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41. The Lotus Notes Workspace
Suck Synopsis:
(Lots of complaints here, you may want to read it for yourself. The short version is that the Workspace is not intuitive.)

My Rebuttal:
The Workspace is a necessary evil… er… element. Its been around since day 1 and everyone who’s had pre-R5 versions of Notes can’t seem to let go (myself included). However, Lotus has done a good job of tweaking this while keeping the old functionality.

The author says that the Workspace should open DBs when you do a single click. That’d be hard for legacy users to get used to. So, Lotus (in 6.0+) started to allow you to display your bookmarks as a workspace. Tada! Now everyone can access Notes dbs in their method of choice.

Its also important to point out that there are usually 3-5 ways to do everything in Notes. Which makes it intuitive to just about everyone. Since R5, you could click on the side toolbar to open your mail with one click, or from the main/home/splash screen, or from the workspace, or from the bookmark bar, or from the lower-right status bar, or … Get the idea? Its handy, powerful and its ready to be used however YOU want it to be used.


42. What’s This Help?
Suck Synopsis:
Clicking the “?” to get “what’s this?” help takes you to the help file instead of showing you context-sensitive help.

My Rebuttal:
I totally and utterly agree. That should be how it works.


43. Creating Objects
Suck Synopsis:
Attempting to create objects is more pain than its worth.

My Rebuttal:
Again, I agree. However, I’m not sure why the average Notes user (who this article is written for) would ever want to try to create objects. Its not intuitive to most end users and probably isn’t what they’re trying to do anyway. — When I don’t understand an option in software, I do the following:
1. Click it, see what happens.
2. Look into the Help file and see if I need it.
3. Ask someone if I need it.
4. Ignore that it’s there until someone tells me I need it.

Feel free to make my process … your process.


44. Interlude
Suck Synopsis:
(The author cites other quotes from people who also think Notes sucks.)

My Rebuttal:
Pick your software package, I guarentee I can google a bunch of people who think it sucks.


45. Reply with History
Suck Synopsis:
You can’t reply to a message and cite a section of the original message. It pulls everything or nothing.

My Rebuttal:
No, you CAN copy/paste a section of an original message. Notes doesn’t automatically note it as a “citing” or “quoting” a message like some PHP message boards might. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an email app do that…. MIGHT be handy, but I’m not going to make that decision without some discussion with other people.


46. The Status Bar
Suck Synopsis:
The status bar is useless and doesn’t allow you to do anything with the info.

My Rebuttal:
The status bar is just a report of activities Notes has done while you used it. There’s really no other point than to give you an option to see what its doing. Its helpful, but doesn’t have to be used if you don’t need it… which is why its on the bottom of the screen. Its actually handy and a good UI position!


47. Customizing Lotus Notes
Suck Synopsis:
The way Lotus Notes handles Preferences and Settings is unintuitive.

My Rebuttal:
I agree that its hard to get at modifying all of the preferences and settings for the whole Notes experience, but I think they do a decent job of letting you at all that stuff. The “preferences” menu is dedicated to items that are Notes (client)-wide. “Settings” are unique to the function. And “tools” and “options” are things within a certain part of the application. Calling them all “preferences” (or whatever) would be too confusing. Thus, I think they did the right thing.


48. ????
Suck Synopsis:
(I have no idea… the page didn’t load.)

My Rebuttal:
Must not be running a Domino server!


49. NotesMedic
Suck Synopsis:
Notes crashes and requires a reboot. Cassetica offers freeware to eliminate the need to reboot between Notes crashes.

My Rebuttal:
Yeah, it’d be nice if Notes didn’t require a reboot. However, as a friend of mine once said: “What would you rather have, a car that doesn’t require you to use the service department and to never know if they are good or bad, or a really good service department and you are sure of it based on how many times you’ve had to visit it?” — I’d choose not needing the service department and so does Lotus. Each version is progressively more stable than the last.

But yeah, it’d be nice if that’d just get fixed too.


50. Moving Mail from the Send Folder
Suck Synopsis:
You can’t move a mail document to a folder from the “sent” view (or as he says “send folder”).

My Rebuttal:
You can. There’s a button for it and everything. And Notes takes out the whole “view vs. folder” debacle by just changing the options in the dialog box to “add” instead of “move.” You’re over-thinking this one. Its got the same effect (actually a better one, if you keep thinking about it).


51. Sametime Connect
Suck Synopsis:
The “About” section of Sametime connect has a mispelling and looks goofy because of an indentation in the details.

My Rebuttal:
Yes, the word was mispelled and fixed (I believe in 6).
Indentation: I… so… don’t… care…


52. Stupid Error Messages, Part 2
Suck Synopsis:
He did something (doesn’t remember what) and got an error message he doesn’t understand.

My Rebuttal:
I would suggest that if you could remember what you JUST clicked on, then the message might have more value.


53. Design Upgrade
Suck Synopsis:
The user clicked haphazardly around the Workspace and got a “Design upgrade” message. When he clicked “no” he got a confirmation stating that the design upgrade did not perform and thought it was useless of Notes to give that second error message.

My Rebuttal:
A) What the hell did you click?!
B) I dunno… most end-users would probably think that something like a “design upgrade” is serious and would appreciate knowing that it didn’t occur.


54. Breaking the Rules
Suck Synopsis:
The author is complaining that there is an error message telling him that he can’t move a rule that is at the top of the list to a higher position. He’s also complaining that he gets an error message telling him that he can’t disable a rule that is already disabled.

My Rebuttal:
I have a rule with friends of mine: If I’m being a dumb-ass, you need to tell me I’m being a dumb-ass. Clearly, Notes has the same rule with its end-users.
Solution: Stop being a dumb-ass.


55. The Attachment Window, Part 2
Suck Synopsis:
The user clicked “View” in the attachment dialog box and ran a “.pif” file that had a virus and it corrupted their system.

My Rebuttal:
A) No anti-virus?! Um…. why?!?!
B) Refer to A.


56. Interlude, Part 2
Suck Synopsis:
Another list of people who also think Notes sucks.

My Rebuttal:
You know you can call IBM and log these complaints, right? They’d love to listen and make their product better, explain what’s going on or tell you how to fix it.


57. Breaking the Rules, Part 2
Suck Synopsis:
He can’t set up a rule.

My Rebuttal:
Help file.


58. History of Lotus Notes
Suck Synopsis:
He thinks that the “history of lotus notes” is silly.

My Rebuttal:
As opposed to…?
Is there a product history that is better than the story Notes has? Microsoft is going to add the same “propaganda” to their history of Exchange/Outlook. History is just an account of what happened. Its in the past, so let’s all move on…


59. Double-click Default Inaction
Suck Synopsis:
In the “Go to…” window, you can’t double-click on the name of the folder/view you want to go to, you have to select it and hit OK.

My Rebuttal:
OK, I’ll give you that one. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do that.
fyi… the “OK” button is exactly 1 3/4 inches away.


60. Deleting Old Messages
Suck Synopsis:
The method for deleting calendar entries returns an error that is unhelpful (because it says “…remove the selected document(s) from the calendar”).

My Rebuttal:
I forget what version started it, but Notes now has some calendar management stuff to auto-do-this. I don’t think that particular dialog box is confusing. (The following error is a bug that’s been fixed in a later version. Again, upgrade.)