Accordance User Marketing Survey

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

9 hours ago, cralford said:

Stability. Journals. After leaving seminary access to journals becomes complicated. I now have a book allowance which can go to things like paying for this. I would greatly prefer to do so from with in Accordance than say Galaxy’s website. 
 

Paying a monthly subscription just for the software is not my favorite idea. But it would be quite a bit more palatable if it included continual and timely journal updates. This is industry standard content that has a frequent update cycle that could be used to create value to a subscription service. 
 

Finally, knowing I can count in Accordance to be reliable is incredibly important. I am teaching weekly at church Accordance support this process through assisting study and teaching live with it in the classroom. The current situation has not made this easy (it crashed while trying to look up texts on a projector for the class). 

Are Galaxie journals the only ones you’d like to see, or are there additional titles?

 

Thanks for the feedback on stability as well!

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

9 hours ago, Erhard said:

I had posted regarding the footnoting formatting - any ideas on this as I did not get any replies?

 Will take a look at it. Thanks!

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

3 hours ago, Lorinda H. M. Hoover said:

MT/LXX Parallel upgrade

Additional volumes of the Wisdom Commentary Series (they are out in print but not on Accordance yet)

Index of DSS Manuscripts

Sacra Pagina

 

Are the additional volumes of the Wisdom Commentary series something Accordance is going to provide eventually?  This is a question I asked earlier, and got no response.

 

I think someone else has mentioned it, but I have been dismayed at the poor hyperlinking in several modules: text not linked that should be, text inaccurately linked, text linked but pointing to the wrong place, etc.  I report them when I find them, but this is rife in both the JPS commentaries and the Jewish Annotated New Testament.  (Maybe other modules, too, but these are where I remember running across it most)

 

Please don't rush the next beta!  I have not needed to revert to 13, as I could tolerate the bugs until they were sorted, and I didn't experience the most crippling of them.  (No criticism of those who did revert:  different needs and uses led to understandably different choices).  But I was disturbed that known bugs weren't addressed before the release. 

 

Please continue to provide historical critical and centrist/"liberal" resources as well as resources that are more conservative/traditionalist.  During my early years with Accordance, I struggled with how few resources there were for my theological bent.  I rejoiced when Abingdon finally agreed to work with you to provide their works.  (I periodically scolded them for not doing so).  Similarly, I was thrilled with the release of the Wisdom commentary series, but disappointed that later volumes haven't been given the Accordance treatment. 

 

Don't have an easy answer for this one; like many who have replied, I have enough material in accordance that Collections aren't something I purchase any more.  I'll ponder this one a bit more and maybe come back to it in a separate post. 

 

As a United Methodist, I would say that a collection of the Wesleys' works, bundled would be helpful.  The other historical Methodist/Wesleyan authors (e.g. Clarke if I remember correctly) aren't something I/we reference much.  Our tradition is a bit unique, though, as our founding has more to do with praxis than a theological dispute, so "United Methodist Theology" is a pretty broad tent.  

 

As someone married to a Lutheran, I'd link a collection of Luther's works, the book of Concord, etc. might make a helpful bundle. 

 

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll see what I can find out about Wisdom Commentary.

[Erhard]

Hi Nathan, one more resource in that group for the elders/lay package would be the Bible Themes Dictionary

[Erhard]

14 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

 I don’t have a multiple monitor setup at the moment,

Hi Nathan

I have a couple of Triple monitor setups with different gear if you want me to check out how things display.

Lenovo P 70 (1920 X 1080) with 2 - 2560 X 1440 monitors on Windows 10

Lenovo T 15 (1920 X 1080) with 1 - 2560 X 1440 and 1 - 1920 X 1080 monitor on Windows 11

 

one thing that I had mentioned a couple of years ago is when you move Accordance from the 2560 X 1440 monitor to the 1920 X 1080 monitor, the down arrow to see the rest of the books is not visible

 

[Erhard]

16 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

Resources on the creation/evolution debate sound interesting. The key is to let us know specific titles that you believe would sell to a large Accordance audience and ones you’d invest in. That’ll help us to prioritize.

