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Q & A
#42

I explored joining the beta program since I am a committed AT3 user and fan, and because I have some technical capability. I decided against it because I could not see how I could continue to use the released version on an ongoing writing project and run the beta – I’d have to run my ongoing project on the beta, which is too risky for a couple of reasons: 1) A bug in the beta could corrupt my project and 2) there is no way to be certain that the subsequent release would be compatible with the beta, so that work could be lost.

My understanding is that I cannot simply run the released version and the beta separately, whether on the same machine or two machines. I’d like to know how others plan to run the beta if they also have live projects? What am I missing, because from where I sit, it’s almost as if the beta program is designed to prevent someone like me, deeply into a writing project, from being a beta participant.

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#43

This is what I call truly writer-friendly :wink:

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#44

I have to be honest, I too am deep in a new writing project, right in the midst of the detailed planning of a new book, and I am questioning whether I have the time to participate, and from your comments, whether I am brave enough. Given where I am in the process, if the new version runs as smooth as butter, with minimal risk of data loss, I should be able to switch versions and continue with my work. But, best laid plans and all…

I also have to question whether I have the time to do beta testing justice at this point in my project.

I am guessing though, from @Rebecca’s post, that this beta will not be as time consuming as the alpha and beta for version 3.0, which was a huge commitment and took up a lot of my time.

So very true :rofl:

EDIT: Although, @SCN, I’m a sucker for a good beta. So I will probably export my timeline file in its current state into a CSV format and hold that on my system and do backups prior to testing. From the info posted regarding the changes it seems the underlying code has changed but there is no indication that the file format has changed. I may be wrong there and it would be worth some clarification from the devs. Perhaps it will be made more explicit in the announcement due next week how transitioning to 3.2 is likely to affect ongoing timeline files. But my initial thinking is I can offload the beta and switch versions back and import the CSV if I hit a problem with the beta.

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#45

Sounds like a valid approach. I’m tempted, for sure.

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#47

I’m noodling in the Beta now. I’m six years into a writing project but my main timeline backed up fine so I’m excited to explore the changes.

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#48

I’m not in the beta program. Out of curiosity, does the beta include the option for the Subway view to show the data from the Narrative and Outline views rather than just from the Timeline/Spreadsheet views?

#49

Hi Steve, no, there has been no change regarding the ability to view narrative order in subway and relationship views in this beta. It is the one new feature I was really looking forward to. This beta is excellent. The app feels more snappy and it has been tidied up visually in some really useful ways, as well as some annoying bugs having been fixed. But no ‘new’ features from the feature request list have been implemented and this version is clearly going to be a base from which to grow the app. At least, that is the impression I get.

I will also say, following our discussions up thread from here, that the process of converting existing timelines appears to have gone smoothly (I should be careful not to tempt fate). And the beta appears stable and solid. I can understand though if you want to hold off and wait a little. I’m happy to let you know if I run into any issues with stability.

Andrew

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#50

Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate your impressions. I can be patient while things are in beta. I just have my head down, writing. :slight_smile:

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#51

Thank you for the news. I have joined the beta and it’s just in time for my summer break so I am excited to be able to play around the app again.

I do hope there will be a better venue in communicating things to those who subscribed. The updates, even minor, did give hope that it was still actively worked on and it’s a bit worrying when there is radio silence especially when there were things to be done on the app (as shown in the feature request page).

I’m really excited to see the changes and improvements as I can see that the team really put good work into it.

#52

Hi, an occasional user here. Just want to give some feedback regarding your communication, or lack thereof.

I just thought about subscribing, so I checked which version I’m on and opened up your website to see what has been improved since my initial year of support ended late last year. I was rather surprised to find that I’m still rocking the latest release. I could see absolutely no reason to renew, and had I let it auto-renew, I’d be pretty disappointed by now.

Sure, 3.2. would eventually come and satisfy me that the payment was worth it, but that’d happen after half a year of frustration and questioning whether I subscribed to abandonware. It doesn’t matter how you try to justify your silence on the features you’re working on. You can’t afford to leave subscribers in the dark. You gave up your right to radiosilence the moment you started asking for yearly payments.

This isn’t about the timeframes. I need to emphasize that from the outside, your site makes Aeon Timeline look like a dead app. I only found out it isn’t because I was curious enough to dig in the forum, and you know that most people won’t do that. You need to maintain your blog and provide roadmaps. Delays happen and are understandable, but they should be clearly stated. Not buried in a forum thread.

I’m inclined to support you and will proceed to do so, now that I’ve seen Rebecca’s post and know what you’re working on. But you need to understand that the contents of said post don’t belong in the forum. Their place is in the blog.

You have great software, but your terrible communication is letting inferior apps like Plottr capture the market.

You’ve clearly put work into this site. Now use it.

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