How Long Can You Stay Loyal?
August 12th, 2008 | by GTD Wannabe |I find myself in an undesirable position these days. I’m torn between my natural loyalty to a once-great product, and my innate frustration with decreasing levels of service. You see, there’s this great piece of software that I love. But the new version has changed. Changed so much that it is a different product. I’m not a big fan of the new version, but I keep trying it out, trying to fall in love with it.
I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into this application – I’ve been a beta tester for years, I’ve posted innumerable helpful posts in response to questions on their forum, I’ve posted glowing reviews about it here. What do I get for all this effort?
On the one hand, part of the company is great – they’ve even gone out of their way to provide good service. On the other hand, almost every complaint I’ve had about the new version has been pooh-poohed. “No, you don’t need that particular functionality (any more) because the twitterific geo-caching wine-guzzling facebook-loving generation doesn’t need it. So, we’ve arbitrarily decided to remove the functionality. Even though you and other power users have clamoured for it.”
I’m guessing it’s a numbers game. If we assume Nielson’s statistics are accurate, then the vocal few of us on the forum are the “heavy contributors” and represent 1% of the user base. I figure, there’s maybe a dozen of us “power users” who (used to) show up on the forum. If we represent just 1% of the users out there, then I can see why this nameless company feels free to ignore us. (Kind of reminds me of that advice that businesses should fire their high-maintenance customers and save money on support.)
Normally, when I receive such shoddy treatment, or when a product starts letting me down, I just move my business. Unfortunately for me, this application is so unique that there are no direct competitors. Sure, I could get some of the functionality in some other places, but I can’t get all of the functionality, and man, have I ever gotten used to that functionality.
So, I find myself in the position of taking lesser and lesser levels of service, and even sucking up an occasional dose of patronizing bullshit on the forum. But to be honest, it makes me feel cheap and dirty. It’s not a pleasant feeling.
How long do you stay loyal to a favourite product? What’s the tipping point where you just give up and move on?
21 Responses to “How Long Can You Stay Loyal?”
By Simon on Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
This is so Evernote :) I used to follow the forum hoping they would put back in all the old goodness, with its intersecting tags and templates, and used to pray for a Mac version.
Now its kind of meh, but I love the way it syncs multi platform- its pretty much just become a dumping ground for web sites I want to review later, and the odd note. The lack of any sort of notebook level encryption was the killer for me using it for anything more important / personal. Which is a shame, because the fact it works on the iPhone could make it perfect for me if it had all the old features.
How long to stick by it? Until something better comes along, or they put back the features they said they would.
By Ankit on Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
Let it go… the new version is putrid. I am still using the old 2.x version and plan on using for a long time.
By John C on Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
You are the evangelist who first introduced me to Evernote. While the v2 platform needed work (template extensibility and pasting errors from certain MS Word documents when multi-level numbering was turned on), it was still basically a very good product. In fact, I even was singing its praises to a coworker this afternoon.
Unfortunately, v3 just isn’t the same product. I keep hoping that they will eventually add it some of the excellent v2 features. I have nothing against the new things they added. There was just no reason to get rid of the advanced v2 features to do it.
I have tried every product I can find, but as you have said, nothing quite does it. SQL Notes is too obtuse. My Notes Keeper is kinda light. One Note just isn’t the right data architecture.
Hopefully someone will see that the original product direction filled a very real need and decide to follow the path that the folks at Evernote abandoned…
Let us pray….
By Jim H on Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
Yeah. I was equally disappointed to hear the change in direction with V3. I’ve pretty much switched to TiddlyWiki (www.tiddlywiki.com) for my “web notebook”. Platform agnostic. Extremely extensible (tons of plugins/themes/bookmarklets) and if you’re any good with javascript, you can hack on it yourself (rather than wait for some corp to listen to your pleading). I hear there’s a firefox plugin to allow to you copy text from web pages directly into your TW – but I haven’t tried it (yet).
By GTD Wannabe on Aug 13, 2008 | Reply
I’ve looked at alternatives, but can’t find anything to match EN. My biggest concern is that I really want to be able to clip images/screenshots. The applications that organize/sort well don’t handle images so good. The ones that handle images (e.g., TreePad, which I used to use), don’t offer as much in the way of organization. Plus, the EN clippers most definitely still kick butt. Hard to find *everything*. Sigh.
By marcclarke on Aug 13, 2008 | Reply
GTD Wannabe,
I feel your pain. :-(
Marc
By Bob on Aug 13, 2008 | Reply
The problem is exactly what you stated…the power users made up 1% of the user base. To most people, the features added to version 3 more than compensate for what’s lost…and I’ll admit to being one of them. Being able to access Evernote from my Blackberry is what pushed me to use it more than once a month, which is what I did with version 2.
On the other hand, there’s a lot of concern about the viability of their new business model and it could very well fall flat on it’s face, giving you folks a good laugh.
By David on Aug 13, 2008 | Reply
I’m relieved to see there’s another person who feels the same way I do! I completely echo your disappointment and frustration that there’s no real substitute now that this product has taken a turn for the worse. I’m experimenting with a combination of other applications, but not really sure when I’ll find the application that fills the niche this one used to fill.
Gees…what an unnecessary dumbing down of a once very useful application!
By Drew Vogel on Aug 15, 2008 | Reply
It kills me that EverNote (2.2.1) has become Evernote (3.0).
I am in exactly the same position as you, Crane — I registered 3.0 and keep trying to fall in love with it (shortly after registering it, I decided I would use Evernote 3 for a full week, but went scurrying back to 2.2.1 after just over 24 hours), but the absence of features (note linking, automatic keyword categories, etc, etc, etc), the artificial (?) limitations (only 32 saved searches?!), and the marked change in direction of development and support are all forcing me to evaluate other options.
