Freedom is another value

[Gianni Becattini]

I started a few years ago coming around this forum and initially I was very angry for the instability of Publisher. Over the time I appreciated more and more this Community and today I am a convinced sustainer of it. In addition, I think it is even more valuable than the Affinity products themselves. It's a paradox, I know, but it (the Community) multiplies their value (the products), making them more usable than many others.

Today happened something that made me appreciate even more this forum. The opportunity was that I was censored on the Apple Community forum for having expressed, in polite form, my dissatisfaction for the continuous iCloud problems, never corrected by Apple (which, by the way, are often the real cause of apparent Affinity problems).

I understand so that this forum has another great value: it allows us to express our opinions even when not positive. 

Another thank you to this wonderful Community.

Gianni

[PROdult]

Yes, companies and individuals who cannot tolerate criticism are weaker and less capable than others because criticism is the cornerstone of looking beyond one’s own skull, improving oneself, and ultimately becoming a more complete person in a complex world. It takes intelligence and life experience to handle criticism, which is why many respond to it like small children. The infantilization of the world is concerning.

However, it is not the community to whom you owe this thanks and recognition, but Serif, who owns and moderates the forum and truly deserves gratitude for providing a democratic platform that is refreshingly free from the extreme fear of words that has hindered societies in recent years.

Without Serif’s democratic rules and governance here, you shouldn’t be so sure of the same freedom in this forum. Human nature and small communities all too often unconsciously drift toward what you experienced at Apple - freedom requires someone actively ensuring and protecting it, and here, that someone is Serif. Thank you for that! Out in the world, you can all see what happens when people don’t fight to have the protection of their freedom in place.

[Gianni Becattini]

I perfectly understand, thanks to Serif!

[Granddaddy]

These forums are a huge benefit of using Affinity products. 

I'm using a competing product now for most of my routine snapshot editing because of its AI masking. I'm doing things I never thought of doing with Affinity Photo, in part because it is too tedious or difficult in Affinity. Now with a couple of clicks and a slider I can enhance parts of a photo I used to leave alone as being good enough. My snapshots are now much better than previously.

This competing product advertises itself as not requiring a subscription. But the users forum requires a subscription and many if not most of the tutorials also require a subscription. Sadly the forum has very little traffic and is not very useful. I'll not renew my subscription. It gives me the impression that few people are actually using this competing product. I've said that to the company without effect. Also, there are few user-generated tutorials in comparison to Affinity. Here we have dozens of tutorial makers, some contributing several hundred tutorials. For the competing product the tutorials are few. 

So, indeed, thanks to Serif for building a model for customer support with this superb forum and with tutorials. It pays off in the long run.