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PLEASE bring back deprecated share via email functionality


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Hi, I'm writing to consolidate some initial user feedback on the deprecation and burying of the share via email function in the latest release of evernote (mac).

 

You don't have to look far to find users discontent with this change.  For instance: here, here, here and here.

 

In general, the user feedback seems to be:

  1. We like the new work chat feature
  2. But please also bring back the share via email functionality

Share via email is helpful in a few very key ways

  1. I can instantly email note content to multiple people (or myself)
  2. These people see the content of the note directly in their email rather than multiple steps later (opening a web browser, signing up for evernote, etc).
  3. MARKETING > these emails have a message at the bottom with a link to download evernote

There are many, many situations in work and life where I need to quickly email note content over to friends / family members / coworkers who simply do not have time or the desire to open an Evernote account.  Removing / deprecating the simple "share via email" functionality both removes this as an option, and removes all potential marketing to these people.  You have essentially crippled a really important piece of functionality.

 

The thinking may be that users will all switch entirely over to "work chat" mode and essentially market evernote to any and all people they wish to email note content too.  However, this is unrealistic.  For one, it's a HUGE barrier to entry if I need to require everyone I share a note with to open an Evernote account.  Not only will many of them not do this - it's way too slow.

 

If there are people I'm sharing notes with often - I am more than willing to use 'work chat' - but for these one-off note shares, it's simply way too many steps.

 

I believe the long term results of deprecating this feature will be disastrous for marketing - essentially cutting off a large block of your drip, soft marketing.  For instance, I (and I suspect many others) will no longer be using evernote to send one-off notes to people if this feature goes away completely.  As it is, it's already WAY less convenient.  The end result is that Evernote has LOST marketing to everyone I would have emailed notes to.

 

Please listen to the feedback of your users and bring back the share via email functionality - there's no reason we can't have BOTH share via email and work chat.  They are two separate functions, and not mutually exclusive.  Why not re-open up the entire world of soft-marketing by allowing your users to email notes to friends / coworkers without requiring them to set up an account?  

 

This isn't to take ANYTHING away from the great new work-chat features.  It's simply to give feedback that "share via email" should not go away either.  They serve separate purposes, and both further the Evernote marketing team's goals.  Removing functionality in the name of aggressive marketing will shut marketing pipelines down and aggravate your users.

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  • Level 5*

Please see the post on the topic by Jackolicious (Evernote employee) here, plus preceding discussion.

 

By the way, your topic title is misleading: email sharing has not been removed, though it has been moved to a less convenient location. I know that you know this, by reading your post here, but as I say, the title is misleading.

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I saw that post referenced, which is why I used the word "deprecated" in the title.  The feature has been deprecated and is slated to be removed completely.

 

The post does little to remove my complaint.  I cannot continue to use Evernote and will unfortunately move to a competitor if this functionality is removed completely.  I fail to see or hear a solid argument in that thread or otherwise, for removing this simple (basic) functionality.

 

Do you have an argument that makes sense for removing it?  Now any time I wish to share the content of a note with someone, I need to copy / paste into my email client (annoying and unreliable) or THEY need to:

  1. Create and confirm an evernote account
  2. Download and Install Evernote
  3. Accept my invitation

There is no way I will be using this in any context outside of inter-office communication where I can control what software people are using.  I'll certainly not be sending notes to clients / prospective clients, friends without evernote, family members without evernote, etc.

 

Has evernote even considered these use cases?  

 

Before:

 

"Hi <prospective client> - see below for notes from our meeting.  It was great having a chance to sit down with you and discuss ___ "

 

Now:

 

"Hi <prospective client> - I took some notes from our meeting and would love to share them with you.  To access the notes you'll need Evernote.  Do you have an account?  If so, can you let me know what email address you used to sign up?  If not, you'll just need to go to evernote.com and sign up for one, and then download and install software.  Let me know when you've gotten that far and I'll walk you through accepting my invitation to "work chat" so you can read the notes from this meeting."

 

In all of the "before" cases the simple "share note" feature actually resulted in advertising for Evernote (because of the link at the bottom of these shared notes).  Now all of that goes away.  

 

Any explanation other than "we take our user feedback seriously!  and... we're still removing this for undisclosed reasons"

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I saw that post referenced, which is why I used the word "deprecated" in the title.  The feature has been deprecated and is slated to be removed completely.

According to the linked post, they have not made the decision to remove it completely; the quote is "We haven't decided on a timetable for when (or even whether) we will completely remove the "email a copy of a note" functionality" (the italics are mine). Bringing back a feature that still exists is a misnomer. If you have a more recent reference that says that Evernote will definitely remove it, then that would be useful to see; I haven't see one yet. I certainly understand why they'd want to emphasize the new functionality; I'm not convinced that removing it is a good idea, and yes, I think that an explanation would be required if they do.

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A pretty good sense of the range of meanings of the word deprecate is given here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecation. Deprecation may indeed imply intended removal, but not necessarily so. Jack's statement, quoted above, implies that removal may or may not happen. Nitpicking can be fun and all, but it helps a lot if you actually understand the definitions of words you're nitpicking over.

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Evernote's willingness to essentially "deprecate" an entire app without warning like they did with Penultimate, which disrupted the workflows of many people (and resulted in data loss for others who had not sync'd their app), does not give me a lot of confidence that e-mail sharing will be around for long (or that we'll have much advance warning before it disappears).

