Freebie Friday Has Been Superfudged!

Something tells me most of the freebies will fall under this category. But to be honest I'd rather the freebies be like that because if it's something worthwhile and I don't get to log in or forget to check the market I'd be p.o.'d.

If you're an Aussie or a European and log on Friday and find that you can't get your freebie because of time zone differences, you can still get it. Just wait a while and log on a little later. If you're an Aussie, you even have time to get up Saturday morning, lounge around a little while, have a vegemite sandwich, log on, and pick it up then.

If you're a North American and log on Friday and find that you can't get your freebie because of time zone differences, you're SOL because it's over.

And I don't have a problem with that. The issue is that that 24 hour window is explicitly called FRIDAY, which is inaccurate and confusing. To me, like probably to most people, FRIDAY sets the expectation that when I get home from work, I can log in and collect my freebie. That's simply not true, I have to do it THURSDAY, which is a different day altogether.

It's not a matter of having the three minutes. It's a matter of not knowing when those three minutes are. I agree with you that anyone complaining that they can't take three minutes out of a FRIDAY to log in is unjustified. I'd agree with you that anyone complaining that they can't take three minutes out of a THURSDAY to log in is unjustified.

But if I set aside three minutes on FRIDAY to log in to collect the Freebie FRIDAY goodie and find out that, oh, they meant THURSDAY and only part of FRIDAY that has already passed, I understand why they might be a bit sour even though technically, they haven't lost anything.

So it is in Paragon Studio' best interest to avoid sour feelings, no matter how unjustified you think they are, to:

1) Change the hours so that it doesn't matter what time zone you're in, you can get your freebie on Friday. That means enable it at 12:00 UTC on Thursday and disable it at 12:00 UTC on Saturday. Yes, that means that people get a 48-hour period instead of 24-hour. But they can only get one, so what difference does it make?

2) Change the name of the program so that it's not confusing people. Call it "Freebie Day" instead. If they had called it "Freebie Day" to start with, you'd probably still have some people who forget about it, but at least it puts the onus on them to figure out when exactly it is instead of naming it something that is easily assumed to be something it's not.

Both of these solutions are trivially easy to implement. Is someone missing out on a freebie the end of the world? Hell no, it's not. But if you could take literally three minutes to do something you have to do anyway and avoid any potential for confusion, why wouldn't you?

1.) Sorry Tony, but we already ask a lot out of our business and development teams. They work long hours during the week, wake up early to push Market updates and stay late to make sure everything is good to go. Right now we're not considering asking someone to basically schedule their weekends around updating something at 4 PM each Saturday. I worked weekends, and still do from time to time, for *many* years, and if asked to, I'm sure that the person responsible for this system would log in on Saturday and do it, but it's a matter of QOL, and here at Paragon, we strongly believe in keeping a good balance, whenever possible, between work and personal.

2.) Black Pebble loves alliteration. Besides, it's Friday somewhere!

In all seriousness, once the pilot program is complete, it's entirely possible that we'll rename it to something like "Free Offer of the Day" or "Weekly Freebie", but for now, let's just roll with it, k?

Thing-a-ma-bob Thursday!

If they make this a permanent thing, they'll probably automate it then.

Well...

Okay.

Hey, that's not bad. Maybe shorten it to just "Thingy Thursday".

I sure hope not, I'm still hoping for some more Hybrid changes.


But anyhow, I think the name is fine as is. Sure, it's not technically Friday for us US'ers when it begins, and it ends earlier on Friday than desired, but catchy names are cool.

I used to be one of those who enjoyed going above and beyond, until my employers began to expect it -- then 'going above and beyond' turned into 'what we expect of you anyway' and it stopped feeling special or even worthwhile.

Just my $0.02US.

--
Pauper

Wasteful Wednesday!

Thriftless Thursday!

Incidentally, the answer to this is really obvious. I'll do it!

Um... Wait... No, that's not it. (Although I would, I'm just imagining that it wouldn't go over very well if pitched.)

For a pilot, I can see why it's not automated. At some point, if it's decided that the program will be in place more permanently, it really needs to be. There's no reason someone should have to log in on Saturday to do something that's trivially easy for a script to do. Worst case scenario, the script doesn't work and the freebie thing lasts the entire weekend until someone logs in on Monday and kills it.

In fact, maybe that should be the scheme. Instead of Freebie Fridays, make it just a weekend giveaway. Someone sets the flag on Friday before leaving work, then they turn it off first thing Monday morning.

Anyway, like I said, it's no big deal. I'd rather get it on Thursday than not at all. These posts from me in this thread aren't "You guys really screwed up!" posts, they're more of a "Hey, keep this in mind if it becomes permanent" suggestion.

I understand, and I approve of the policy of treating employees like human beings. And I always appreciation alliteration, also. But I just got an email telling me about Freebie Friday, and there was nothing in that email to even hint at the fact that I would be too late if I logged in after work on Friday.

I'm ok with getting the freebie on Thursday, I really am. I'm just sorry that you're going to get so much negative feedback for something that could have been avoided so easily. All of those people who don't read the forums, who only know about the freebie because of the email, they're going to think that it will be available all day Friday. And, depending on their time zone, they may very well be wrong. And they'll blame you.

Marketing Munificence.

Schedule someone to talk to your development partner and fix the situation. During normal business hours.