I Have Dumped Accordance 14

[ukfraser]

1 hour ago, R. Mansfield said:

. My interactions in the forums were a small part of my role. I often interacted here on my own time, often at night, so as not to detract from my other tasks. 

Your posts and support on the current sales were exemplary and have set the bar very high!!!!!!!!!
God bless you and thanks

;o) 

Edited January 17, 2023 by ukfraser

[miketisdell]

11 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

 

Many of those bugs should be resolved in the next update. Did we log this particular bug in the “issues still needing resolution” thread?

 

When are they going to deal with some of the right to left text issues in the editors (and the copy paste of Arabic text from user tools)? 

 

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I also want to personally thank Rick for his years of service to the company! He did a fine job overseeing the forums, as well as everything else he has done for Accordance. He’s still been a valuable part of our forums even post-Accordance.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

4 hours ago, miketisdell said:

When are they going to deal with some of the right to left text issues in the editors (and the copy paste of Arabic text from user tools)? 

 

Did you log this one in the thread of main issues needing resolution? That’s a thread the developers are actively taking a look at.

[Randy Cue]

9 hours ago, R. Mansfield said:

Although I’d rather my name not be included in these conversations, for sake of clarity I will say my responsibilities were given over to multiple individuals in the company. And some may still not be assigned to the extent they were in the past. My interactions in the forums were a small part of my role. I often interacted here on my own time, often at night, so as not to detract from my other tasks. 

 

Good to hear from you friend. I'm always available if and when you would like to talk.

[Pastor Jonathan]

@Nathan Parker

 

Here is a thought based off of @KevinPurcellcomment above.

 

Since a lot are going to the online, and I know Accordance is a little behind BLB, Bible Gateway, and many others, there is an option.

 

E-Sword ran, for a very short period, an online version of their software.

 

It is no longer, but if Accordance would reach out to them, possibly see what he is planning on doing, if he is willing to to release the server and domain, maybe that would be the boost needed to launch cloud sooner?

 

Just a thought. But Kevin is right, most study is going online so Accordance, being a little behind, needs to come out with a power house product.

 

My .02.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks for the feedback! While it’s a good suggestion, there are two issues with it:

 

1. Since E-Sword hasn’t done any development on the online version for a while (and even pulled it), it’s likely the web app would be outdated for modern browsers and still need some development to bring it up-to-date. 

 

2. Their web app wouldn’t be compatible with Accordance modules, account systems, etc. Even if E-Sword was willing to give us the code to their web app (which probably wouldn’t be likely since it’s still their copyrighted property), we couldn’t just take E-Sword’s web app and rebrand it “Accordance Cloud”. Without deep-level development making it compatible with Accordance’s modules, account systems, etc., it would only be a confusing standalone web app and another attempt to rush something out not fully developed.

 

I’d rather us still continue work on Accordance Cloud and ship Accordance Cloud when it’s ready, knowing customers are going to get a true Accordance web app instead of making another “rush job” mistake. 

 

In terms of the current state of Bible software, apps, and biblical studies books, I believe the overall current economic situation is a main factor more than online sites or smaller apps. While I’m sure people are doing things with online apps and small Bible apps (which is why we still need to launch Accordance Cloud, continue to focus on mobile, and work on expanding our marketing to free Bible app users to “upgrade to Accordance”), these apps have been around for years, yet Accordance and other major Bible apps have a strong market. I’ve personally used most of those apps in the past for casual Bible study, and they have a use as a quick “digital Bible” (I’ve consolidated most of that under Accordance now so I can do more with fewer apps, but I’m glad they’re around), but I could never have completed my biblical language training in seminary without Accordance, and there are plenty of pastors, ministry leaders, students, and scholars who run on Accordance for their in-depth Bible study daily. The current economic situation has certainly been felt by everyone (my own personal grocery bill has skyrocketed, but the Lord has continued to provide, so I am thankful to the Lord for my "daily bread"!), but Accordance is running regular sales and continuing to release new modules and updates, and I look forward to see what exciting stuff comes down the pipeline in 2023.

