[Asterisk-Users] Reasons why I shouldn't use Asterisk?

[Ariel Batista]

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Tilghman Lesher <tilghman at mail.jeffandtilghman.com>

>On Wednesday 05 November 2003 18:41, Ariel Batista wrote:
>> >> and the biggest one I feel is a major problem!
>> >>
>> >> 5) Voicemail can not be configured unless you re program it
>> >> yourself. And is not based on any standards!
>> >
>> >I'm curious as to what you find unconfigurable in Voicemail.  I'm
>> >also wondering if you have an RFC for voicemail in mind (for
>> >standardization).
>>
>> What the major problem is folders and how they work!  Also once you
>> get into the folders the prompts will not play to what to do with
>> them. You have to pick advanced options to know what the other keys
>> do!  You can not move around fast and if you press the wrong key it
>> will undelete the message and it puts it in the old messages folder. 
>> Users then complain that there light is still flashing.  Most other
>> voicemail system if you delete the message it moves to the next!  And
>> you can configure it not to have delete folder and old folders.
>
>OK, let me get this straight.  Because the Asterisk voicemail menu is
>fault tolerant and lets you undo a delete, it's therefore unacceptable.
>
>It sounds more like you're having a slight learning curve with getting
>up to speed on a new system.  I'm not sure why you fault Asterisk for
>this, as every system out there is going to have a learning curve.  As
>Steve Underwood pointed out elsewhere in this thread, there are no
>standards for voicemail applications, so every system is going to be
>different.

I would agree with you that there is a learning curve with the systems.  And that there are no standards.  But what we did is replace another voicemail system with Asterisks.  And we are planning on changing others the same way.  I do like the feature like you said of having the un-delete.  But you should be able to configure the features you want!  2nd all the voice mail systems I have used when you delete a message it moves on the the next.  Asterisk does not. Then after you hear your new messages it just leaves you there. It will not even play the prompt to go into the old folders unless you hit the advance option. I like Asterisk and plan on using it.  But you have to understand that when you install this to normal users that are used to other voice mail system they will call you every day for weeks about this.

>
>Personally, I like the fact that I have to explicitly delete a message
>for it to get deleted and that if I delete a message accidently, I can
>undo that (and more importantly, the non-techies in the office can
>also do that).  This is a feature, not a bug.

Please do not take this the wrong way.  I am trying to get a system that will allow us to configure it so we can get it out to more people!  It's far better then the nortel's and others in the cost and ability to change. There is a future here.  It needs to move out of the geeks (My self included) use and into the mass media!