How do you feel about the 365 Program?

[katemoir]

I was the one who said this. It simply struck me as odd and impolite that your Support Staff signs Tickets with "Support".

Hence I asked for a name, so that I had someone to refer to. This person gave me an Indian name. Obviously
there's also Indian people in England but I assumed fewer of them to live in Hemel Hemstead. Sorry for this wrong
assumption.

What I can clearly say though is that the quality level of your Ticket -based Support equals typical call center based
Services – and as I also stated in the same post such nowadays simply ain't enough. Xara is the only software
I use without a company-run Support Forum and without having Core Developers interacting with users regularly.

That seems like an odd comment to make on TalkGraphics! But that reminds me that I didn't answer your earlier question about the Slideshow Widget. If you have a slideshow in your page it will continue to run after the Update Service expires, and you will still be able to edit it. And so long as you have downloaded it to the Local Designs Gallery in your current installations you will be able to add it to new pages too.

You can find details of what will stop running on our Update Service page @ http://www.xara.com/update-service/, which also explains the main reasons why we have adopted this model. I suspect many of you are underestimating the importance of Xara Online Designer!

[mwenz]

...I suspect many of you are underestimating the importance of Xara Online Designer!

I am one who is not underestimating XOD. It is simply something that I will never use.

I use text, and in applications that support them, I use OT Features. I use drawing tools. I make print designs in XDP or in conjunction with other software.

I don't make web sites. I never, ever, need a client to edit anything I have ever made and I never need access to it off of my computers.

[hoja]

That seems like an odd comment to make on TalkGraphics!

Why so? One hardly discredits this volunteers community with this statement.

The reality is, that I really have to consider what to do when I run into technical issues and have wishes:
People at TG often know the program better than your Support, communication is faster and more personal.
But fellow users can't fix stuff, in case something is broken.

Your feedback system on the other hand isn't set up for feature requests but posting wishes in Dear Xara makes limited sense too:

The Dear Xara sub-forum as a matter of fact doesn't get a lot of attention by developers, quite to the dismay of some of the most
active TG veterans. A consequence of this frustration I see is that a distinction is made between useful wishes ('they have been
on our eternal list since 2005...') and such which in their point of view would bind developer resources 'for needless fluff'.

Not only is it unlikely that developers in charge read your wishes at all – one may even end up quarreling with fellow members,
in case your wish doesn't fit their scheme. At this point things may get tedious too.

All this would automatically work a lot better if you ran your own forum and got your developers to interact with customers.
Please don't tell me that you don't have the resources. It works anywhere else.

[hoja]

But that reminds me that I didn't answer your earlier question about the Slideshow Widget.
If you have a slideshow in your page it will continue to run after the Update Service expires, and you will still be able to
edit it. And so long as you have downloaded it to the Local Designs Gallery in your current installations you will be able
to add it to new pages too.

Ok, I have to admit, that I did not know that. As one loses other externally hosted content it seemed
pretty evident that the same will happen with all Slideshow-content too. It in fact is the case, but I wasn't aware that
one could download slideshows.

You skipped to say that one loses the ability to create new slideshows.
I think you understood my point pretty well but you have to defend your position.

[katemoir]

You skipped to say that one loses the ability to create new slideshows.
I think you understood my point pretty well but you have to defend your position.

Let me re-word my last sentence. So long as you have downloaded the Slideshow Widget to your Local Designs Gallery, you will be able to create new slideshows using that Widget, after expiry.

[hoja]

Let me re-word my last sentence. So long as you have downloaded the Slideshow Widget to your Local Designs Gallery, you will be able to create new slideshows using that Widget, after expiry.

Kate,
to my surprise you are perfectly correct and my statement was wrong. I instantly felt an urge to apologize
but then I thought this was actually inadequate.

I'm an advanced user, do read release notes and tend to express my concerns very clearly.
My conclusion, that a widget which requires a Login to Xara Online services would likely expire as soon as
one lets the 365 license run out was shared by fellow users. Those, who could have clarified things obviously
don't read this forum and the web-page you linked wasn't available in the current form last summer.

By not taking part in the conversation you are missing valuable feedback, misunderstandings, wishes.
Accumulating frustration is merely a logical consequence – and it's totally about you to change the situation.