[Erhard]

7 minutes ago, Nathan Parker said:

In terms of the current state of Bible software, apps, and biblical studies books, I believe the overall current economic situation is a main factor more than online sites or smaller apps

I really wonder if another major contributing factor relates to the Bible being seen as irrelevant in today's society, largely due to the secular model for origins having been adopted? If this is so, how do we, and Accordance try and deal with that to get people to see the relevance of the Bible again?

[brazyl]

On 1/15/2023 at 10:56 PM, pder3571 said:

 Accordance 13 is pretty much that: excellent. Accordance 14, on the other hand, not so much.

 

I just installed Accordance 14, hoping that the bugs from 13 would be fixed.  Nope!  Accordance still crashes when I open Preferences → User Notes Display.  I'll have to see if it always crashes when I open it at church (because of a different Wi-Fi Network?).  And I haven't tested the syncing yet, which as yet has been 100% impossible to complete without errors.  And I don't know yet about the other (fairly frequent but seemingly random) crashes, but we'll see.

 

Someone mentioned the "changing of the guard".  Was that merely a reference to the change from 13 to 14, or have there been significant organizational or ownership changes at the company?

 

On a more positive note: I'm excited to try out the improvements in creating user tools once the bugs are worked out.  (Finally complete unicode support!  That should have been done in like 1999, but oh well.)  As much as we experience frustration with its shortcomings, there are reasons we're still using Accordance... and I hope that continues to be true! 

[pder3571]

13 hours ago, brazyl said:

Someone mentioned the "changing of the guard".  Was that merely a reference to the change from 13 to 14, or have there been significant organizational or ownership changes at the company?

The "changing of the guard" comment is in reference to new ownership, along with several personnel that made Accordance what is was, gone.

 

Yes, I still use Accordance 13, because it works. I dumped Accordance 14 because it did not work as projected, being an upgrade. In fact, it was not an upgrade at all, given all the flaws inherent within the program. Just imagine if Accordance was the "newest and improved" airplane. Not only would none of us be sitting around working through the latest Greek or Hebrew Construct, and those who survived us would be seeking legal advice on how to handle the negligence involved in putting out a faulty airplane.

 

It makes me wonder why Accordance has not pulled 14 altogether (done a recall?), refunded everyone, and then worked through ALL the bugs to release a much better product later.

[JonathanHuber]

28 minutes ago, pder3571 said:

It makes me wonder why Accordance has not pulled 14 altogether (done a recall?), refunded everyone, and then worked through ALL the bugs to release a much better product later.

Because not everybody is encountering the same issues. I use v14 daily. 

[KCarmanIII]

On 1/16/2023 at 9:49 PM, Nathan Parker said:

 

There is. Mobile is going to be a major focus for us in 2023 after we finish resolving the bugs with Accordance 14 Desktop and release Accordance Cloud.

I certainly hope this is the case. This is my major issue with Accordance. Being at a church that runs solely Windows and Android, the lack of development on the Android app has almost led to me switching programs on multiple occasions. The only for not switching being the money I have already invested into my Accordance library.

[miketisdell]

23 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

 

Did you log this one in the thread of main issues needing resolution? That’s a thread the developers are actively taking a look at.

Yes

[pder3571]

5 hours ago, JonathanHuber said:

Because not everybody is encountering the same issues. I use v14 daily. 

Just because you're hobbling along using it doesn't mean that you're not having issues.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

@Erhard I've read some of that in the news, and I’ve had discussions with fellow students in my PhD program. Unfortunately, I don’t see how Accordance as a Bible software company could try to make the Bible look more “relevant” without coming across as we’re simply trying to “market" the Bible in an attempt to sell more Bibles/modules. Our goal is to provide Bible study software and the tools you need to better study the Bible. We don’t actually study the Bible for you or communicate the Bible to others for you. That’s the role of pastors, professors, and other ministry leaders. We serve the church, but we aren’t the church. I do believe it’s a discussion that more pastors, professors, students, ministry leaders, etc., should be having and sorting through. I don’t see how a Bible software company can get into such a discussion without coming across as looking like a marketing attempt. We might be able to add some blog posts and training that help our users better study the Bible with Accordance and get more out of their Bible study (there are other websites and blogs that do a great job at providing digital Bible study tips).

