Granddaddy Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 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." mopperle, William Overington, Alfred and 2 others 1 1 1 2 Quote Affinity Photo 2.4.2 (MSI) and 1.10.6; Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 (MSI) and 1.10.6. Windows 10 Home x64 version 22H2. Dell XPS 8940, 16 GB Ram, Intel Core i7-11700K @ 3.60 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 I thought April Fools' Day is on Monday… mopperle, RichardMH, PaulEC and 2 others 5 Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 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? myclay and Alfred 2 Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debraspicher Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 I would say ultimately yes it will remain free since they rely heavily on their userbase to volunteer their time with free tech support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granddaddy Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 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, iuli and myclay 3 Quote Affinity Photo 2.4.2 (MSI) and 1.10.6; Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 (MSI) and 1.10.6. Windows 10 Home x64 version 22H2. Dell XPS 8940, 16 GB Ram, Intel Core i7-11700K @ 3.60 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 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. PaulEC 1 Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 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! Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryLearnTech Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 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"… emmrecs01, mopperle, PaulEC and 2 others 4 1 Quote —— Gary —— Photo/Designer/Publisher: Affinity Store, v2.4.n release Mac mini (M1, 2020), 16GB/2TB, macOS Ventura 13.4.1(c) • MacBook Pro (Intel), macOS Ventura • Windows 10 via VMware Fusion • iOS: current release Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granddaddy Posted April 1 Author Share Posted April 1 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. emmrecs01, iuli and PaulEC 1 2 Quote Affinity Photo 2.4.2 (MSI) and 1.10.6; Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 (MSI) and 1.10.6. Windows 10 Home x64 version 22H2. Dell XPS 8940, 16 GB Ram, Intel Core i7-11700K @ 3.60 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Leigh Posted April 3 Staff Share Posted April 3 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. R C-R, Dan C, William Overington and 2 others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave.Kelly Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron P. Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 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. Quote Affinity Photo 2.4..; Affinity Designer 2.4..; Affinity Publisher 2.4..; Affinity2 Beta versions. Affinity Photo,Designer 1.10.6.1605 Win10 Home Version:21H2, Build: 19044.1766: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s);32GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 3070, 3-Internal HDD (1 Crucial MX5000 1TB, 1-Crucial MX5000 500GB, 1-WD 1 TB), 4 External HDD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 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? Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave.Kelly Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 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. R C-R 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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