Possible ongoing concerted attack on Affinity 2 on these forums

[bayustudio]

I think v1 has been around too long, and 6 years of free updates give a false impression of a lifetime update..
There's a stereotype that adobe subscription= greedy evil, so one-time affordable alternatives like Affinity, Procreate, and Clipstudio is the loved one by the community. Besides the good quality of the software itself, the pricing is the factor that gives them a lot of popularity.. people happily recommend it to others even without a referral incentive. 
when there are changes related to pricing or spending more, it will be resulting a lot of vocal dissatisfaction that happens organically.

A worse thing happened to Clip Studio Paint a few months before, when they announced the upcoming app version and told perpetual 1.x owner will not get updated features anymore. plus the introduction of optional subscriptions makes them kind of got canceled on social media. 

Imagine what could happen if Serif announced a subscription plan 😀

[NewInBoston]

14 hours ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

I have noticed that the majority of negative and "disappointed will not upgrade" threads since V2 was released are all started by new accounts. There seems to be a recurring pattern: focus on a single missing feature that's been requested for a longer time or on the new Windows installation method. Or undermine the new features.

Quite a few also mention they will not invest in v2 further and insist they are loyal, but disappointed users. Or "I am really interested, but..." then say they cannot purchase the software until that X feature, that the Y commercial option happens to have, is added. Or they mention they will not upgrade. "It's a promising release, but we should wait it out". "Why isn't feature X implemented yet! Outrageous!".

All of them are thread starters. All seem focused on one thing: focusing on generating negative feelings about V2 and the Affinity products. And all of them are created by accounts that were set up by new accounts following the V2 release. Some use older accounts that were inactive for a long time.

And these accounts often respond to other complaints if that thread is not gaining enough traction.

If I were the moderators, I would investigate if a concerted attack is going on to undermine the v2 release. It seems rather suspicious.

I thought about listing examples, but I think that it becomes quite obvious for moderators once spotted.

I noticed the same thing, as did a few others. Some is absolutely organic, but most is not.

Most people haven’t a clue that big corporations use forum brigading all the time for nefarious purposes. It’s well documented.

There are a few active vocal “dissatisfied” users who spread into every thread like a toxic mold.

[RyS]

What a lot of ranting and raving.

When it comes to discounts for new versions and loyalty to users, Serif have made their position very clear ever since Affinity was introduced. Before Affinity, Serif produced the Windows only range of Plus programs. These were dropped when Affinity arrived (originally for Mac only) and users of the Plus range have never been able to open their files with Affinity. However, I don't think anyone can complain about the cost of Affinity or the improvements that have been made during the life of version 1. If Serif had given a bit more thought about not upsetting people they could have offered free upgrades to version 2 for those purchasing version 1 during its final six months or so.

When it comes to installation of V2 this seems that again Serif are out of touch with users. I landed up purchasing from Serif but then downloading from Microsoft store and using the Serif credentials to activate. On a second PC with almost identical specs the msix files installed with no problem, except for not giving me a choice of which drive to use. When someone purchases programs it is extremely frustrating to have to go through no end of hassle before they can even start using them.

And then there is the constant knocking of Adobe. I have been using Adobe going back to the days of Pagemaker before the birth of InDesign. I consider their pricing acceptable when looking at the cost compared to the income they have enabled me to achieve. The Creative Suite contains so many superb programs. Affinity has three. If these three programs provide all that is needed then the cost of the Adobe suite cannot be justified. But if the need exceeds what Affinity provides, Adobe may well be the better solution. I am well into retirement so no longer need, or have, an Adobe subscription and the three Affinity programs quite adequately provide all I need now, and provide a good degree of enjoyment. I still have Adobe CS6 so happily use both Adobe and Serif.

In the end I think one has to accept that Serif are offering well designed programs at reasonable cost but lack ideal loyalty to their customers which may just be a case of lack of thought. The result has been the release of new versions, which do offer a good number of improvements and new features, clouded over by a lot of dark clouds of frustration.