1 Reply by Phil Friel

(52 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Joe wrote:

Yes it's completely gone. Some or perhaps all of the contributors to the old forums who have transfered to here may still have example/demo files, but you need to ask a specific question to find out.

That's an awful pity. The CommunityPlus forums were a fantastic repository of help and knowledge for the Serif Plus range of software. If none of the Serif staff could be spared to run the forums, I'm sure that some of the more experienced and knowledgeable of the forum members would've been only too happy to step up and take over as admins or moderators. At the very least, the forums could've been archived and made read-only. Nobody would've been able to post, but at least all that knowledge would've been preserved for any Plus users to read. But to just scrub them like that, to wipe them from existence, was an act of pure vandalism.

From memory, the WebPlus software could not be modified to keep pace with other emerging responsive software. It needed to be completely rewritten as a new product line. The demise of Webplus was hastened by the departure of the principal programmer/developer. Serif chose to go in a different direction and dump the Plus range.

I understand that completely. It was very sad that development on all of the Plus range ceased prematurely, before the Affinity software was ready for purpose (it's still years behind the Plus software re: functionality), but we could've taken that on the chin if they'd been more sympathetic and supportive of long-standing customers. But the way that they treated the loyal, long term Plus users who had helped make the company in the first place really sticks in the gut. Serif's attitude was disgusting. Former customers were cast adrift, cut off completely and treated like lepers or pariahs. It was as though Serif tried to erase them, pretend that they didn't exist. What a lousy way to treat the customers who had helped make your company successful. But Serif aren't making any money from them anymore, so they don't give a toss about them.

You'd think Serif would have at least left CommunityPlus up there as a support forum, to show a bit of thanks to previous customers for their loyalty. But no, they couldn't even do that. Considering the fact that the moderators on the Affinity forums always advise people who use Plus software to continue using those programs if the Affinity programs don't suit their needs, I find the fact that Serif have erased the only Plus software support forum to be highly ironic.

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2 Reply by Phil Friel

(52 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I used to hang out on CommunityPlus a lot, mostly as a lurker. There was so much incredibly useful information there. Is it completely gone or has the forum been archived as read-only? If it's completely gone, then all that invaluable information and support has been lost, and that makes it an even greater disgrace, greatly compounding what Serif had already done to their loyal userbase of Plus customers.

After years of being part of a fantastic Serif community (one of the main reasons I stuck with them instead of looking elsewhere), it's so sad to see Serif turn out to be just as mean and unscrupulous as the likes of Adobe, Corel or Microsoft. Serif was a tiny start-up company back in the 90s, brought up from nothing by their loyal Plus user base, who they have now abandoned. Now they've become just another rat in the corporate rat race. They don't deserve to be supported. I guess none of us ever thought that Serif would behave like this. But this always happens with any company when they get too big for their boots.

I went through almost exactly the same thing with Corel many years ago. I've never bought a Corel product in all the years since then. They bought up a small company (Softquad) that produced a lovely piece of web design software (Hotmetal Pro) that had long been an important part of my workflow. They immediately erased the software from existence and soon afterwards did the same to the online support forums, where frantic users were begging for help and information. Disgusting. I was so angry, absolutely livid. Now history repeats itself on an even larger scale with Serif. Except it's even worse, as Serif did it to their own software and customers, whereas Corel had zero loyalty to the software and customers that they had "acquired" from another company. This kind of vile corporate behaviour really makes my blood boil.

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3 Reply by Phil Friel

(52 replies, posted in General Discussion)

This now seems to be the only online haven for users of Serif's Plus software, especially since CommunityPlus has closed down. I reckon that Alfred's Serif Users' Forums will prove to be a godsend to us all. At least they are independent from Serif and their nasty machinations. They also prove a point that I've been making for many years - NEVER trust ANY corporate entity, EVER, and ALWAYS set up an independent Users' Forum free from their control, as you have done here.

An external, independent user-run forum for Serif users should have been set up years ago, right from the start. If that had been done in the early days of Plus software, things would've been a lot better now. But better late than never. I hope that these forums expand greatly in size and become a safe spot online for Plus users, picking up all of the refugees from the CommunityPlus forums. Have you been able to attract or contact many of them yet?

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4 Reply by Phil Friel

(52 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Alfred, many, many thanks for setting this forum up, and for letting me join.

I've been out of the loop for the past couple of years due to eye cataracts keeping me from using the computer, reading, indeed pretty much everything. I was effectively blind. But both eyes are now fixed, thanks to the wonderful NHS. I recently had the second eye done, after the first one several months before. So now I'm back online, looking to get back back into the swing of things. It seems that there have been some changes in the couple of years that I've been gone, mostly not good.

I joined the Affinity forums a couple of days ago, and from there, I've now come here. The biggest shock that I've had is finding out that Serif has closed down the CommunityPlus forums!! When and why did they do that??? Did they not do enough damage with the atrocious way that they abandoned their loyal long-term Plus customers?? CommunityPlus was the one vital support mechanism left for Plus users. The very least they could have done was leave it there and running under the administration of a few select regulars, if they believed that they couldn't spare Patrick or any of the other Serif staff to run it.

What was Serif's reasoning for closing CommunityPlus down? Was it sudden, or did you guys get plenty of warning? The way they have treated their long-term loyal customers has been absolutely disgraceful, despicable, just abandoning the software and users without a care and then then closing down the support forum for the Plus software. I swear, it makes me regret ever supporting them by buying the Affinity suite, instead of going down the alternative route that I was seriously considering (and still am) with open source software like GIMP/Inkscape/Scribus, which I would've used for new projects alongside the Plus software (for the older stuff), and then move over to the open source software completely once a future version of Windows no longer supports the Plus software. At least there's no disgusting corporate back-stabbing with open source.

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