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RESPONSE OF STATSOFT, INC.
TO MR. AL BEST
StatSoft, Inc. feels obligated to respond to a public
comment made recently on this forum by Mr. Al Best.
1. Mr. Best's accusation that no products of
StatSoft, Inc. have been reviewed because
"StatSoft has threatened legal action
against publications considering such
reviews because of negative comments
that would appear in a review"
is not only preposterous but also so serious, that it
is highly inappropriate to report it on a public forum
with no specifics, no proofs, and just a reference to
"the grapevine." Neither StatSoft, Inc. nor any of its
employees have ever "threatened" any reviewer or
editor with legal action or in any other way. Because
of the seriousness of the accusation, StatSoft, Inc.
demands the right to face its accusers, and we hereby
respectfully request that Mr. Best reveal the source
and details of the accusations (names of "reviewers
and editors" who have been "threatened").
Please consider the following example. If someone
posted on a public forum a note accusing an individual
of child molestation due to "rumors through the
grapevine," the accused obviously has the right to
face the accusers. StatSoft, Inc. has been put into
the same position by Mr. Best.
2. The ("unsuccessful") search for reviews of
StatSoft products completed by Mr. Best is, to put it
very mildly, incomplete. He missed reviews published
in the largest and major computer magazines as
recently as last year (e.g., see PC MAGAZINE, May
1993, circulation over 1,000,000). Only two
comparative reviews of statistics programs featuring
STATISTICA/W have been published since its release: in
Medical Software Reviews and C'T Magazin (a German
equivalent of BYTE). In both reviews, STATISTICA/W
received the highest overall rating. The article in
C'T Magazin (3/94) is an analytic comparative review,
featuring speed and precision benchmarks and detailed
analyses of the functionality of all major Windows and
DOS statistics software available on the market
(including, among others, SAS and SPSS). STATISTICA/W
received the highest overall rating and was named "the
best Windows implementation of all tested programs."
3. In this context, we would like to make public an
"empirical fact" (which can be verified by anyone
through public records and) which illustrates how
unfounded and preposterous is Mr. Best's accusation
that StatSoft, Inc. allegedly exerts pressure on
"reviewers and editors." In the comparative PC
MAGAZINE review, mentioned above (where a different
reviewer evaluated each of the major packages), the
article about STATISTICA was rather neutral in tone
and did not mention any of the unique features of
STATISTICA which objectively distinguish it from all
the competitors (e.g., the level of integration of
numerical results with graphics); the review also
contained factual errors. It was also disappointing
that the reviewer of STATISTICA did not include more
information about the Windows version of the program
which was already available at that time, and he
limited his evaluation to the DOS version (Windows
versions of SYSTAT and SPSS got the highest rating in
the comparison).
THE FOLLOWING FACT RELATED TO THIS REVIEW WILL
WELL ILLUSTRATE HOW STATSOFT HAS AVOIDED EVEN TO GIVE
ANY IMPRESSION OF ATTEMPTING TO INFLUENCE IN ANY WAY
THE PROCESS OF REVIEWING ITS SOFTWARE. Until now
StatSoft has never made public (or even reported to
the editors of PC MAGAZINE), the fact that Mr. Grant
Blank--the reviewer (whose lukewarm evaluation of
STATISTICA allowed SYSTAT to get the highest rating in
that comparative review) was a close associate of
SYSTAT. This fact can be easily verified through a
variety of sources and public records. For example,
in a preface to one edition of the SYSTAT manual, it
is acknowledged that:
"SYSTAT benefited from suggestions
from ... Grant Blank."
The preface to the next edition elaborates further
that:
"Grant Blank and Chris Gruber have continued
to be my [L. Wilkinson's] most constructive
critics and supporters. The new structure of
the manual is largely due to them. Grant
introduced me to Mark Bjerknes and had a
primary role in the design of the full screen
editor. He also introduced me to ... at the
National Opinion Center... [etc., etc.]"
It is our belief that it was the ethical and
professional obligation of Mr. Grant Blank to reveal
these facts to the editors of PC MAGAZINE and to let
them know about his close association with SYSTAT and
his contribution to the SYSTAT products (especially
when it was so well known that SYSTAT was not only the
major rival but also an adversary of the company whose
product Mr. Blank was about to evaluate). For
example, how much trust can a reader of the PC
MAGAZINE review have in Mr. Blank's criticism of
STATISTICA's manual or full-screen editor (knowing
that he "had a primary role" in designing those for a
major rival?!). In our view, it was also the ethical
and professional obligation of SYSTAT (while accepting
the honor of the top rating), to reveal its
association with the reviewer whose lukewarm review of
the rival's program contributed to SYSTAT's top rating
in the comparative review.
The fact that this information has never been made
public by StatSoft, or even brought to the attention
of PC MAGAZINE will hopefully provide a conclusive
illustration of the outrageousness of Mr. Best's
accusations (based on some unspecified "grapevine")
that StatSoft is in the business of "threatening
reviewers and editors."
4. Finally, it should be mentioned that, as some of
the participants in this forum have noticed, the
market is the ultimate judge of the issues raised in
this and previous comments by Mr. Best. StatSoft,
Inc. has been very pleased with the outcome of this--
most important and decisive--type of judgment and we
appreciate the support of all of our current and
prospective users.
Maria Czyz, Ph.D.
StatSoft, Inc.