The two that I can think of first is Bible and Spade (Associates for Biblical Research) and Answers Magazine (Answers in Genesis). ICR has their articles on the website, so it is not likely something that would work for Accordance, but you could always check it out. Also the Answers Journal has a lot of good information that are available for download. Would it work to have them available in Accordance?

Edited January 6, 2023 by Erhard
More info

[Pastor Jonathan]

16 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

 

Thanks for the welcome! Let me see how many of your questions I can answer.

 

First, I will definitely be spending a ton of time here in the forums. Right now, the bulk of my role at Accordance is going to be the forums, plus some additional video and webinar training. As I move into more of a full-time role after graduation, I’ll be taking on additional duties, but still spending as much time in the forums as I am now (my role won’t change, I’ll just do what I’m doing and more). So you’re stuck with me in the forums for at least as long as I’m working here, which I hope is a long time. 🙂 

 

I’ll mention the buy/sell forums idea to marketing, or at least see if they have some recommendations on how users could set this up on a third-party website similar to the Facebook group but not on Facebook. I won’t promise we’ll do anything officially, but we’ll at least discuss it, and if it’s something users need to do themselves, I’ll be glad to coordinate with you to ensure such a third-party group is properly serving Accordance users while also properly being labeled as unofficial so as to ensure Accordance’s brand remains strong (unlike what happened with that one Bible society Facebook group me and Dr. J. joined years ago).

 

I know customer service and tech support reps personally at the company, and I can also do what I can anytime to ensure you have a pleasant customer service experience with Accordance. At anytime, if you’re feeling “underserved”, message me directly. I’ll do what I can to assist. I’m here to serve all of you.

 

I think Rick used to have access to live chat, and when he left, that might have been part of what caused a lapse in response. I’ll see if I can assist with some of the live chat or if that’s a different department and if so, who should monitor that.

 

Website changes will be more gradual, and some of it might be as I either take on additional duties in the company or as the development team has more time to work on certain features (such as Accordance Cloud), but feel free to keep the feedback coming, as it helps us prioritize everything.

 

We’ll try to do more to engage the community of users and attend some meetings, and I’d still like to find a way to enlist the assistance of Accordance users in helping us at meetings we’re unable to directly attend. I’ll discuss this more with our teams.

 

Theological tagging is something being discussed on the forums, and we’ll see what all we can do on this front.

 

I’m not sure if a rep from each department will have time to check a Q/A forum thread (for example, developers need to focus their time programming), but I can act as one of the frontline workers on the forums and ensure your questions/feedback are getting passed to the proper departments, and any responses I hear back, I can share here. That’ll give me a chance to earn my pay. 🙂 

 

Good feedback on the Brethren bundle and on strategies for adding books. On the TC debate, while I’ve read and thoroughly enjoy some of the works you’ve mentioned, part of the issue is finding out how much they’d actually sell. You could suggest the modules on the forums (although I know you’ve done some of that) and see how many Accordance users are interested in such works. For works that are lower-interest, for the ones that are public domain or are freely available, User Tools may be an option here.

 

Resources on the creation/evolution debate sound interesting. The key is to let us know specific titles that you believe would sell to a large Accordance audience and ones you’d invest in. That’ll help us to prioritize.

 

I don’t know if I received your links for ideas. Feel free to re-send.

Glad to hear you staying on here with us. It is good to have that connection to the company for sure. 

 

I am interested in the buy/sell, but that is something that I can take or leave. I just think it would open up more participation. 

 

I sent you a few listing ideas for a Brethren bundle as well as the links and will talk with you more privately. 

 

Regarding new resources, I understand the wish to make money off it, but there are, I am sure, some resources on the site (the Quran for example) that are not "popular" either so I wonder what the parameters were to allow that. Just on this site it looks like it is 50/50 split on whether wanted or not. If so, then I am not sure if the other things dealing with TC will make any other difference other than some may not agree with what is being proposed. But I will make the proposals and see where it goes from there. 

 

Thanks again for taking the time to go through this thread. It is not an easy feat. 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

@Erhard Thanks for the info on the Bible Themes Dictionary and the creation/evolution debate. I’ll pass those on. I’ll also pass on your feedback on the multiple monitors.

