Will Affinity forums remain free or will Canva charge a subscription fee? Answered: Will remain free

[Granddaddy]

Will Affinity forums remain free or will Canva charge a subscription fee for user forums?

Some Affinity competitors charge a substantial subscription fee to participate in community forums, to access user resources, and to view tutorials. Annual fees for what they call "user support" can equal the cost of the software itself.

Affinity's free forums provide one compelling reason to continue using Affinity. In these Affinity forums there is extensive support for all users--both casual and professional, both new and experienced, both amateur and professional. These free forums constitute a fellowship of users. Here users from all over the world come to understand and benefit from their affinity for one another. 

I hope this free community of users will continue under Canva. 

Edited 4/4/2024

I'm happy to say that @Leigh responded below saying: "things will remain the same i.e the forums and Technical Support will remain free."

[loukash]

I thought April Fools' Day is on Monday… 

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Granddaddy said:

Some Affinity competitors charge a substantial subscription fee to participate in community forums, to access user resources, and to view tutorials.

Which competitors charge anything for accessing their customer support forums or for viewing web-based tutorials?

[debraspicher]

I would say ultimately yes it will remain free since they rely heavily on their userbase to volunteer their time with free tech support.

[Granddaddy]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

Which competitors charge anything for accessing their customer support forums or for viewing web-based tutorials?

Here's one example:

https://www.on1.com/plus/forums/

https://www.on1.com/products/plus/

Subscription is regularly $55/year, but on sale at a discount at the moment. That's equal to the full price I paid for ON1 Photo Raw 2024 last month on a special promotional offer. They had sucked me in at the end of January when they were giving away ON1 Photo Effects for free, a fact I was alerted to in these Affinity forums.

It was worth the money as I'm learning a lot about a whole different approach to editing, including AI functions. But community support seems poor.

They have some free community forums, but they are pretty empty of content and would give the impression that no one is using their products.
https://on1help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/topics

When you participate in the free forums, your actual name gets posted with your question or comments. I told the company I thought this was a deterrent to using those free forums. I don't know how the paid forums work, but why would they be any different.

 

[loukash]

11 minutes ago, Granddaddy said:

They had sucked me in at the end of January when they were giving away ON1 Photo Effects for free

Oh, thanks for reminding me to finally delete this useless bloated piece of… er… code.  

[loukash]

19 minutes ago, loukash said:

to finally delete this useless bloated piece of… er… code

Speaking of which…
The On1 "uninstaller" applet (note the scare quotes) primarily uninstalled itself, as far as I can tell.
So I had to use Find Any File to search the startup volume for anything with "on1" or "onone" in its filename, to eventually delete around 2GB worth of data junk.

40 minutes ago, Granddaddy said:

They have some free community forums, but they are pretty empty of content and would give the impression that no one is using their products.

Shocking! 

[GaryLearnTech]

I doubt very, very much that Canva will try to monetise the forums.  But, let's imagine for a moment that they did.  How long do you think it would take for a free, independent alternative to appear?  My money would be on "not long"…

[Granddaddy]

I'm disappointed that my simple question about the future of these Affinity forums has not been answered by any forum moderators, Affinity staff, or Canva/Serif principals who might actually know whether Affinity technical support will remain free under Canva ownership.

Sadly, this lack of response is likely to stimulate even more uncertainty and speculation about Affinity's future.

Will there be free user forums for Affinity users? Will Canva/Affinity staff participate in any free forums that might exist? How many of those now paid by Serif to participate in these free forums will still be employed in six months?  How much will Canva charge Affinity users for technical support? 

Responses from knowledgeable people in Canva/Serif would be most helpful.

[Leigh]

On 4/1/2024 at 7:50 PM, Granddaddy said:

I'm disappointed that my simple question about the future of these Affinity forums has not been answered by any forum moderators, Affinity staff, or Canva/Serif principals who might actually know whether Affinity technical support will remain free under Canva ownership.

Thanks for your patience @Granddaddy you'll understand we've had a much higher volume of contacts to respond to since the announcement but to answer your question, things will remain the same i.e the forums and Technical Support will remain free.

[Dave.Kelly]

On1 has closed the user to user forum which I think is a dumb move. On1 comms were never brilliant but I do like their software. Looks like facepage will be the main source for fast help.

[Ron P.]

18 hours ago, Dave.Kelly said:

On1 has closed the user to user forum which I think is a dumb move. On1 comms were never brilliant but I do like their software. Looks like facepage will be the main source for fast help.

Seems to be the trend. Alludo, which purchased Corel, just closed down their digital media, user to user forum. This forum had been running for the past 20+ yrs. A couple of the admins of the old user forum, got together and put up a similar help forum, for those that use Paintshop Pro, and VideoStudio. Rumor says VideoStudio may be at the end.

[R C-R]

On 4/3/2024 at 9:30 AM, Dave.Kelly said:

On1 has closed the user to user forum which I think is a dumb move.

Do you mean something other than https://on1help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/topics?

[Dave.Kelly]

As it stands the only interaction with other On1 users is the On1PhotoRAW users facebook group, and the access provided by On1Plus. The user to user forum was quite low traffic and a lot of days I wouldnt look there. I am keeping tabs on AffinityPhoto and if an "open in" or "send to______ after export" is offered  I will upgrade to V2. At present I have to save as a PSP and overwrite the imported file. I do want to learn how to get the most out of Photo.