in to closed beta.

The bigger problem is once again lack of timely communication. This is particularly important for Scrybe given that it’s calendar data we’re talking about, and that there is a history of lack of communication.

So my criticism here isn’t about the 24 hours. It’s about the 15+ hours between the problem being noted and its being acknowledged. The Scrybe team had a chance to show that they really are serious about communication with their current beta users and with potential future users had they:

  • Communicated within an hour or two (i.e. ten times quicker than they actually did).
  • Made it clear that the problem was with a server, rather than with Scrybe, and that data were being restored from backup. This they actually did, albeit very late.
  • Communicated on the Scrybe blog, as well as in the forums. When I go to the blog right now, I see that Gartner considers Scrybe cool. That doesn’t help me cool down.

I continue to wish Scrybe well, but this doesn’t make it any easier. There is no shortage of rivals.

One thought on “Scrybe: Silence and Server”

  1. Andrew,

    you made several good points. I agree with them all. The question I have is, how many people are actually working on Scrybe? If it is just one person, I can see why the communications took so long. Other then that….

    Before they go live with their product I hope they will have posted to their site service level agreements.

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