Paid PREMIUM Support to Magix for Xara Web Designer

[iamtheblues]

Steve, you know my position on the whole shebang with MagiXara. They are, as a company awful beyond belief.
I only have one question, which I am addressing to the whole world; how on earth are they getting away with all of this nonsense? Really, How?
Should there not be an independent authority in place to deal with all of this questionable treatment of people who have ponied up some serious cash for the dubious privilege of owning/renting this garbage? Premium support, my bottom!
Bob.

[handrawn]

under english law if you suffer financial loss, above a certain level, you can peruse a claim for redress in the small claims court

xara would presumably point to the EULA in defence, but... also in english law there is a principle that unfair contract conditions cannot be enforced

question is... is the EULA 'unfair' in that legal sense ? - it would be an interesting exercise were it ever to happen


Anyway, the shambles that was ver 15 and it's eventual update to ver 15.1 says to me that the company suffers from a classic syndrome: big ideas implemented in a hurry lead to stupid mistakes that are time-consuming to fix [squish] - and that means there is even less time to do what was planned [noddy tables]

It all comes down to money - it always does, and if Xara does not make a success of the Xara Cloud project there won't be any, and no Xara... this was said in so many words a while back by a representative of the company; offloading support and sales to Magix just reinforces this idea

Without the money they cannot do any serious upgrading of the desktop - it will just be minor tweaks and ephemeral content

It is not a nice place to be, not for us, not for them....

[maksimon]

if Xara does not make a success of the Xara Cloud project there won't be any, and no Xara...

Too many similar(like Xara Cloud) projects already exists.
And not one year. And cheaper. And they adequately perform their functions.
What is new about Xara Cloud? Almost nothing.
Partly Xara Cloud better than similar products, but those things in which he is better ... the people who need it will not be used is in the clouds. IMHO.
They will not get from Xara Cloud a sufficient amount of money. And if get ... they will have no reason to go back to desktop products)).
They should be lowering prices for their desktop products.
Why Seriff have enough money for development, and Xara is not enough? The price difference is 5(!) times. Small sales? Maybe the software is too expensive? When I bought and now - i regret NOTHING! But at this point(a complete lack of progress) - upgrade cost of XDP365 is unreasonably expensive.
I love Xara and I will use her for many more years. But when some important for me features will appear in other programs, and probably about Xara will have to forget(.

[mwenz]

Before I knew there was going to be an Affinity software line I made noise about the cost for XDP's non-upgrade price. At $300 it was out of line. The upgrade cost is as well.

For $170 I get the upgrade to CD's latest version. I think that is also a bit high with the move to yearly releases, but the value is there and I will upgrade next month. Corel Corp also played some shenanigans concerning their license this year. It was met with resistance and Corel back-peddled. (Had to do with installation count.) Corel did implement some great new features, included some macros and plug-ins that they previously sold separately. So even at the $170, there is value.

And the best thing is, I could stop at v.2017 and not lose my access to the same content as when I purchased it and all the updates/bug fixes are there should I ever need to re-install it.

What Magix/Xara is doing isn't criminal I suspect. But it isn't morally sound, either. I am still in the position to want to help Xara if that help is acted upon. I still believe in what XDP could be. It is still the fastest drawing application I use. But it could be more in substance than flash-bang (which really is a whimper anyway these days).

[Egg Bramhill]

And still Xara remains silent re this issue Mike. It is by far the most complained about feature in TG in recent the past 24 months!

[mwenz]

Yeah, Egg, there is a bit of chatter...

I think it's the most contended issue since I've been here. It's at least the longest contended issue, anyway.

Dang thumb hit the post button. I also meant to add that like CD, if there is actual substance to an upgrade, one can overlook a given price point.

[DanFelix]

Does Affinity publish websites like Xara?

[handrawn]

@Dan - affinity designer and photo don't - afaik there are no current plans for this

[handrawn]

..Maybe the software is too expensive? When I bought and now - i regret NOTHING! But at this point(a complete lack of progress) - upgrade cost of XDP365 is unreasonably expensive....

I certainly love the software - up to the point at which art brushes were implemented I reckoned it value for money.. now for me it definately is not, and that is quite apart from the 365 update model which is devious

Where I come from devious is defined as the use of underhand tactics to achieve an outcome, and that is what the update model is... Xara can dress it up anyway they like, but they have failed to deliver the substance of what they promised.. they appear to be just milking it, [and at the same time attempting to lock in users with the online content...]

So not only does that raise the question: is the update maodel actually working for them? it also means that, whilst the program is maybe worth the asking price when bought new, the upgrade price is not for those of us sensible enough not to get caught in what BF calles the 'xara lemming trap'

For the company: Catch 22 - market saturation and stiff competition can mean loss of income.. would reducing prices fix that or make it worse?

[mwenz]

I think the time is past to make cost adjustments outright.

But perhaps it still be done via tightening of a fragmented product line-up. XDP really could be the design application minus the web stuff. Or truly make P&GD that thing, roll into the Web D. Pro the remainder of the drawing stuff of XDP. Or...whatever to reduce the product line-up and reduce prices.

Or let the sales peter out all together and punt.

I don't think the on-line thingy is a sustainable, exponential-growth product. If it had begun years ago, maybe. Before there was the bazillion on-line options. I realize the on-line options are different in scope, but Xara doesn't have the market penetration to make such a thing omni-present in business life. If they had, if the desktop products enjoyed a high adoption rate, then maybe having the on-line thing as an option beginning 5 or so years ago may enjoyed a high "buzz-factor" and been a sought-after business solution. But today? I'm not seeing it.