Dear Logos, what I hate about you ...

Before I go on my rant, I want to acknowledge that over the years (and more so recently) I have seen progress on the main uses I have for Logos/Verbum:

support for creating small Bible studies and a participant-friendly form of Logos on phone, tablet or laptop.
support for liturgical churches

But there are a number of systemic problems that need to be resolved if Logos is to have a reputation of a reliable, theologically neutral, stable application.

consistency in the user interface ... within the last couple of years there was a very long thread noting inconsistencies in the application
consistency in the documentation and awareness of how the documentation shows in popups and help. At the moment some documentation is missing and one has to look in "about" in certain interactives, separate manuals for many datasets, help ... and stylistic variation within the Help file makes its use in popups unpredictable
consistency in naming conventions across Logos generated function support resources i.e. the name used in the LBD should be able to be used in the navigation box of Factbook and vice-versa.
unfinished projects released but never completed e.g. the concordance still cannot handle n-tuples (multi-word lexical units), semantic roles/case frames were removed from the context menu and are now a nearly hidden feature, the report typo was removed from Factbook and not yet replaced, tagging for sermons which is not even reliable on new resources . . .
too high a tolerance for bugs that were not considered appropriately in the design phase i.e. too frequently saying "working as designed" rather than "it was designed that way but I see why it is a problem" Actually, the tolerance of coding bugs was historically far too high but I see hope on this point.
an unfortunate move away from being a leader in the visualization of data despite the very favorable user response to the Psalm bubble chart or the Intertext chord chart. I remember when Logos employees had some of the best blogs on visualization of Biblical data
too slow a response to the low-hanging fruit suggestions on the feedback site leading people to assume the site is ignored by Logos.

I do want to acknowledge three problematic areas where I understand why we yell and yell but see no progress ... but I think you should always have in the back of your mind in design sessions as issues that although seismic changes, must eventually be done.

distinguish Bible translation from commentary in Bible commentaries
treat footnotes as standard text (highlights, notes)
improved prioritization including view author intended Bible translation

I also wish to acknowledge some of the efforts that imply a partial turnaround:

simplification of the search syntax (although it still is in shake out the problems mode)
beta web search for syntax-less search
beta web insight panel for the small group participant

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Comments

Donovan R. Palmer

Logos has the challenge of not only producing a piece software, but a broad range of 'datasets'. Developing new software features, doing it on multiple platforms and keeping up with potential new materials being released by publishers must make for some interesting complexity to tame. Also the scope of what Logos Bible Software can do is very wide. I have often been in the camp of suggesting Logos is trying to do too much and the recent message from the CEO on focusing on their core mission was encouraging to see. I think we are already seeing some of the fruit of that. Maybe specifically...

too high a tolerance for bugs that were not considered appropriately in the design phase i.e. too frequently saying "working as designed" rather than "it was designed that way but I see why it is a problem" Actually, the tolerance of coding bugs was historically far too high but I see hope on this point.

I agree that we seen an improvement in this in recent years. Some time ago we debated the pros and cons of the software development philosophy of RERO (Release Early, Release Often). It seems that Logo's development philosophy has matured a bit. Logos used to be the only application on my computer that regularly crashed, but this has become more of a thing of the past.

too slow a response to the low-hanging fruit suggestions on the feedback site leading people to assume the site is ignored by Logos.

I completely agree. It has been dead over there, so if it is an active tool for Logos to gather feedback, then it does not appear so by the engagement of Logos employees. Yet maybe this is part of the problem. Logos is not exclusively a Bible Software programme when compared to its competitors. It is part library manager/reader and Bible software programme accommodating a broad number of user driven use cases. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

xnman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1266457#Comment_1266457

Logos is not exclusively a Bible Software programme when compared to its competitors. It is part library manager/reader and Bible software programme accommodating a broad number of user driven use cases. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

With the introduction of A.I. into Logos (which I believe will come sooner or later)... I can only see both the "Library Management" and the "bible software" getting better. Logos, like most companies that are not into the original A.I. makeup, are approaching the new technology very slow. There's a lot to learn in A.I. itself and then to "make it fit" into the companies (Logos) planned direction and business model... takes time.

Again I believe the wait will be well worth it.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1266591#Comment_1266591

You realize that Logos has been using natural language processing/neural network/artificial intelligence at various levels to build our data for several years and that the current web beta version adds additional layers of AI.

Koos de Lijster

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1266602#Comment_1266602

I don't know where they use it, but it could certainly be useful in the user interface to assist with or simplify tasks. For example, if I want to know: "Where in the Bible does the word logos refer to Jesus?". ChatGPT is sometimes more helpful than Logos...

I think many users of Logos (myself included) often do not use the software to its full (even half) potential, because it requires too much time to figure out how to do such things. AI could be very helpful here.

Mike Childs

I have used and purchased Logos updates since about 1991. However, there is still much about Logos that I do not use, and do not intend to use.

I use the books, the Bibles, the Greek and Hebrew tools, many of the commentaries, the Church Fathers, the maps, etc.

I have no use for many of the new features. I hate when new features are forced into my way and slow me down. One example is the Factbook, which keeps opening in my way when I do not need it. There are very few features of the newer Logos editions that I am interested in using.

I would like more emphasis on adding new books that are not available in Logos. Among these are the New Cambridge Commentaries and the Bicentennial Edition of Wesley's Works.

I would also like a reworking of the Wesleyan and Methodist packages to include more of Wesley scholars such as Craig Keener, William Witherington, Maxie Dunnam, Tom Oden, Ken Kinghorn. You might even include the Journal of Francis Asbury, or G. Campbell Morgan's Westminster Pulpit. It is getting to the point that my personal books, which I have added, are of more value to me that the 9,000 plus Logos books I have bought.

If you think that I am just a grouchy ole man, you are probably right.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1281382#Comment_1281382

One example is the Factbook, which keeps opening in my way when I do not need it.

I assume that you have turned the Factbook filter off so the issue only occurs in the Command box?

Mike Childs

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1281383#Comment_1281383

Thank you. I needed to know that. You have helped a grouchy ole man, and my wife will be most thankful.