 

Steve

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This is a great back and forth on the meaning of deprecated, but I think we're burying the lead here.

In what world has a "deprecated" feature of software ever stuck around? What about evernote's history would ever suggest that would be the case now? They've already buried the feature and declared it "deprecated". Ok let's leave the option that they may not kill it - THAT'S what I want to happen!

But I'd say at this point that is highly unlikely without hearing and seriously listening to user feedback like I was attempting to offer here.

Can we put the "definitions" discussion to bed and talk about the need for Evernote to keep and reinstate this basic piece of functionality? Seriously - the marketing implications alone are worth it.

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In what world has a "deprecated" feature of software ever stuck around? What about evernote's history would ever suggest that would be the case now? They've already buried the feature and declared it "deprecated". Ok let's leave the option that they may not kill it - THAT'S what I want to happen!

But I'd say at this point that is highly unlikely without hearing and seriously listening to user feedback like I was attempting to offer here.

Can we put the "definitions" discussion to bed and talk about the need for Evernote to keep and reinstate this basic piece of functionality? Seriously - the marketing implications alone are worth it.

I already indicated that removing it probably wouldn't be a good idea (and I don't even use the feature) and that they ought to give an explanation if they do. And I'd add that they ought to give some reasonable amount of notice before they do remove it, if they do; maybe they're counting from the first deprecation message that appeared in the forums, but I'd want something more formal than that, but hey, at least they didn't remove it outright, right? Eventually they'll do what they want, though, as history has shown (they won't be the first in the industry doing that, mind) so if it's critical to your workflow, I'd suggest that you've been forewarned. But in the meantime, absolutely, state your case -- that's what the forum's for, and Jack certainly invited it in the quoted post. Evernote has also been known to change their minds, after all (I think the shortcuts toolbar in the V5 Windows client was a case of that).
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  • 1 month later...

Another +1 to "bring back" email notes from the bowels of the menu structure.  Points have all been made as to the usefulness of the feature and the comparative inconvenience of the workchat for unrestricted sharing.  

 

(and a -1 to the semantic scholar who'd rather lecture us on the definition of deprecate)

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(and a -1 to the semantic scholar who'd rather lecture us on the definition of deprecate)

Uh, more semantics for you: the word "semantics" means, literally, "meaning", and the meaning of words is really, really important to understanding what someone else is expressing. If you don't care about the meaning of the words that you write, then you may get a surprise when people don't understand what you say.

 

You don't need to be a "semantics scholar" to understand that...

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  • 2 weeks later...

This really is an important feature that you need to keep!

 

I use Evernote very heavily and email individual notes to people frequently. Several times this has lead to a great conversation about Evernote and the recipient has become an Evernote user. But if they were forced to interrupt their VERY BUSY workflow in order to apply for an account and figure out a new tool just to see the info I needed to send them, THEN I WOULD NEVER HAVE SENT THEM A NOTE at all.  

 

Without this feature, I would have to open the note, copy everything, close the note, open an email, and paste it. And this interruption  would reduce my productivity, and might send me off looking for a tool in which I can be more productive.

 

I don't care where you bury the feature as long as (1) I can find it, (2) it works reliably, and (3) you never remove it! 

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  • 3 months later...

Totally agree with you -- this is the single most frustrating change and makes evernote practically useless!! total productivity killer.  I don't know what jerk decided to take away a totally useful functionality.

 

If I want a collaborative share, thats fine to add this forced sign up functionality. , but sometimes I just want to share the info..  I don't understand why I have to pay a lot

of money for aggravation!!!!

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Totally agree with you -- this is the single most frustrating change and makes evernote practically useless!! total productivity killer.  I don't know what jerk decided to take away a totally useful functionality.

 

If I want a collaborative share, thats fine to add this forced sign up functionality. , but sometimes I just want to share the info..  I don't understand why I have to pay a lot

of money for aggravation!!!!

 

No one has taken away the functionality.

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  • 2 weeks later...

No one has taken it away, but it remains deprecated, which means it is no longer supported and at some point in the future it is likely slated for removal.

 

Additionally, instead of being clearly available, and easily accessible, it is buried in a 2nd level menu item: Note > More Sharing > Email a note... and has no keyboard shortcut, so productivity has already been limited.

 

This is such basic functionality, that the only explanation for its removal is that Evernote is "flexing its muscles" in order to motivate users to be evangelists for the product: "Sign up for evernote so I can share my notes with you!"

 

This strategy has already had the exact opposite effect as intended with me, and I would contend with many many other users.

  1. I share notes less often with people who don't have Evernote. Result: less marketing reach
  2. I am less satisfied with Evernote as a productivity tool. Result: I recommend it less often
  3. I have become concerned that Evernote has a more aggressive, less than generous marketing philosophy. Result: I am actively awaiting a more generous competitor to arrive.

In general, removing basic functionality in an effort to drive sales, upsales, whatever has always backfired, at least with me. I'm hopeful that Evernote will get enough feedback on this feature to be willing to bring it back from deprecation.

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Actually, just found out that Evernote continues to remove functionality in order to drive up-sales. The email to evernote functionality will be disabled for basic accounts beginning June 1.

 

That, unfortunately means I'm out as a customer. I honestly wish the company best-of-luck in the future. I remember when Evernote was the hot startup and was aggressively customer-focused. *sigh*

 

With this kind of marketing strategy and customer strong-arming, Evernote better hope a more empathetic company like Slack doesn't enter their space.

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