 

@Pastor Jonathan Thanks for the feedback on those! Keep suggesting new modules in the forums, as that’ll help us see how many Accordance users are interested.

 

@Lorinda H. M. Hoover I'm going to have another meeting with marketing on Saturday, but on Wisdom Commentary, it may take some time before additional volumes are released. I was told it was one of the more major projects producing the current volumes for it, so it might take some time before it’s updated.

[cralford]

On 1/5/2023 at 5:49 PM, Nathan Parker said:

Are Galaxie journals the only ones you’d like to see, or are there additional titles?

 

Thanks for the feedback on stability as well!

Good question. I am not sure I know enough to completely answer this question. But I imagine the answer is more than Galaxy. Galaxy is the only paid service I have found that would make sense and that provides many of the journals I am interested in. But I don’t think it includes the journal Bible Translator. Or counseling journals. Others might be able to add more to this list. 
 

Last I checked, Galaxy costs $60 a year. I paid $34 for the Acc. 14 upgrade after 3 or so years of use of Acc. 13 If I got slow steady and reliable feature development and journal access for $60 a year I would consider this a win. 
 

$60 x 5000  paying users = $300,000 anual income which should more than cover the journal development cost. I do not know what the cost of negotiating rights to the content would be. But it seems to me that there should be some level of profit if implemented well. Also the user base for Acc. is beyond 5000 by a large amount so it is possible this math would be at a considerable larger scale. 
 

What do you think Nathan about journals in Acc.?

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I definitely want to see regularly-updated Galaxie journals in Accordance as a bare minimum (and I've been told we are working on accomplishing that). Right now I pay $50/year for the Galaxie website and use the Accordance Web Browser to read them. Those are the ones I use the most and use heavily. 

 

Other journals would be useful as well, as they are a requirement for academic research. I'll think back through my papers and see which ones I've cited the most, and others are certainly welcome to chime in with recommendations. 

[Matthew Wilson]

I agree with what has been said: 3. Stability is more important than new features!

 

As a BW and Logos user, I can say that Accordance comes in last in stability on the PC and the IOS app.  

[jlm]

On 1/4/2023 at 4:22 PM, ukfraser said:

when the sales come up, i often see new volumes added but they havent appeared in the module request list , yet ones that have been requested and have lots of requests still havent appeared so i wonder what the behind the scenes buying decisions are as it takes effort to get a module ready.

Me too.

 

As for question 1, something I'd buy if it was on sale for more than 25% off is TWOT.

 

[Lorinda H. M. Hoover]

18 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

@Lorinda H. M. Hoover I'm going to have another meeting with marketing on Saturday, but on Wisdom Commentary, it may take some time before additional volumes are released. I was told it was one of the more major projects producing the current volumes for it, so it might take some time before it’s updated.

Thanks for the update!

[Erhard]

Hi Nathan,

Another thought that it somewhat related to this. In order for people to want to study the Bible and purchase resources, they need to see it as being relevant to their lives. I'm not sure if Accordance can do anything on that front, but the lay group of people is much larger than the pastoral group. How could this group be targeted? Accordance would also need to show value compared to free software like e-sword and it's free resources that are generally older and out of copyright and also the free online resources. Just a thought....

[Leopold Green]

On 1/6/2023 at 1:47 AM, Nathan Parker said:

 

 

Can you explain more on what you’re looking for in “Comprehensive Cross Refs”?

 

Hi Nathan - I mean Accordance should licence Comprehensive Cross Refs and then integrate it into the Info Pane - can you imagine how much more powerful that would be and because it would repeatedly remind you you don't have Philo in your library you would end up with an extra sale

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

5 hours ago, Erhard said:

Another thought that it somewhat related to this. In order for people to want to study the Bible and purchase resources, they need to see it as being relevant to their lives. I'm not sure if Accordance can do anything on that front, but the lay group of people is much larger than the pastoral group. How could this group be targeted? Accordance would also need to show value compared to free software like e-sword and it's free resources that are generally older and out of copyright and also the free online resources. Just a thought....