 

@brazyl We did have a change in ownership a while back when the Browns retired (although Roy is still involved with the company and continues to make contributions to Accordance), but that pre-dated Accordance 14. A handful of faces have also pursued other ventures, but there are still plenty of longtime Accordance employees with the company, and some of the “fresh new faces” added (such as myself) are longtime Accordance users.

 

@pder3571 I'm sorry you’ve had your share of issues with Accordance 14. Since Accordance 14 is already out of the gate, and since we’ve already released a few bug fixes to the app and are working on releasing another bug fix release shortly (it’s in the testing phase as we speak), and since some users are able to successfully use Accordance 14 daily without major issues (I’m one of them), we’re moving ahead with resolving the remaining bugs with Accordance 14 and having customers provide us feedback on it. “Pulling it” back would simply mean it’s in the fewer hands of customers providing us feedback and making it more difficult to send out additional updates to it. For users who upgraded to Accordance 14 but are having too many issues with it, Kevin Purcell provided some excellent instructions on reverting back to Accordance 13. Users who haven’t upgraded to Accordance 14 yet can decide when they want to upgrade to 14 or remain on 13 for a little longer. Once the remaining bugs are resolved in Accordance 14, 14 is still on track to be an exciting release with some major new and useful features.

 

@KCarmanIII Mobile is another big focus for us, especially getting the Android app up-to-date (although both Android and iOS/iPadOS are a major focus for us moving forward). 

 

[JonathanHuber]

1 hour ago, pder3571 said:

Just because you're hobbling along using it doesn't mean that you're not having issues.

I’m not hobbling. I’m no longer experiencing any issues that would warrant a recall. V14 is working fine for me. 

[Gary Pauley]

4 hours ago, JonathanHuber said:

I’m not hobbling. I’m no longer experiencing any issues that would warrant a recall. V14 is working fine for me. 

I’m not either. I’m actually using it more than I ever have and loving it.

[circuitrider]

When V14 came out, I uninstalled it within about 15 minutes of using it due to all the bugs that immediately showed up.

 

I re-installed after it seemed the naughty pictures thing was no longer an issue.  I have been using V14 for at least a couple of weeks now without any issues.  

 

This isn't to say that others aren't still struggling with V14, though.  Hopefully, the next update will help them.  

[Gary Raynor]

There are some hassles but v14.03 is sufficiently usable for me and do not want to lose some of the new features by reverting to v13.  

[Tim Planche]

Ditto - I am enjoying unhobbled usage of Accordance 14 - and would prefer not to revert to v 13

[Erhard]

V 14 is also working quite well for me. The odd bug needs fixing yet but nothing serious. I am sure they will get the rest of the bugs worked out. I want to thank the programmers for all the hard work they have put in and are still putting in to make this a great version.

[Clint Cozier]

14 has always (even in the short-lived beta phase) worked as well as 13 for me. The program does seem to stutter more often than in 13 (the interface will freeze and on my MBP the beach ball will spin). I've learned just to give it a moment and it will carry on (as opposed to a full freeze which necessitates a forced close and relaunch). Perhaps as it ages, the mental acuity is slipping a bit....or it may be that I'm just projecting myself into the program.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Clint Cozier

[Kurt O]

On 1/18/2023 at 9:04 AM, JonathanHuber said:

Because not everybody is encountering the same issues. I use v14 daily. 

As do I.  My experience is that v14 is VERY stable on my MacBook Pro.  There are other factors that are play into bugs.  How old in your computer?  What operating system version are you using.  Is your system clean or dirty from garbage. Etc.

[Randy Cue]

I too have not had many (if any) problems with v14, but others have and their problems are real. I think we need to show each other some grace, and not get to defensive or accusatory.

[Gary Pauley]

24 minutes ago, Kurt O said:

As do I.  My experience is that v14 is VERY stable on my MacBook Pro.  There are other factors that are play into bugs.  How old in your computer?  What operating system version are you using.  Is your system clean or dirty from garbage. Etc.

I see the same stability. I have virtually no issues. I am using an older MacBook (late 2013, Intel Core i7) with Big Sur (11.2.6). I do have issues from time to time with Dropbox syncing of papers...but I had that in 13. For the time being I just don't sync papers...but I do use papers.