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Props for Our Advocates

One of the most powerful resources our company has is our community of Advocates. These are the people who voluntarily choose to help test CrossOver and then share their knowledge with other CrossOver users. They write the Tips & Tricks. They post on the Forums. Often, they find ways to get applications running when we simply don't have the time. In short, they are absolutely critical to the success of our Compatibility Center, which is one of our most valuable resources. As such, I'm pleased to announce that we've made a major set of changes in our Advocate program.

Some of these new features are modest tuneups our advocates have asked for, like being able to vote more than once, being able to easily advocate more applications, and having advocate ranks be more meaningful. However, the really fun stuff revolves around morphing our Compatibility Center into the MMO 'World of Compatibility' 😊. No, this was not some sick idea of our World of Warcraft-addicted COO. Well, maybe it was. But whatever its genesis, we've built a whole system for recognizing our Advocates and their contributions. Because now, when Advocates help others by posting, or submitting beta reports, or just by being upstanding CodeWeavers citizens, they earn Experience Points that let them gain 'ranks' and show off to the world just how cool and helpful they are.

As part of this effort, we've gone back and combed through the forum posts and beta reports that our Advocates have made down through the years, and awarded XP based on prior performance. So, not all Advocates will start at ground zero; we appreciate these folks' past efforts too much for that. Thus far, the highest ranked Advocates on our 'realm' are the redoubtable Andrew Skinner, and the enigmatically named Mensch. Both have been duly accorded the rank of Raging Atomic Dragon Turbo Chief Senior Advocate. But even higher ranks await, and no doubt others will rise to seek their destiny. And if we find that we have to scramble and invent some new ranks; hey, we can make that happen. Jon, our COO, lives to make new icons.

Anyway, we hope that this will be seen as a fun way to thank and recognize our Advocates. I have to say I'm particularly proud of this change. We took a problem - how to detect and handle Advocates that weren't really living up to their end of the bargain - and turned it on its head by making it a positive for the folks who really help us. Not only that, but it was fun for Jeremy Newman, Jon Parshall, and our team of elite Support Ninjas to dream up a way to implement all of this. So, to all of our Advocates - thanks! You have our deepest gratitude, and hopefully a fun way to see how important you are to us.

Now we just have to start figuring out appropriate rewards for uber-high XP earners... 😊

Cheers,
Jeremy

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Well you can always name releases after them. Like ububntu 9.4 is Jaunty Jack...(how's that spelled anyway). You can make CW CX L 8 "Skinner" or if that's just too confusing name beta releases after them. It's kinda funny and silly.

Or you could allow them to upload their own avatars.

Or make a new avatar for them or unique icon.

Or you could get them that buzzing thing they give out in restaurants that buzzes whenever there is a new beta out and their abilities are required. Hey, it beats getting a zenon light, and praying for clouds so you can send out the signal. :)

Wow, I'm a sucker for RPGs, so I really like the shiny new ranking system. As Raging Atomic Dragon Turbo Chief Senior Advocate (I've recently become a Supreme Atomic Dragon, teehee!) I'm quite exited by being called "enigmatic". I should remember to fill out my full account details when creating a profile. 😉

mensch wrote:

Wow, I'm a sucker for RPGs, so I really like the shiny new ranking
system. As Raging Atomic Dragon Turbo Chief Senior Advocate (I've
recently become a Supreme Atomic Dragon, teehee!) I'm quite exited
by being called "enigmatic". I should remember to fill out my full
account details when creating a profile. 😉

Cool! Glad you like it. Now let's see, if we were going to name a release after an advocate,
would it be "CrossOver 8, the Mensch Edition", or "CrossOver Mensch", or... 😊

Cheers,

Jeremy

I really like the changes you've made and it's fun to see your rank: Suddenly I became Turbo Chief Senior Advocate :D.

Now let's get some more points!

hi, I think the new advocate ranks are a nice touch.
In general I'm willing to do much more testing then I do currently, there's just one problem with that: Now adays, especially now that I use os x much more often then linux (or windows for that matter ofc) there are no apps I'd like to use that require windows. The last one was picasa, which now is available as a real mac app. If I had a mac with a really good graphics card I might use it for game, but currently that is not possible. So, some specific legacy stuff to test that I might have a license for, or something newer you don't need a special license for, would be very nice to know about, cause I'd really like to help testing, the question is just what?

I think it's a great idea; as I'm sure you expect it really should (hopefully) increase advocate input, at least from some of us... :)

(not only) Gamers love competition. lol

I just love having another chance to thank you guys for your seemingly unrestrained effort at improving the product.

You do it in such a fashion that allows you to feed FOSS so strongly. :)

Yet you are in the business of making money so you can eat, clothe your children & pay your mortgages.

Your business really is a very fine example of the intersection of dichotomies which my simple mind continues to find very interesting.

Thanks again team. :D

David. wrote:

Well you can always name releases after them. Like ububntu 9.4 is
Jaunty Jack...(how's that spelled anyway). You can make CW CX L 8
"Skinner" or if that's just too confusing name beta releases after
them. It's kinda funny and silly.

Or you could allow them to upload their own avatars.

Or make a new avatar for them or unique icon.

Or you could get them that buzzing thing they give out in
restaurants that buzzes whenever there is a new beta out and their
abilities are required. Hey, it beats getting a zenon light, and
praying for clouds so you can send out the signal. :)

lol, this is a great idea whoever came up with it, its just too bad im a late comer. oh well, at least im not only helping the community by spamming the forums :P but im also learning heaps while doing it.

i only wish i knew how to compile wine into the crossover directory so that i can forward compatibility test some things, or make patches for up coming releases.
still im only new here. lots to learn

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