SWSL

Anyway, the survey prompted me to consider and I wanted to put something positive out on the forum. If they see it, fine. Don't want to just complain all the time! Interesting that the surveys vary from user to user. Mine asked about a dozen things. Speed, interface, etc. Noted improvements over the last 3 or 6 months, I forget.

I went to take the survey and found that it is asking if we have noticed improvements (in V10) in recent months - basically since BS started improving things. But I was using legacy up until the last month or so and can't compare V10 1/23 to V10 1/24. What I can say however is that before, I didn't like using V10, especially the Android version 18 months ago when I tested it. It seemed slow and buggy. Now since I got pushed onto V10 I really like it. I think that it has matured into a good product. Thanks BS! Product rocks! Now I would love it if you can find a way to offer a more affordable subscription level. As noted before. Sliding scale with low income proof or reduced but workable feature set level for those who have smaller budgets. Cheers

@Wandering Reborn: You make some assumptions to arrive at your conclusion that there are no options possible besides double or nothing. But after watching several rounds of subscription structure and pricing changes over the years and seeing how these things vary with other products, I am not convinced that the pricing structure of the moment is the only sustainable option. We will see how the new owners' thinking about their product and market evolves. They may have hit on a good balance just as you believe. As I tried to say, there are many ways to skin this cat and each has it's trade-offs.

Actually, many long term customers have been paying in at now eliminated levels. When our renewals come up and our cost rises significantly, there will be some who are not big users or don't have enough disposable income that opt out unless there is a workable option. As far as server usage goes, monthly upload limits has been one of the ways to distinguish levels from the start. And, as most of us know, many many apps and programs offer good utility for a regular plan while locking out cool features that business, power and/or high income users will not want to miss out on. There is always a decision with a business about pricing. Do you price higher and make more on fewer users or do you price lower and depend more on economy of scale. In this product servers are not the only expense. Management, maintenance, development. initial buyout etc. all contribute to the cost of the service and these can lower per user as numbers go up. Again, I'm seeing many corporations dealing with this so that they can have it both ways. They get the most out of customers who have the money to pay premium while offering a good enough product for those who might be otherwise excluded from the customer base. An example is cell service. Post pay cell service in the US is very expensive but you get priority and support. The same companies also now run somewhat separate prepay businesses that use the same network but deprioritize data and minimize customer support. It works. Everybody gets what they can afford and the companies get more business off the same network.

So the level/price structuring is final then? I imagined that they are still sorting things out as they redefine the levels. Are you with management or perhaps have a good line of communication with BS ?

Well said. But it goes beyond the "free ride" dismissal. Many of us have paid in consistently over many years, supporting the company and turning on others to EN; it was hardly a free ride. Still, at some price point, cost is an issue. It's not even "could you make a Corolla for us little guys? " It's more like "Hey, you got me to try your automobile invention and after a decade I have become accustomed to having a car - it is really a fine way to get around. But then you added so many features (or maybe cars were always subsidized and the price was artificially low, but anyway) now it's looking like my only option is a high-priced luxury car. But me, I don't really need all the luxury, I just need a car. It sure would be nice if you could offer something dialed back and more affordable for our market segment. Maybe it would even help your bottom line!" Personally, I use EN enough so that I will drop Amazon prime or something as EN gets more expensive. I depend on this system and it's important to me. I don't really care about most of the added features but now that they are part of the package, I don't seem to have a choice. Leather seats or no seats? OK, looks like I'll be paying for leather. I used to ski and would see this with the smaller resorts. They would have a nice mountainside with 4 good lifts. Affordable. good skiing. Plenty of vertical. Short lines. Then they opened another area, built more parking lots, more lifts, then lodges, more development. Eventually, it's another big deal place that is crowded and charges top rates. Do I get to ski more? No, actually the lines are longer so I skied less. Eventually, I couldn't afford it anymore and stopped skiing. I guess their business model worked for the investors anyway. It's an aspect of how the world works today - but I'm not a fan.

I am also concerned about the price change when mine renews from whatever the least expensive level was last called (Plus?) to what is it now, "Personal"? I did see that BS is offering a student discount and wonder if there could also be a "retiree/low income" tier. Amazon USA offers this for prime subscription and I was able to verify low income using a medicaid approval among other things. Just a thought. If you are making good money etc, then new pricing is still affordable I suppose. But if you are living on a very restricted (under 30K USD for us) income, it's a much higher percentage of the yearly budget than for a "middle-class" 60 -150K household. I know, it sounds whiney and anyway, why would anybody with a low income need good tools, right? But realistically, there are a lot of people who live like students and it's a market segment that could represent additional income as free gets phased out. To reiterate, I am a long time subscriber advocating for sliding scale pricing that covers more than just students. Don't have to create a new tier, just offer vetted alternate billing schemes as already done with promotions. Many companies do this on a case by case basis via their "customer retention" department and maybe BS will too. But upfront would be best.

