Has Accordance Application Development Ceased?

[Ron Webber]

Hello Nathan. 

 

I have been with Accordance since before it was Accordance (i.e. with Roy Brown and the Perfect Word and Zondervan's Mac Bible).

 

As a participant in the Beta Testing version dubbed Accordance Aleph, I was aware of consistent ongoing development since new iterations were popping up every few weeks or so.

 

As a longtime user with a substantial investment in this company (I've bought cheaper houses), the all-too-long silence on this front has given me concerns. All software is only as good as its ongoing support. Send this message up the ladder to the new owners please. And I would like to hear something back please as I have the responsibility of recommending this project to our Bible Society. 

 

Best regards,

 

Ron Webber

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Hi Ron,

 

I will pass this on, but I can assure you that application development has not ceased.

 

We have a major update to 14 coming up that will deliver enhanced syncing (if you're still on the beta team, you'll be able to get beta access to it coming up), plus other minor bug-fix updates in the works as well.

 

So while there hasn't been much to see on the surface for a bit, I can assure you that our programmers have been knee-deep in work behind-the-scenes.

[Mark Allison]

56 minutes ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

I can assure you that application development has not ceased.

 

How about updates to Android, iOS, and iPadOS? 

[Mark Allison]

3 hours ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

We have a major update to 14 coming up that will deliver enhanced syncing

 

And the cloud app too, right?

Edited July 8 by Mark Allison

[dmwebb6]

I would not anticipate a response from the 'higher ups".    I could be wrong but don't think we have heard a word from the owner since the release of 14.  If the past is any indication, we will not get anything but "I'll pass it on" or "we are working on it".  If the past year is any indication instead of responding to the requests Accordance will simply lock the thread to prevent further comments.  

[Ron Webber]

10 hours ago, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

I will pass this on, but I can assure you that application development has not ceased.

Thank you, Nathan. Appreciate the timely response. 

Best regards,

Ron

[Mark Allison]

10 hours ago, dmwebb6 said:

I would not anticipate a response from the 'higher ups". 

 

When Roy and Helen owned Accordance, they (especially Helen), would be on the forums daily. Joel would respond often as well. I get the feeling that the current owner thinks these forums are unnecessary at best and detrimental to business at worst.

Communication from management appears to be the absolute lowest priority, unless it's something like an email or a Facebook post that can generate money. 

[robrecht]

I was going to post something juvenile like, "In before the lock!" But then thought better of such juvenile behavior.

[A.D. Riddle]

36 minutes ago, robrecht said:

I was going to post something juvenile like, "In before the lock!" But then thought better of such juvenile behavior.

Thank you for your excellent sense of discretion. 😄

 

A.D.

[Michel Gilbert]

Forum users are first and foremost passionate about the Word, so they are passionate about their Bible software working, improving, and excelling.

 

The previous ownership was more attune to this customer base. There was more leeway in allowing us to vent if we felt Accordance wasn’t living up to its promises or potential. I know Rick gave me and others a lot of leeway, not only recognizing our passion, but humbly acknowledging legitimate underlying concerns.

[Leopold Green]

3 hours ago, Michel Gilbert said:

I know Rick gave me and others a lot of leeway, not only recognizing our passion, but humbly acknowledging legitimate underlying concerns.

 

Spot on - both Rick and Mark were exemplary representatives of Accordance!!!

[Michel Gilbert]

I mentioned Rick because he was the one who closed topics to further replies. But since you mentioned Mark, I will take the opportunity to say that he was especially gracious to me when passion was getting the better of me.

[Ron Webber]

Roy and Helen Brown built a highly respected company with an exceedingly loyal and enthusiastic community of users over the past forty years. I have grown nearly as old alongside them. I spoke with Roy at several conventions and he shared some personal glimpses into the new technology with previews of beta versions and listened carefully to feedback. I knew both he and Helen as passionate guardians of the Accordance vision. On about a half dozen occasions, Helen personally called me to clarify a purchase or offer a less expensive means of meeting my needs. My confidence in them and their company never wavered. Currently Accordance sits among the two or three remaining corporate Bible Software giants and has always led the way in innovation and searching capabilities. That is the company I bought into. It is the company we all fell in love with. 
Those are very hard shoes to fill. I wish the new owner[s] much success in the future. This loyal – and occasionally rabid – user base is a testimony to both the product they have acquired and the customer service that is equally responsible for this company’s past successes. I have a huge commitment to Accordance Software. When I said I had bought cheaper houses, that was the gospel truth. But I also have a responsibility to ensure that our own Bible Society continues to use the very best product available. Right now, that is still Accordance. I pray for its continuing success.

[Lawrence]

@Ron Webber

 

If considering just a single-computer installation, I'm quite happy with Accordance's functionality. They need to make it more robust against crashes and data corruption, and push the same functionality to tablets, but on a desktop or laptop, it usually meets my modest requirements quite well.

 

As a forum, we've told Accordance rather loudly that our priorities for the software are:

1. reliable installation and operation;

2. data integrity - highlights, user notes, etc;

3. reliably syncs between devices; and

4. full functionality on tablets.

 

Other than with tablets, all of these are under-the-hood changes. The best way to show that it works is that nothing goes wrong. Unfortunately, that doesn't make for an exciting marketing spiel.

