Will it get Better?

Continuing the discussion from [RELEASE] Rule Machine:

I don’t think we need to make a 3400 post thread any longer than it needs to be… But I just wanted to add that there are more than two users you mentioned active in the forums. I’ve only been following the forums for about a year and it seems to me that there are still many active members of ST answering questions and making statements.

I see it as a double sided sword. Many of them get scolded for mis-speaking when they merely are trying to help and be active, but at the same time we scold them for not speaking enough!

Change is slow though, and to me it does seem like they are trying to create more stability in the system. But it’s sooooo slowwww !

I ran a veralite for 2 years stability was extremely strong. If vera had native Harmony and Alexa integration, more zigbee support, and a nice app like st I would probably switch tomorrow (as I already have their newest hub) But that’s a heck of a lot of asks!!

I really do like ST, and there currently are a lot of negatives in the forum, but IMHO I don’t think that the ST presence in the forums is one of the problems right now.

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Yup. Its a damned if you do, damned it you don’t situation for them because we like to type big missives behind our computer screens fast and furious.

Don’t tell us unless ready!

Screw you! Tell us every step of the way!

How dare you be incorrect and switch the way its going to be implemented!

How dare you not tell us your plans!

We seed our own poison in here sometimes.

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@schapper05,
I agree, there are more company members here, but those two stand out in my travels around the forum.

I slash agree that it’s a double edged sword for them and the customer is never happy. All part of the paycheck.

There are many that come on this forum and act as keyboard hero’s, they will say anything.

I’m not one of those. I’m happy to back up what I say and I’m more than happy to have intelligent conversation about anything.

To reflect upon the title of this thread…

IMHO, yes. Not only will it get better, but it had been improving. Just look at the app . The latest update was leaps and bounds forward. Now if we could just get it to work, awesome!

The stability issues are all over the place. My system runs perfect four weeks at a time. To the point that I stop monitoring it constantly. And then BOOM! Total China syndrome!

But I’m ok with that. I know the potential and I know the bugs will get worked out, in time.

I also know from experience that things don’t change unless the users demand it.

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well - I am not sure if they had a perfectly documented SDK as well as a little more exposure on their backend if certain things couldnt be cured or perfectly identified by the community itself - but it seems there is little willingness to doing so - see the various threads on exposing the available icons alone …

generally speaking I cant really compare many solutions as majority of them seem to be quite locked down - see HUE as an example there is very little that you actually can do with it - ST however has a big community, that drives solutions forward and the support with regards of integration is probably exceeding what Samsung ST can provide as due to how they did go to market and opened certain channels potentially grew much quicker than expected.

I posted a question on the HUE developer forum which until today is still unanswered as it seems its a community supported forum provided by the HUE team but not actively monitored and even less engaged … I agree on here the few representatives would have a difficult task monitoring everything as I cant even keep up …

with regards to support and product issues - my day job is matrix driven - so if 1000 users complain on a forum rather than logging a support issue - this doesnt get visibility - I think people just want to have assured that what they are seeing is actually an issue and not something they are experiencing themselves only - with little option to troubleshoot this is mainly guess work …

I as an example tried to apply SSL decryption to get some more visibility …

I would think that currently the issues are resulting from: interest in people to get certain devices supported, lack of documentation or openness how these devices generally work which restricts people from writing the right code from start rather than guessing and potentially causing issues with it - lack of compliance from different vendors adhering to the published standards, lack of troubleshooting tools etc etc and the shear volume of devices appearing in the HA market

today you cant say: this is what I want and put a simple bill of material together as you cant tell for sure that everything you want will actually work OR you end up with 25% of what you actually want to achieve … this is potentially the most dissatisfying issue

platform stability - well happens, QA takes a lot of time and if people use whatever devices you dont “officially” support you sometimes could have affects that are unpredictable OR if people use things the wrong way - eg here the scheduler causing issues but the associated use-case doesnt really allow longer polling times …

I think ST is a good platform but the limiting factors are sometimes external as previously mentioned …

No question there are many possible reasons for failure.

But I hVe one official routine that does nothing but change the mode every day at the same time and it still fails several times a month.

No devices involved at all, no custom code.

The company knows their scheduler had problems, they’ve announced it’s being completely replaced and beta testing is planned to start in a few weeks.

so a number of the problems have nothing to do with any external issues. Hopefully the new scheduler will improve reliability.

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Honestly, I thought the Samsung money would help bring in more development and stabilize the platform, and all I have seen so far is the same lack of resources and the same instability as 18 months ago when I first started messing around with SmartThings. We get the same not-ready-for-primetime platform being extended across more devices now (Samsung TVs), so progress, I guess? :confused:

The word of a new from-scratch scheduler is promising though. (I don’t read the forums closely enough to have known that yet.) It’s been months since anything related to time has triggered properly in my system.

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Amen brother well said. These recent ST issues (DST, Device Refresh, Schedules not Firing, etc) are driving me crazy😜

Tell me about it! I have motion lights that should schedule a turn off in the api. When I finally get it refreshed and showing a “Future” schedule it then stops turning on the lights!

I am experiencing an almost 90% failure rate today!

Such a disappointment after almost 6 weeks of almost perfect operation!

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@bamarayne I am pretty much liquidating everything ST except for my hues and echo’s! Sad day for me! I luv ST but well it’s the time for call me quits!

Do you mean ST branded things? Or did that include the Zwave stuff too?

Everything but hues and echo!

@smart

Feel your pain. I’ve been removing items and reducing functionality for some time. I haven’t sold my hub yet, just waiting in a holding pattern so to speak. I keep hoping SmartThings gets over that proverbial hump but it seems elusive.

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Man, I hate to see you go…
Send me a pm if you think I might be interested in something.

Naah! I don’t want to say it’s because of ST. I like them and not switching. It has been stable for me for weeks. But my health doesn’t permit me to go with these glitches.Will ping you tomorrow.

I hope things begin to look up for you and you start feeling better. Good luck.

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Hate to see you go Ron, this could be the beginning of the end of this roller coaster. I have learned a lot reading your posts and help. I got sucked into ST from SC for the local processing. I have given away my Casitas. I too have one foot out the door and waiting on my Plus. I really don’t need Zigbee since my Hue bridge handles the bulbs I have, everything else is Z-wave. I think Vera has a handle on that.

Best wishes to your future and health!

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Will not leave but just downsizing! :wink: And thanks!

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