But, like you said, EverNote was such a unique product that there are no direct competitors. I’m considering UltraRecall and SQLNotes, but they’re not “there” yet.
I console myself that EverNote 2.2.1 still (nearly) perfectly satisfies my needs. It breaks my heart that EverNote 2.2.1 is the last version of the EverNote I’ve come to love and rely upon.
Anyone interested in offering to purchase EverNote 2.2.1’s source code?
By Klaus on Aug 15, 2008 | Reply
I am in the same predicament as all of you. I love EverNote 2; in fact I use it daily for all sorts of things. And I am really disappointed that EverNote 3 is so different. And, like you, I am not willing to give up on EverNote2… yet. I will use it as long as it works, I assume. I stil use another application, called KeyNote (which only supports text) to hold all my encrypted information.
I once saw another application, called MyInfo from Milenix, but never bought it. Maybe that is the way to go?
BTW: Thanks for all your great articles about EverNote2!
By DanGTD on Aug 18, 2008 | Reply
Apple did the same with iMovie ‘08.
Netflix did the same with its “Profiles” feature. (but put it back after 1300 angry comments on the blog)
It seems that upgrading a product by replacing it with something that does less, is not uncommon nowadays.
By GTD Wannabe on Aug 18, 2008 | Reply
It seems that I’ve struck a nerve here! Sigh. I was hoping someone would have secretly found a super replacement for all of us ;)
You know you’ve been on the EN forum too long when you have to explain to someone why the tag hierarchy as it is in EN3 is completely useless. I referred back to the philosophical debates about what a “category” was – a tag or a folder. I guess now that EN has decided to hedge its bets by separating the functionality (as well as that of attributes and saved searches). I think they’re doing that because it was “too hard” for users to figure out the old categories, since they were so flexible. Here’s to providing for the lowest common denominator! sigh.
By Drew Vogel on Aug 19, 2008 | Reply
Damn the lowest common denominator! That drives me CRAZY.
Or, let them pander to the lowest. But LEAVE the power features in there for the POWER USERS!
By GTD Wannabe on Aug 19, 2008 | Reply
You know, I’m honestly boggled by how many (new) users are asking for: (1) the goto source link again and (2) nested notebooks. And EN just keeps saying nothing. (Which really translates to pooh pooh we know what’s good for you.) Makes me want to pull my hair out.
By Marcin on Aug 21, 2008 | Reply
I was really wondering what your (and other commenters’) opinion on Ultra Recall was. I downloaded it a few days ago and I’ve been playing with it for a while now. It seems like a pretty mature product albeit a rather complex one when you first use it.
What I don’t like is that it costs $99 for the Pro version :-). And the cheaper Standard version is of no use to me because it does not allow customized templates or attributes.
Anyway, any comments of long-time users would be welcome.
By Drew Vogel on Aug 21, 2008 | Reply
@GTD Wannabe… Interesting observation that NEW users are requesting nested notebooks and the goto source link. I hadn’t noticed that, but find it highly amusing that we, the Gurus, aren’t so far off-base WRT what the unwashed masses want. Kind of makes me think that if Evernote (note: small “n”) had listened to us in the first place…
@Marcin… I’ve spent a little (very little, honestly) time with UltraRecall and like it for the templates (darned $99 Pro version!), but feel that it lacks the elegant simplicity of EverNote 2.2.1.
For me, so far in my limited testing, it seems like UltraRecall may be the brightest candidate for an EverNote 2.2.1 replacement.
By Marcin on Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
I’ve spent the entire evening yesterday playing with UR, discovering its features. It is powerful indeed. It can be overhelming initially, but it is really well thought-out when you understand how it works.
The only thing it is still lacking is decent documentation. It is very detailed, but very much focused on terminology of things, with very few practical, step-by-step examples.
I actually discovered most of its features but analyzing in great detail the provided samples.
By Drew Vogel on Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
I’ve spent some time with InfoHesive (http://www.2brightsparks.com/infohesive/index.html) and it’s pretty nice, too… So, for me, the two contenders are Ultra Recall and InfoHesive. I would like to hear opinions of others on how these two products compare to EverNote. Any comments about the communities around these two pieces of software would be welcome as well.
By Eric on Aug 24, 2008 | Reply
I’ve been a long time user of Evernote (had moved all my notes over from KeyNote, if anyone else remembers that one) and was an enthusiastic supporter and evangelized to many of my friends and colleagues about the product. But, like many of you, I have been equally disappointed in the new version. I was initially excited with the “syncing features” and was encouraged at the renewed development that was going on at the company. I keep expecting the “promise” of the incorporation of all the original features to occur. But, it appears that may never happen :(.
Besides the loss of many of the features from the previous version, it seems to me that this newer version is putting them more in direct competition with other products.
I’m still keeping my fingers crossed they will be incorporating most of the original features.
By WSP on Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
A very belated thanks for your excellent analysis of what happened at EN. I too was once an enthusiastic user and a frequent contributor to the EN forum, but I’ve since drifted off in other directions.
I continue to use EN 2.2 for a large project (a book) that is nearly finished and for a few specialized purposes, and I have done a lot of experiments with EN 3, but — like you — I find it inadequate for any serious note-taking. However, given the uncertainty of what direction EN will be taking in the future, I’m not willing to put any more notes into EN.
The best note-taking program I’ve found so far — after much experimentation — is MyInfo. It’s not as quick and intuitive and flexible as EN (but then what is?), but it does have tags (as well as a hierarchical tree), it handles links of all sorts very nicely, and it is much better than EN for organizing information and for exporting to other file formats. In some respects it’s not as good as EN, but in some instances it’s actually better. I think that’s about all one can hope for.