 

I've used Accordance only since version 13, but I feel that the current version is almost at late v.13 levels of reliability in installation and operation.

Improving data integrity would likely involve a change in how they format and manage stored data, which can break backwards compatibility. But their current major projects of cloud usage and syncing also tend to reveal problems with data integrity more quickly, so they should already be working on these items.

 

Doing all this in a smart fashion would involve rewriting the code in a modern language with modern development tools, with cross-platform deployment in mind. It would be largely invisible to users and marketing, but if that's what they're doing, it should be fairly straightforward to then roll out full functionality for tablets.

 

@Dr. Nathan Parker - would you be able to give the forum any visibility on the above?

[Shane R.]

This has been on my mind a lot lately. Following this topic. I haven't seen an update in a long while... while I don't have anywhere near as much invested as some, this does greatly concern me. I don't want to have to switch to a new program, and purchase new stuff.  Seriously looking at purchasing paper books. At least I wouldn't have to repurchase them (short of a flood or fire). 

[Kristin]

9 minutes ago, eshane7 said:

Seriously looking at purchasing paper books.

 

It's funny that you say that, as I had been thinking about that earlier this morning too.  

[Mark Allison]

52 minutes ago, eshane7 said:

At least I wouldn't have to repurchase them (short of a flood or fire). 

 

A very good friend of mine—a professor at a Bible college here in Georgia—lost all his books in a school fire. Insurance covered some of the cost, but many of the books were virtually irreplaceable. That event was one of the things that pushed me toward digital, in spite of the obvious downsides. 

However, I'm beginning to wonder if the BibleWorks philosophy might not have been such a bad idea—use digital resources for your primary language studies, but depend on paper books for all your secondary resources. It wasn't a sustainable business model for a software company, but perhaps not a bad idea for the end user. 

Edited July 10 by Mark Allison

[Michel Gilbert]

I have always believed it isn’t wise to put all your eggs in one basket. I even did a paper on it more than 40 years ago, on Eccl. 11.

 

Anyways, I understand why many invested so much in Accordance, under the previous ownership. But there have been and still are so many concerns under the new ownership that I doubt many will put all their eggs in this new basket. I used Gramcord, then Logos since the mid-2000s, followed by BW a few years later, and Accordance around 2013. I always spread out my purchases between L and Acc, especially since L carries much more. But ongoing concerns have shifted my spending to L.

 

Without transparent communication from Acc, e.g., we have to piece together what happened with letting Rick and Mark go, coupled with what I would call a new emphasis on marketing, and lots of spin on the forum, it is reasonable to conclude that the company isn’t doing as well as it says. So, whether that is true or not, that specific concern and others haven’t been alleviated. So, practically, I spend very little now on Acc modules. And I’m concerned enough that I’m keeping all of my old devices with Accordance on them, as backups, something I haven’t done before.

 

And by the way, I’m keeping my paper books.

[JonathanHuber]

50 minutes ago, Mark Allison said:

However, I'm beginning to wonder if the BibleWorks philosophy might not have been such a bad idea—use digital resources for your primary language studies, but depend on paper books for all your secondary resources. It wasn't a sustainable business model for a software company, but perhaps not a bad idea for the end user. 

I do most of my reading on the go... a paper library just simply doesn't work because it's never with me. Digital libraries were a breakthrough for me, and I've been an Accordance user for nearly 15 years. But I share everyone's hesitance to spend anymore in Accordance until they provide more transparency. This is ridiculous. 

Edited July 10 by JonathanHuber

[Guest]

54 minutes ago, Michel Gilbert said:

…we have to piece together what happened with letting Rick and Mark go…

 

Point of clarification: I wasn’t let go. I quit. 

[Michel Gilbert]

4 minutes ago, R. Mansfield said:

 

Point of clarification: I wasn’t let go. I quit. 

 

Even more intrigue . . .

[Mark Allison]

49 minutes ago, Michel Gilbert said:

Even more intrigue . . .

 

Rick now works for Logos. I don't want to say much about it, since I don't want to speak for him, but his leaving had a lot to do with the issues everyone has been seeing (both programmatically and managerially) since the release of Accordance 14. 

Edited July 10 by Mark Allison

[JonathanHuber]

1 hour ago, Mark Allison said:

Rick now works for Logos.

I'm just about to start contributing to his salary...

[Kristin]

39 minutes ago, JonathanHuber said:

'm just about to start contributing to his salary...

 

Same here. I downloaded the program for the first time a few weeks ago after asking Accordance a direct question and not hearing a response back. My top concern is the corruption, and my second concern is the lack of communication. I truly don't understand why Accordance isn't addressing our concerns, unless it's for the reason @Michel Gilbert mentioned above.

[A. Smith]

3 hours ago, Mark Allison said:

 

A very good friend of mine—a professor at a Bible college here in Georgia—lost all his books in a school fire. Insurance covered some of the cost, but many of the books were virtually irreplaceable. That event was one of the things that pushed me toward digital, in spite of the obvious downsides. 

However, I'm beginning to wonder if the BibleWorks philosophy might not have been such a bad idea—use digital resources for your primary language studies, but depend on paper books for all your secondary resources. It wasn't a sustainable business model for a software company, but perhaps not a bad idea for the end user. 

This was my approach prior to moving overseas. And I still miss my print library (3,000+) but it’s just not possible in my current setting. But if I were still stateside…absolutely.