5 Months Behind the Times on Activation Issue

In a prior posting, "p8mode" expressed an opinion regarding the activation scheme in PS CS. This led to a few replies that culminated with Len setting the topic to read-only, on which I’d like to make a comment:

Len, true enough, opinions regarding the activation process have been discussed time and again in here, but I personally feel this forum is an appropriate place to do so, whether at day 1 or 180 following Photoshop’s release. Please keep in mind that while many of us have now been using Photoshop CS for a while, there are also those who may only now be considering the purchase of PSCS or actually doing so. So, what topics may seem "old news" that one or several may be tired of seeing, they may well be current new for others, and still deserving of a place to express and exchange opinions. Such opinions could also be relegated to the Photoshop Lounge, but I think the main forum is still the better place since I would guess it has more visibility among the Adobe employees.

Personally, I don’t like activation, particularly when flaws in the process are not quickly rememdied as is true with Photoshop CS. But, I understand the need for activation as an effort to help thwart piracy and I think it is fairly effective at meeting that objective. I tend to think that activation is here to stay, for better or worse. The only way that I feel such schemes will gain increasing acceptance by customers, is by providing them an option to voice their opinions where they are heard and hopefully acted upon, so as to improve the process until it becomes as transparent and painless to use as possible. Technically speaking, this is a public forum, so one might not feel 100% reassured that Adobe pays attention to the comments posted here, but I think they do.

Overall, I think you’re doing a fine job with moderating the forum, but I do encourage you to not be quite so quick to slap an R/O sticker on a thread just because you’re tired of seeing the topic. By an analogy, I’m sure many of us tire of seeing the questions about the problematic CTRL key operations, yet those topics are left open for whoever cares to reply. Topics on problems should be left open for others to contribute to, and they usually are, even when the answer is always the same. Similarly, topics on customer issues with the software should be left open so that others may contribute to the discussion. You seem to be a pretty good judge of when the discussion is running on too long and just becoming a constant rehash of the same opinions or of needless Adobe-bashing, but I think cutting things off at 5 or 6 posts is just being a bit too quick.

Cheers,

Daryl