Thanks. I just checked and search already looks clearer than I noticed the other day. I must have been searching in a different mode, not sure. Actually it's quite easy to tell where I'm searching. For some reason I have a grayed out filters option but nice to know that there is that possibility and it's improving just as I was hoping for.

I came back to chime in that I've now switched to the v10.x on the desktop and it's looking very good so far. I forget the issues I saw before, but it seems to be working fine and the layout and interface is not feeling too clunky or complicated by feature gloat. I'm having a bit of trouble sorting out search but I could never get the search in legacy to work well for me. Seems like it's better now, I just need to sort out when it's searching what. In that area, I would hope that we can eliminate the need for terms (like "intitle:" and just have a priority that would put a result found in the title at the top or give a checkbox like most forums have. So, at this point, I feel like EN 10 is fully adequate and as good of a tool (for my use case!) as before. Also hoping that my Android installations (especially tablet) will prove to function better as I poke at them now and then. Now my only real concern is whether I can afford the ever-inflating pricing scheme. They really need a low level tier to keep everyone in the fold, but paying. I would vote for a lowish monthly upload limit as before. I guess it may come down to choosing Netflix, Prime or EN, for those of us that have to live on a tighter budget. There are SO many ongoing fees these days it's insane. EN will win over Prime if they can offer anything close to the plus subscription cost. Anyway, as one who mostly reports issues, I wanted to put in a word or two on the positive here.

Oh, I know. Probably that was an unnecessary comment on my part. Not helpful. I'm not even looking for support, just sharing my experience. Mostly I was just commiserating with the OP that for somebody on the go, when the app was upgraded and got difficult we just had to jump over to using the simple reliable Keep. But thanks- Next time I have time, I will check into the app again on my various Android devices to see if I can use it now. That would be great. Better to come at it with a "half-full" approach instead of the "why is my glass suddenly half-empty"? Haha. Cheers

After I was forced into the Android update, the first time I actually needed it, I want to take a photo note. It kept freezing. I finally saved the photo note in google Keep. Repeated visits to EN android have mostly been painful, many steps to get where it should be easy, difficulty moving around in the app with interface decisions and overall, enough dysfunctionality so that I concluded to only have it on the phone for emergencies but to do anything I need access to in Keep. I have resigned myself to the new reduced functionality and no longer being able to depend on EN mobile app. As long as the Windows client can keep working, it should be easier to deal with a poor interface on a bigger screen. Still on legacy there - my red banner went away, not sure why. But anyway, I will just download pdfs to my phone and put key info into into Keep or email as needed for reference. Trying to adjust to what I am stuck with. Too bad - it was so convenient before! That's my experience, but I suppose I'll be told that my experience is not valid because it works for you and I'm doing something wrong. I don't know - I just wish it would work like it did before they fixed it. Don't have time to fool around.

Me too. I'm need to unfollow. Not important. But the other day it occurred to me "if they didn't put images there at all - it might be better? But eventually even the wrong images help one identify. And they are often right or close enough. The issue is that the images are basically an avatar for the topic. Or illustration to an article. Fantastic to have an illustration, but a constant grating feeling to have a picture of a train or a worm representing your article about cats. Only a few get significantly misrepresented but it just feels wrong to keep seeing a topic illustrated in a conflicting manner. If you are going to show an avatar, either let me choose it or make it so generic that it's not wrong at least. A little thing that does not go away if you use EN steadily. But I ignore it like those barking dogs that always go off. Such is life. Little things.

Ah, ok. Sorry to hear but glad you are still contributing to the discussion, thx. Gotcha on the abuse explanation. I didn't know it was a trial thing. Anyway, free worked to get me hooked! I now know that this is one of the top services I need on every device. Why I pay.

Agreed. "Remember everything (in one app)" or "Try to do everything (in one app)". Which is it, right?

Interesting. You left Evernote but your signature says legacy user. I wonder which it is. I'm a fairly committed legacy user myself. V10 will have to actually function better - for my usage - before I'll change. I'll try it out again sometime if EN is still affordable after all this. Bells and whistles are no compensation for increased friction accessing my data though. For me, EN is a utility service like Google Drive. I want it to work and to keep working with the least friction and not be too expensive to include in my yearly budget along with all the other subscriptions. I'm off of LastPass paid (another utility) for that reason. It's not something where new features make it better for me and to the degree they cost more or adds friction, new features are problematic. Jefito's comment about software like MS Word having 80% too much for most is spot-on. I cope by looking for the more simplified tool when feature-creep takes over on the main one. The critical features for EN were already mature when I started paying. Unfortunately, in today's landscape companies find it difficult to simply earn a living providing a service. Grow or die, right? Thankfully our utility companies, at least, don't work that way. I've been paying for a long time myself but wonder how people might abuse the free tier - what that means. They cheat to get more than EN intends? Take too much? Like when they offer a free cookie at an event and you eat the whole tray? Ha ha- never did that, I swear! suspect you simply mean that you don't like that EN offers a free tier and perhaps feel that us paying customers are subsidizing it? I guess that's their business decision, but we can opine, to be sure, gotcha.