NaulisJakke

Do you have, fde101, inside information? Because the ’All three of them?’ quote you take out of my sentence, does not of course refer to these three already passed years. It refers to ”some day” and we don’t know how far ahead this will be. Your comment implies that the implementation will happen in the near future, maybe in a matter of months. If so, I’m glad.

That was an inspiring can of worms. I see this thread as a growing body of evidence into which every can is an important contribution. And, maybe, some day the critical mass is achieved and we see some concrete action after all these years.

Thank you, Patrick.

Garrettm30. Thank you for your post. In my opinion it was very comprehensive and matter-of-factly. As for myself, I was probably edgier than I intended to be with my ’censorship’ comment but there is story behind it, and this story also relates to - as it happens - Patrick Connor. I remember those quotes by Patrick you posted. But there is also one rather confusing episode by him which rather severely undermined my trust in him. (Quote start) On 3/22/2021 at 5:14 PM, Moudy01 said: May the absence of any mention at all not indicate the interest or else the lack of interest in this feature by Serif? PATRICK: Nope, in the same way that my saying nothing about poodles does not indicate my interest or lack of interest in poodles. (oh no I've mentioned poodles now!) ME: Dear Patrick. Please tell me that I misunderstood your post: the sentence you put in the parentheses (oh no...) struck me as if you are ridiculing something. Because if you are, you are ridiculing the paying clients of Serif. PATRICK: You have misunderstood my post, I am not. I am using an absurd example to say that one cannot say that because we have not mentioned it in an article Serif have a position on something (footnotes/endnotes) . The part in parenthesis makes a joke at my expense about that fact I have now mentioned the thing I said you could not know my opinion on because I had not mentioned it. (Quote end) And there is more about this later. (Quote start) On 3/22/2021 at 6:27 PM, MJWHM said: It may not reflect her true thoughts, but the article suggests that the sorts of publications which need footnotes and other features suited to academic publications are not a priority. PATRICK: You do understand that a marketing team are going to concentrate on what the software we sell is already good at right? Why would you write about academic publications with a product that cannot do them well ? You are doing exactly what I said, assuming something you believe is true because it was not mentioned in that article. (Quote end) I think what Patrick writes here in these comments is curiously hasty and out of proportion. He seems angry and the educational tone of his makes me feel as if I’m being told I’m stupid. That is counter-productive and demeaning. What is also very important is that these comments - correct me if I’m wrong - are the last relevant posts we have seen from Patrick and in my opinion they erode the integrity and trustworthiness of Patrick’s quotes you posted. So the question is: is this a real change of tone on behalf of Serif and if it is, what does it mean? I really don’t know. But be that as it may, it is hard for me to understand why we should stop our criticism just now.

So, are you saying that I should stop writing to this forum?

I don’t agree at all. Every single time as a newcomer has entered this forum, I have found a new angle to this discussion, because the projects and views of these newcomers are so diverse. Moreover and perhaps more importantly, PatrickOfLondon, you also dogde the actual question: are we really saying to those newcomers that they should just read and not write about their own experiences and insights?

If I am not mistaken, this recent activity within this thread began - once again - with a newcomer who was astonished by the lack of foot/endnotes in Apub. Are you, garretm30, suggesting some kind of censorship for these people?

This is so fascinating. Amidst this 3-year long frustration I’ve grown into tremendously enjoying reading about people’s projects. It is awe-inspiring how deep the expertise - and love - of book making runs. This thread contains also ingenious and highly-enjoyable writing in itself. Hence as a thought experiment it occurred to me: if there was a book about the absence of foot/endnotes, what would it look like? What would it read like? Would it be produced with Apub or some other software? Eitherway, it would be a fun creative challenge to mould the content of this thread to, say, a coffee table book.

Me too. But, ironically enough, this is something that one could ask Serif to do themselves: if you are not going to implement foot/endnotes, show us a workaround yourselves instead of hiding behind other people’s backs.

This would actually make a great Youtube video. A presenter with a straight face going thru a painstakingly detailed tutorial of how this is done step by step.

Thank you, Inspired Earth, for an excellent summary. For a person like me, who has been a dweller inside this thread for those three years, it was strangely meditative to see someone with a fresh set of eyes having a peek at this thread and to be able to condense it all to such a tight package. I agree 100 % to what you said.

Jim, your post was a magnificent piece and an excellent eye-opener: it seems to me that the overall competitive gear has been towards the management of visuals and the management of text has been the quiet child in the corner: easily ignored because unlikely to ever bring any food to the table. I don't get this: since Serif has already showed them to be more than capable of coming up with great visual management with Aphoto and Adesigner, why does Apub has to be an overkill in visual area at the expense of text management. By honoring text the ultimate marketing niche is at their feet and yet they seem to be reluctant to take it. Why?

Thank you very much indeed, garrettm30, for finding and displaying those quotes, for those are very important quotes. They are the quotes I live by at the moment. They are reassuring: something is really being done. They constitute, at least in my mind, a clear and precise promise. I do hope, from the bottom of my heart, that Serif can and will live up to this promise.

Dear Patrick. Please tell me that I misunderstood your post: the sentence you put in the parentheses (oh no...) struck me as if you are ridiculing something. Because if you are, you are ridiculing the paying clients of Serif. Yours Jakke

It’s been two years since the launch of APub and we still live in total darkness with no end in sight. All we can do is watch update after update pass by. I feel like a guinea pig for some sort of ’wear them out’ strategy. It also becomes for me more and more depressing to open Aphoto and ADesigner - which I love and need - because of this seemingly everlasting limbo. I find this kind of marketing strategy contemptuous and degrading. Therefore I thank you, IAmMatt, for your thorough and well laid-out analysis of the current standing. That was indeed fresh air for the sails of this thread.