 

Good points. I’m trying to think through how Accordance could offer some packages to lay users who primarily use free apps like e-Sword and YouVersion and offer an “Upgrade to Accordance” marketing target. In that, we’d also highlight the Accordance advantages.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

2 hours ago, Leopold Green said:

Hi Nathan - I mean Accordance should licence Comprehensive Cross Refs and then integrate it into the Info Pane - can you imagine how much more powerful that would be and because it would repeatedly remind you you don't have Philo in your library you would end up with an extra sale

 

Great. Thanks! I’ll pass it on.

[Solly]

In the Info Pane settings, it is possible to assign Comprehensive Crossrefs as the Cross-reference tool. It works, but only gives a truncated portion of what is found in Comprehensive Crossrefs.

 

[Biblebob412]

Hi Nathan,

 

I'd love to see a sale on the NICOT/ NICNT or Word Biblical Commentary. They really come to life with the rapid searching Accordance offers. 

 

Could you see if a feature could be added to the wishlist section of the website to change the order of items on the list, as well as setting a priority level? I think this would be an easy way for Accordance to drive up sales if users could be more dynamic with their purchasing strategies. When people change their minds about what they are most interested in, they could simply move it up or down.

[ukfraser]

1 hour ago, Biblebob412 said:

 

I'd love to see a sale on the NICOT/ NICNT or Word Biblical Commentary.

There were not as many sales When i first got accordance and i had to wait about three years before i got the excellent wbc set. (I had almost given up hope of ever being able to afford it!)

 

since then it usually comes up at least once a year. I feel nicot/nicnt tend to come up about twice a year. 
 

as i frequently say, accordance is good at helping us develop patience which im sure Paul would endorse.

 

;o) 

[Leopold Green]

20 hours ago, Solly said:

In the Info Pane settings, it is possible to assign Comprehensive Crossrefs as the Cross-reference tool. It works, but only gives a truncated portion of what is found in Comprehensive Crossrefs.

 

That is sort of what I was suggesting - I think if you have Comprehensive Crossrefs at the heart of info pane it transforms what it is capable of  - gives you what (I think) some people like about the competitor but without all the drawbacks

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

2 hours ago, Biblebob412 said:

I'd love to see a sale on the NICOT/ NICNT or Word Biblical Commentary. They really come to life with the rapid searching Accordance offers. 

 

Could you see if a feature could be added to the wishlist section of the website to change the order of items on the list, as well as setting a priority level? I think this would be an easy way for Accordance to drive up sales if users could be more dynamic with their purchasing strategies. When people change their minds about what they are most interested in, they could simply move it up or down.

Great feedback! Thanks! I’ll pass it on.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

1 hour ago, ukfraser said:

There were not as many sales When i first got accordance and i had to wait about three years before i got the excellent wbc set. (I had almost given up hope of ever being able to afford it!)

 

since then it usually comes up at least once a year. I feel nicot/nicnt tend to come up about twice a year. 
 

as i frequently say, accordance is good at helping us develop patience which im sure Paul would endorse.

Some of it has to do with publishers as well. There’s certain times they like to put certain commentaries on sale, but we’ll keep working at getting as much stuff on sale as possible when we can!

[ukfraser]

23 minutes ago, Nathan Parker said:

Some of it has to do with publishers as well.

Sorry if it appeared negative, wasnt meant to be. First thing on a tuesday morning with my coffee i check to see whats on sale this week. im amazed that for the last few years you give us weekly sales!
 

so thanks for all the work behind the scenes working with the publishers. 
 

i was just trying to give a realistic expectation/hope that patience will result in adding a valuable product to the library. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by ukfraser

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Absolutely. No worries on “sounding negative”. Glad you’re checking our regular sales. I appreciate any feedback on any items you want to see on sale. I’ll eventually be getting to work with publishers to help determine some of the sales, but in the meantime, I’m at least communicating the user feedback to the rest of marketing so we can plan out future sales. The more customer interest we have in getting items on sale, the more we can at least try to convince publishers to work with us to deliver a win win for everyone.