AFFINITY isn't dead! An essay.

[jmwellborn]

Several years ago, I was notified by Adobe that, among about 10 million other of its customers, my account had been hacked by outside sources.  I needed to change my credit card, notify my bank, etc. and keep an eye on my credit rating for the next year.  It undoubtedly caused an enormous world-wide disruption.  I was unamused, but stuck with them, because Adobe had bought out Aldus Pagemaker.  Adobe then killed Pagemaker and replaced it with InDesign, and in order to stay current, we old customers had to pay $700.00 for the replacement software.  Fine.  When I upgraded my MAC in 2015, I discovered that I could not install my purchased copy of InDesign.  Adobe refused to recognize my registered serial number.  But I could always subscribe to their silly Cloud program.  So much for a “reputable software company.”

 

In the meantime, I had clunked along with Photoshop Elements, which I could still install  — unwilling to be suckered into the Cloud subscription to “rent” my own attempts at working with images.  How I hated that software!  Tickety, puckety, back and forth, file this, lose that, try to change this, “what do all those silly little boxes do?”

 

On a wonderful day in November 2017, I stumbled across Affinity Photo through Safari. It took just three how-to videos to know that here was an elegant company with a truly elegant application.  James Ritson, saying “thank you for watching,” at the end of each video was so gentlemanly and so courteous.   So unlike much of what passes for customer relations in the current era.  I originally bought Photo through the Mac App Store, but repurchased it in March 2019 directly from Affinity, as I wished to have everything “in-house.”

 

When Affinity Publisher was introduced I ordered it on June 3, 2019, the very first day it was available.  I transferred all of my publications from InDesign (and some iffy other publication software) to .afpub, and have not looked back since.  Publisher has done a spectacular job.

   

I have learned more than I could possibly have imagined in the last 5 years with the endless patience of so many of the Forum members as they respond to countless questions about the three apps, as well as to the never-ceasing efforts of the Affinity team to make their software better and better.  I have even learned the rudiments of Designer, although it will never make me an artist, no matter how it tries.

 

So why am I writing this?  Because, unlike the recent postings in Is AFFINITY dead? I believe that Affinity is very much alive and well.  For which we could all be extremely happy.   When I joined the Forums there were approximately (if I remember correctly) 47,000 members.  As of today, there are slightly over 164,000.  That is a 350% jump in people who may potentially post each and every day.  Not to mention the millions of people who are using the apps, who can potentially join at any time.  Serif has a posted list of 60 staff involved with Affinity. This means that if each team member were to spend a bare minimum of 15 minutes per current forum member for an 8 hour day, and if every one of the 164,000+ persons had a posted question requiring attention, Serif would need 5,129 employees just responding on the forums.     

 

Instead, we should wish that those same 60 very talented people are free to work each day, perfecting the existing apps as well as sorting us out when something is definitely going wrong.  Just like the rest of us, they have been working under horrible Covid-19 restrictions and conditions for the last 2-plus years.  Now, they are probably just as stressed as we are over the current inflationary and highly unsettled state of affairs around the world.  Their consistent courtesies to us all have been nothing short of remarkable.  To say the very least.

 

Just because “I want this!” or “You want that!” or “Everybody wants such-and-such,” is easy to post, does not mean that because we might not personally be getting just what we want when we want it, and we want it NOW, we are speaking for everybody.  Rather than suggesting that Affinity doesn’t care about its customers or that it is dead, wouldn’t it be refreshing if its customers let the Affinities know, just once in awhile, how much we care about them?

 

 

 

   

[debraspicher]

The staff here are good people. There has always been good rapport there as far as I'm concerned. They are responsive with feedback as much as likely feasible judging by how quick they tend to respond to threads, especially betas. They just can't give out information anymore than they're allowed and this frustrates people. I'm sure they share some of the same thoughts most people do. It is what it is.

[StuartRc]

Well Said!😀...and agree 

[Twolane]

I agree wholeheartedly.

I am so happy I discovered this software. Photo alone has saved me thousands of dollars in cover costs, for both ebook and print. While I do admit it was a bit of a bear learning Master Pages in Publisher, I persevered by watching videos and whining about it. Now I'm quite happily a self-proclaimed Publisher expert - in my own mind, at least. In any event, I now have 15 or 20 POD books on Ingram and Amazon. External and internal appearances rival that of the Big 5.

So, once again, thanks, Serif, for your efforts on behalf of a satisfied customer.