Hillary Clinton on the Home page of Logos

It's discussions like this that make me wonder why FaithLife made the design decision to include news feeds on the Logos homepage.  I suspect they found it was technically simple enough with the tools they were using, and it sounded really neat.  But it has nothing to do with the core function of the software, and has an outsized capacity to create needless outrage.  It's not as if users can't get newsfeeds without FaithLife's help, or that by including the newsfeeds Faithlife will create an all-encompassing computing "ecosystem" so that users will never need to pop out of Logos and use another company's software.  In my last job I lived and died in Microsoft Excel - literally spending 6 to 10 hours a day in it - but I would have been completely baffled had they put a newsfeed feature on the opening screen.

EastTN said:

In my last job I lived and died in Microsoft Excel - literally spending 6 to 10 hours a day in it - but I would have been completely baffled had they put a newsfeed feature on the opening screen.

On the other hand, my current job requires me to spend my hours in Microsoft Visual Studio, and they do have a news feed on the home screen.

Stephen Smith said:

Well to be clear, the news feed in Visual Studio is all technical news.

That makes sense.  Thanks for clarifying.

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

I'm sorry that unhelpful content was showing up on your Logos desktop homepage.

I'll briefly summarize what we're doing about it and how it happened.

We're removing Faithlife News from the Logos desktop homepage. While it was disabled by default, many people turned it on not knowing what it was. They thought it was news from Faithlife and about Faithlife, or at least news that Faithlife endorsed.

Faithlife News was an attempt to provide a free Christian news aggregation service, similar to Google News or Apple News. We did select the news sources, but we're merely piping in the RSS feeds from these sources. We're not reviewing the articles and selecting which ones to feature.

We added a feature to the website to allow you to customize which news sources show up for you. This helps to ensure that you're not seeing news from sources you don't value. Unfortunately, that affects only what you see at the website, not the feed that shows up in the software on the homepage.

The homepage should be focused on helping you get into Bible study, and Faithlife News doesn't fit that objective. If you want to continue to use Faithlife News, you'll need to visit the website or choose one of the other methods.

(There's currently a known issue with the site that we're looking into. It stopped updating with the latest news 10 days ago.)

I actually think this is sad and extreme.  COMPLETELY REMOVING IT?  I think that instead of completely removing it, if it were better titled (which many of us admitted the title alone did not explain that it wasn't coming from Faithlife.  Specificity seems to be a bit of a challenge for FL (I say that in all love!).  Instead, if it were made clear WHAT it is and give the user control over the feed from the desktop, it would be great.

Just my .02.

MJ. Smith said:

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

We're removing Faithlife News from the Logos desktop homepage.

This is unfortunate. I would have preferred that you expand the service adding in many of the denominational news sites so that the news was more explicitly something one would not find in your normal news sources -- and more explicitly something that one selected the channels relevant to you. I also want a similar channel for the Verbum/liturgical users.

[Y]

MJ. Smith said:

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

We're removing Faithlife News from the Logos desktop homepage.

This is unfortunate.

I'm with MJ on this one. There are a number of things here that I find somewhat disturbing. 

1. A furious reaction from users of one political and theological stripe has provoked a response from Faithlife that sets a worrying precedent. I sincerely hope that Faithlife will not react in this way every time one political/theological group in the user base starts flexing its muscles. 
2. There are many evangelicals in the rest of the world (which is actually rather larger than the USA) who are of more left-wing persuasions. It is a false assumption that all evangelicals, let alone all Christians, have to be Conservative in their politics. 
3. Some of the opinions expressed in this thread belong, not here, but at ChristianDiscourse.com. They are linking theology and politics in a way that (I think) contravenes the Forum guidelines. I would have preferred Faithlife to point that out and ask them to take the discussion elsewhere. 
4. I am from Faithlife's traditional evangelical user base, and as a non-American don't envy any of you the choice you have to make between candidates I wouldn't want to have to choose between. Anything that is seeking to inform voters has to be helpful. I noticed that Christianity Today this week published a series of pieces from Christians advocating for each of the candidates. That, to me, was very helpful.
5. If Faithlife were to publish something advocating for Donald Trump, I can assure you that large numbers of non-American customers would be cancelling their pre-pubs (which seems to be the protest of choice around here nowadays). 
6. Some of the personal anti-Hillary vitriol in this thread is pretty disturbing, and I would hate any of my non-Christian friends this side of the Atlantic to see some of it. She is a fallen human being, as are all the other candidates. They just manifest that brokenness and fallenness in different ways.

EDIT: MJ posted her response while I was typing mine. I think she probably said it much better. 

Well, Robert, I guess talking about books is out, right?

