You all may not like it, may not understand it, but beta is beta. What difference does it make weather it did or did not say public? It was online, with anyone able to use it, what else would it be but public?
Wouldn't the best thing (and I am not trying to be a smart a** lol) be to not use it if bothers you? Wait till it no longer says beta. I don't mind playing with it, but others may not, that is fair.
The first issue ... public isn't necessarily the case ... look at our recent HBO GO / Cinmax Go sites ... everyone could go there.. but no one could get in without using the specially crafted URL that enabled Dish users ... before having the special url ... you'd go there, and dish would not be listed as a carrier ... you'd be told "adding carriers all the time.. if not listed now.. etc"
At issue .. is that it doesn't tell you in the initial notice, which they force upon a user *everytime* they try to go to DRA .. that the DO site is beta .. you'd have to get DO in front of you and *not* already logged in, to be told its still in beta and that at this time its pubilc beta.
Any average user going to DRA .. gets that popup .. without being told there its beta... doesn't know till they get to DO .. and at that point.. if they don't want to use a beta site they've got to go back to Dish, reselect DRA, re-sign in ... just to get the same prompt again and this time choose DRA. If they included beta warning there.. I'd naturally *not* choose it when I want DRA. *and would prefer they put a "don't show me again for a week" or something so that I could disable that message for a week or more.. or until DO is out of beta!
I had a "situation" yesterday where DO was working, while DRA was not (variety of connecting errors). I'm happy that we have both for now. But what would really rule is a standalone player for the Sling feature. Then both websites could crump and we'd still be in business.
Unfortunately.. I don't see DISH ever going back to allow you access to your content your way without having the access rights verified by them. (part of the purpose of requiring internet connectivity DRM)
I'm pretty sure Scott had a thread about when Dishonline.com was up and running and was in public beta.
So are you saying that you can not use DRA at all anymore and have to use Dishonline or are they transitioning over to Dishonline. I'm thinking they are transitioning it over. I think the new website is pretty awesome. Obviously it's not running perfectly because it's in beta. No reason to get upset, if you see problems let Dish know so they can fix them and improve the site.
Of issues .. 1) Scott shouldn't have to issue statements for Dish .. dish should be doing it for themselves.. 2) people also shouldn't have need to go outside dish's group of websites/web presence to get support for "Dish" products.. until last week, dish didn't even officially take over DishSupport.com ... nor did dish really have a presense except on non-dish owned intelectual property.. (twitter is not being included in "presense" for the case of support)
Please (all) understand Dish IRT is cool.. a
great bunch of folks, doing their best.. but why did they have to exist outside dish?
... Because dish didn't get it then.. and I strongly suspect they still aren't getting.. but that they are throwing stop-gap measures trying to get ahead of problems when they should have solved the problems rather than just covering them here and there. Basically they are trying to appease the ones that could do the most harm.. ie.. the internet people who could vastly change dish's appearance publically.
And lastly.. (primarily for) Scherrman .. you're probably one in that group that likes the mesh (whups almost Freudian slip "mess" for mesh) .... likes the mesh of your content types.. I'm more the separate but equal types..
one of my bigger gripes ... I have a 2 minute snippet of Jimmy Kimmel ... its his announcment for his apple app with some blonde bombshell with an iq of 3 next to him its kinda funny..
anyway.. so I renamed it on my DVR "Jimmy K app ad" Dish Remote Access .. when I access DRA .. there it is.. named as it is on my DVR ... but Dish Online ... nope.. they display only the *ORIGINAL* name for the item .. and whats worse.. when I click on "Jimmy Kimel Live" in the list from "View DVR" which is just my content ... it doesn't take me just to *that* 2 minute video.. no no.. it now puts every hulu-ized item it can in there, grabs info about Jimmy, etc.. and if I were to simply hit the big ass PLAY button in front of me.. what plays? Certainly not *MY* content.. but a Hulu maintained 60 minute episode of J.K.Live!
I followed my content from *my* dvr.. and now I've got Hulu content playing because "they" mixed everything together.. hateful spiteful experience.
I won't deny you your like of having it that way.. I can certainly understand it, and its nice to be able to get easy access to *additional* content ... but I should have the option to not be bombared by everything else but my own content ... seeing as how I started from *my* content.
It would be *very* easy for them to give users the choice to mix or not .. to have this extra content accessed *below* my current DVR item, and on tabs... look at how the tabs work now for Dish Remote Access .. once you have a video playing.. the "Grid" "today" tomorrow" "My DVR" tabs go below the view area of the screen So simple there to add a tab "Related Content" ... or "Online Content" etc..
Much like my food.. I want my mashed taters, corn, applesauce and chicken in seperate spots on my plate.. should *I* decide to mix them... more than happy to accept that ... but when I put my fork down .. and I've got applesauce in my mash when I didn't put it or want it.. I'm pissed, and the experience with the Jimmy Kimmel clip above.. tells me that the months I've spent complaining about how they are grouping and displaying content from My DVR incorrectly, has yet to be addressed ... or its being ignored because they don't care.. and that's even IF the suggestion boxes are monitored.
