EGGNT Mark

[J Rhoden]

We’re heading up on 2 years since the paper version. Does anyone know if Accordance is going to support the EGGNT moving forward? 
 

Every time I have a question in Mark I come and look here to see if Accordance is up to date yet. I’m trying to be patient, but at some point I’m going to have to give up and buy the print version.

 

(I sold my print copies and purchased the full Accordance set so I’d love to keep it electronic if possible)

[wcombs]

This is the same frustration I have expressed many times myself about several other commentary series (Tyndale, for example). But, unfortunately, I never have gotten a response as to why Logos commentaries are quite up-to-date and Accordance is so far behind. Several years ago I got rid of my hard copies of many commentary series and went all digital with Accordance, but now I have had to buy some hard copies. I waited hoping the Accordance versions would come, but eventually had to buy a Kindle version (terrible application on the Mac). For instance, I purchased the Kindle version of Schreiner's commentary on 1 Corinthians in the Tyndale series, which came out in 2018. Five years later it is still not in Accordance. I take no pleasure in saying that I have advised younger men to go with Logos even though they are Mac users.

[robrecht]

11 hours ago, wcombs said:

... I take no pleasure in saying that I have advised younger men to go with Logos even though they are Mac users.

 

I know what you mean. I first purchased all of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures from Silver Mountain Software, then they stopped supporting the software. I was given a free copy of Gramcord in return for some work I did correcting their database. Next I purchased all of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures from BibleWorks. Then Accordance, with lots of additional texts and commentaries. Accordance seemed like a really good company at the time, but it looks like things have gone downhill with the new owner. I hope Logos will offer good deals for people migrating to their software. 

[mhanel]

16 hours ago, wcombs said:

This is the same frustration I have expressed many times myself about several other commentary series (Tyndale, for example). But, unfortunately, I never have gotten a response as to why Logos commentaries are quite up-to-date and Accordance is so far behind.

 

I think the answer is pretty clear. Money. Logos is bigger. There are more developers to work on texts, more sales (or promises thereof) help negotiations with publishers, etc. Accordance is a much smaller business (though bigger than BibleWorks was) and can't keep up. The flipside of that though is that Logos often costs more for the same text because you have to somehow pay for those extra employees. It seems to me that as a consumer, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you always want more and want it quicker, there's only one show in town. I think that's a bummer because competition is better, but it is what is. I was a BibleWorks-only user. Now I also use Accordance, but I've become hesitant to put more money into it until I see more of a change in the business. But I really would hate for there to be only one. The diversity has been good for everyone.

[wcombs]

7 hours ago, robrecht said:

it looks like things have gone downhill with the new owner.

I did not realize Accordance had been sold. Is that correct?

[mhanel]

27 minutes ago, wcombs said:

I did not realize Accordance had been sold. Is that correct?

"new" is relative. It's been a few years. https://churchtechtoday.com/state-of-the-bible-software-market/

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks for the feedback on EGGNT! It’s one I use quite frequently in Accordance myself, so I’ve added it to the list to notify our teams that there is interest in additional volumes to it.

 

In terms of adding new commentary volumes, multiple factors go into the decision process (customer feedback, commentaries that sell to a wide range of customers, etc). Getting feedback such as this on which commentary sets you want us to add updated volumes to helps us to prioritize which ones we should update first.

[Donald Cobb]

2 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

Thanks for the feedback on EGGNT! It’s one I use quite frequently in Accordance myself, so I’ve added it to the list to notify our teams that there is interest in additional volumes to it.

 

In terms of adding new commentary volumes, multiple factors go into the decision process (customer feedback, commentaries that sell to a wide range of customers, etc). Getting feedback such as this on which commentary sets you want us to add updated volumes to helps us to prioritize which ones we should update first.

 

@Nathan Parker, I think the updated Tyndale series really is a must-have for Accordance. I too am surprised that this hasn't yet been updated. I'm sure there are reasons, but it has been requested multiple times by many users. It's possible to have too much of a choice and load up a bunch of stuff that is only relatively useful and that won't be consulted most of the time (I'm seeing this about a lot of things I've bought from Logos) but I think this series is one of the essentials.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks for the update! I’ve also added that one to the list to ensure we look further into additional Tyndale volumes.

[mhanel]

1 hour ago, Nathan Parker said:

Thanks for the update! I’ve also added that one to the list to ensure we look further into additional Tyndale volumes.

 

Sometimes this all seems a little tedious on the part of users. Not to be a grouch, but wouldn't it be prudent to assume that when Accordance offers an important set of commentaries, that, provided they're selling, it would always be imperative to add updates? You make it sound as though this is brand new information that people would want these additions. I doubt that is the case. You could say something vague like "Yes, we know, it's on the list" (meaning we're trying to secure the license, we're working on the formatting for Accordance, we have it done, but we have a set schedule when its due to be released, etc.). "Adding it to the list" implies to me that nothing would have happened if you hadn't read this particular message.

 

Seeing these kinds of messages repeatedly has continued to make me feel like there's this huge gap between the company and the users and it doesn't seem to be getting better. I'm glad that you're communicating on behalf of the company. That surely is better than nothing at all. But sometimes reading the things that you say has only made me feel more like you're informing the company of things they should have already known, but don't seem to have.

Edited February 27, 2023 by mhanel

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

In terms of the Tyndale Commentaries, I do have a more substantial update on it. Our licensing manager is in the process of working with the publisher on the additional volumes. We don't have an ETA on a release date yet, but we are in discussions with the publisher.

 

I'm sure our teams already know about the bulk of the module requests customers have submitted, but what I recently did was go back through and re-document all of the recent module requests to ensure there's clear communication between users and the company (basically alleviating the exact concerns you've brought up). As the teams give me additional updates to pass along to customers (as they did today with Tyndale), I'll keep you all posted. Any new module requests that come in, I ensure they are submitted usually the same day the customer requests them.