Actually, I suspect the guy that left Logos, didn't code the selection part, or too messy .... and Logos is under the gun to produce more NOW features (plus some they already sold).

So, kill the News, and tell folks to study their Bible (from the Shades of Gray team, remember ... I assume on Faithlife software).

Actually, I like Hillary ... I know, I know ... we Christians have to out the few sinners we're able to locate.

Lynden Williams said:

Don't touch my news feed.

It's been touched.

Faithlife News is no longer on the homepage and the selection option has been removed, also.

Agreed. There are a zillion features that are more important than Faithlife News. I'm not gonna waste any votes on it.

If you want an RSS aggregator, have a look at Feedly.

MJ. Smith said:

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

We're evaluating what to do with it and how important fixing it is relative to other priorities. It's currently pretty low on the list. If you'd like to advocate for it, I'd encourage you to request it via UserVoice.

So now we are prioritizing bugs not just enhancements?  When was this policy change announced?

Feeds come and go on the Home page.  They aren't advertised features of Logos.  A broken feed isn't a bug in Logos, or a loss of a paid-for function.

Besides, I don't think removing a function that is half-baked is a bad move.  They did it with handouts.  If they don't have the manpower to support it, removing it is better than leaving it broken. 

I can see how some would miss it, though.

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

MJ. Smith said:

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

We're evaluating what to do with it and how important fixing it is relative to other priorities. It's currently pretty low on the list. If you'd like to advocate for it, I'd encourage you to request it via UserVoice.

So now we are prioritizing bugs not just enhancements?  When was this policy change announced?

And removal of features on < 24 hours notice ... why am I feeling less than warm and fuzz re: Faithlife?

I'm not asking you to do our work for us. We have bug triaging processing in place. I'm inviting you to show us we have our priorities wrong. From my perspective this is a low-priority bug compared to many other issues, many of which you've asked us to address. If you want to influence our perception of its importance, you have that opportunity via UserVoice.

It was bad user experience, and we don't know when we'll be able to address it. Leaving the broken experience would have been a mistake. I've personally spent multiple hours on this issue, and I know several other people have as well. I'd guess combined we've spend ~10 hours of company time on this. Leaving it up would have led to more time spent addressing questions regarding why this article or that article is showing on the homepage, why it hasn't updated in days, etc. Pulling it, and doing so quickly, meant allow us to focus on more important issues. The decision was an easy one.

I'm sorry I didn't do a better job of communicating all of the reasons more clearly up front.

That makes sense and really helps.  Thanks.

First, I don't use newsfeed ... I'm off-line, and happily Logos finally caved and let users go with a blank homepage ... in their UI-minds, users MUST have 'something' ... vs let users decide.

But this issue illustrates some curiousities:

- Why was the newsfeed added? It wasn't in L4. And given the idea, why half-programmed?  It sounds like an exec had a neato idea.  I pose the question, because, in theory feeds could be very useful for larger churches, and seminaries. Relgious news, the promoted one.

- Why is a feature being advertised the reason for not dumping a feature?  Advertising has to concentrate a target view, not list the kitchen sink.

- Why did Phil feel emboldened to dump a buggy feature right in the middle of an obvious customer discussion? That one is most curious. For some to shrug is fine (me), but is the platform so loosey-goosey, nothing is a dependable feature?

- Finally, playing like this is a neutral issue is dishonest ... it began with Hillary, which some denominations are not all that uncomfortable with. But Phil jumped quickly ... 10 hours?? He jumped for a reason.

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

Nathan Parker said:

Is Faithlife News still functioning correctly? I've noticed the RSS feed hasn't been updating for me.

No. It stopped updating 10 days ago. We're looking into it.

Nathan Parker said:

Just wondering if this feature is even sticking around or getting pulled completely.

We're evaluating what to do with it and how important fixing it is relative to other priorities. It's currently pretty low on the list. If you'd like to advocate for it, I'd encourage you to request it via UserVoice.

It's an interesting concept I've enjoyed, but if maintaining it is taking more focus away from other priorities at Faithlife, then I would be OK if it were sunset. While I like the idea of one-shop Christian news, I already subscribe to Christian news feeds through other sources like an RSS reader, and I don't see how Faithlife News is bringing people into the Faithlife ecosystem, improving their Bible study, and from a business standpoint, how its improving Faithlife's bottom line.

If it's something you can continue running with and not involve a ton of effort into it, great, as it is "nice". If it becomes too much to handle, I'll be OK if it's gone.

Gao, you're not done. But ignoring that, your donkey was a sign of leadership, and generally annointed by a god ... so the science says anyway .... and the NT.