I’m not a marketing expert but I would think this is a pretty solid concept for selling a product. People feel more comfortable knowing that there are others using the product they’re contemplating using.

There are several similar packages that offer “solutions to problems I will face as a developer.” But I’d feel better going with one that has a large community and support base.

Whether the tagline conveys that meaning is debatable but I think the idea it’s trying to get across is the right one.

Thanks for the thoughts. Looks like we agree on the questionable marketing message. However, I don’t know if it’s so much about “winning” or “losing” areas for me; I’m sure there have always been more developers using .NET and VB than anything I’ve used in my career, but that hasn’t influenced my personal decisions. If numbers indicate “winning”, that’s not something that has ever influenced me in the past; I’d say the RoR community is probably the smallest on the planet at the moment, and I’m actively learning that platform.

What has influenced me are platform capabilities that meet the needs of my specific use cases (whatever they may be). Since at CFI we’re on Solaris, deliver things via the web, and need widespread compatibility on the front and back ends, we chose Java and Flex for internal apps. We were on Java and CF for the external web apps for a long time until several members of the development team started to complain about how long it took them to code a web site in CF. Several of them were learning RoR or using it outside the office, and felt it would be a better choice. We validated the platform (ruling out the competitor Grails at the same time), and decided to switch for the productivity benefits we saw for our common future use cases (CRUD web sites and Ajax-style back-office admin systems).

To be honest, if we hadn’t been tied to Solaris, then I might not have chosen Java as the primary platform years ago when we set our technology direction. As much as I disagree with MS’s business practices and the state of their OS, our sys admins find Windows easier to administrate, and nobody I have spoken to could argue with the productivity of the .NET platform. I haven’t used it much myself, but based on the recommendations of respected peers I would have checked it out more if the OS situation had not been a barrier. (Yes, I know about Mono – it wasn’t mature enough to be an option at the time).

Due to the changing nature of tech, we actually based our architecture on a service bus so we can plug new technologies in and out. We should be able to plug in .NET services (such as those from third party apps that we own) to talk to our Java services and RoR RESTful services (built in house), all of which will be accessible to our Flex apps (and whatever front end platform surfaces in the future) as well as our legacy Oracle apps (Oracle is serious about competing in the SOA space – BEA purchase and Fusion middleware cases in point).

So, while this particular blog post wasn’t about “winning” for me, whichever platform “wins” my confidence for what we’re doing and the state of tech at the time will hopefully plug in neatly to our architecture in the future. My crystal ball is broken, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see! :)

- max

“Would you suddenly be more positive on CF had it read “hundreds of thousands…”? No.”

Interestingly, you are correct, since the message behind this tagline doesn’t sound much different from the one I’m interpreting from the original ad on my blog post. The underlying principle behind the ad would still seem the same to me, regardless of what the number of developers was. This ad makes it seem like Adobe thinks technologies are popularity contests, and that I should want to use CF because other people are, too – not because CF has solutions to problems I will face as a developer.

I think this is actually the first time I’ve had a vendor email me to tell me how many people are using their platform. I looked through my email and couldn’t find anything like it in any of the vendor spam still in my trash/inbox. They all say “download the latest version of software X” or “do more with solution X on platform Y” or “Company X saves money with solution Y”.

Adobe just got a new CTO. Maybe it’s time for a new CMO, too.

- max

Rather than having a protracted discussion on my blog comments, I’ll just restate what my post said in the simplest terms possible.

1) My personal perception of the wording in the ad and its timing makes me wonder what is happening with CF, and why Adobe chose to release something like this. To me, it smacks of insecurity about the perceived visibility/usage of its platform.

2) I’ve personally seen better productivity (which I define as less time coding/messing around) with us building web sites/services in RoR than in CF. That’s why we decided to switch. I believe others will do the same. I’m sure others still will stick with CF and find themselves more productive in it than other technologies.

I appreciate you sharing your opinion. Sorry if we don’t agree.

- max

There is no real science to picking a language/technology. The choice is always only partially logical and mostly subjective. The fact of the matter is that the success or failure of your business/project has far less to do with the technology we choose than we as programmers and technology fanatics let on.

They could have said “Hundreds of thousands of developers are using ColdFusion 8″ since that would be true according to their number but that honestly sounds awkward as an ad slogan IMO. You came to the ad with some preconceived notions that colored your perception of it. Would you suddenly be more positive on CF had it read “hundreds of thousands…”? No.

The fact that Adobe released this as a “promotion” is appalling. And its messages like this that keep CF from reaching the mass market.

ColdFusion can be completely compared to MySpace. MySpace was the first major Social Network to hit the market. It did great things that people had never seen before. But then other options sprang up, and the only folks still on MySpace are the ones that are either to invested to switch, or have their head buried and don’t see the have other better options. Will MySpace die? Hell No! and Neither will CF. But that doesn’t mean that people who are just now coming to market would consider either as a solution because there *are* better options.

You are correct – I was projecting, hence the opening line of my post:

I read this as “we can only count thousands, not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.”

I actually thought I was ragging on the ad more than the technology. Adobe’s marketing is usually beautifully succinct, talking about what the technology does and not how many people are using it. This is why I find myself wondering why they would choose such a tagline for CF. You’re a web developer, so you’re obviously aware of the increasing popularity of new Python- and Ruby-based alternatives at this point in time, and I wonder if Adobe feels they need to respond to this to keep CF sales going up. As a decision maker in a sizable corporate IT department, I for one won’t be renewing our CF support at some point in the next few years, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I’m sure there are others who will continue to use CF, too.

With regard to productivity, I have been exposed to extraordinary productivity building RESTful services and CRUD applications in RoR as opposed to ColdFusion. So yes, I can make this generalization on my blog based upon my own personal experience, and feel good about doing so. Clearly, this isn’t an empirical statement by any means. I’m sure people will continue to use whatever they feel is most productive for them regardless of what I blog about.

- max

As someone who follows your blog I recognize that you are moving away from ColdFusion which is a valid choice (I definitely am not a preacher of the religion of CF). Still, I am not sure I see the point of this post. It seems to rag needlessly on CF based on a silly marketing tag line in a banner.

If it isn’t “bad” or “dying” and if it is a valid choice why make a post so negative on it? I also don’t subscribe to the fact that while your technology preferences may have changed that this means that you can make the generalization that they are “more productive”. This is the same case I make when people try to say CF is the best way to connect to Flex…well, not for a .net it’s not, their best and most productive way to connect to Flex is .net (for example). The point is, this isn’t a one size fits all situation.