Yes, it is always serious when I begin a post with "Dear" in the title. This time, however, I am not annoyed, merely puzzled that FL procedures appear to have changed without any warning to users to adjust their expectations.
Within the last week, I have run into a variety of small problems which I have reported via the forums, the feedback function in Factbook, or the report typo function:
- The Factbook record for an author not showing his works (Issac of Nineveh)
- Inconsistency in titling making it difficult to find a Factbook record (Pope Alexander I of Alexandria vs Saint Peter of Alexandria vs Athanasius of Alexandria ... all of whom held the same position (Saint) Bishop/Patriarch/Pope of Alexandria)
- Missing sermon and letter tagging
- Parallel Gospel resources not appearing in the Parallel Passages Guide section / Parallel Gospel Reader
- Bible cross-reference not appearing in the Cross-reference Guide section
- Parallel Psalm resource not appearing in the Parallel Passage Guide section
- . . . ad nauseum
In the recent past, these kinds of problems resulted in response is some form of "it's been added to the list" which implied that if we waited long enough, the issue would be addressed. Recently, the responses have more often been in the less promising form of:
Additional processing is required for a resource to appear in Parallel Passages: we've been selective about which resources get that extra effort.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've put this on this list of resources that could be updated.
I can understand that as Faithlife has added tagging, they may have outstripped their ability to actually provide it retroactively e.g. the letters containing only the author/recipient/date data but not the content information. And where it is possible I don't object to adding the information myself in those cases where it is important to me. I do object to not being able to add the data because of limitations in the LCV (e.g. I do not find an entry for Arius).
But what I do object to is not being able to tell when I purchase a resource, especially a brand new resource, not knowing which of the functions I would expect it to work with, it will actually work with. I buy with the presumption of paying a premium for the additional functionality provided by the software. Yes, I should manage my expectations better by better separating new to me from new to Logos, but the truth is that each time I run into a function the resources isn't coded for, a link that isn't made, a search or guide that fails to pick up my new resource, my satisfaction with the product drops slightly and my motivation to enthusiastically recommend it drops a notch. If Faithlife provided me with clear information proactively managing my expectations, the slow erosion of confidence could be stemmed.
