Answer from Corel

[Dutchmm]

I am making no judgements here but I have not heard from one beta tester that they have actually seen anything at all for months...

I am not now nor have I ever been a beta tester, but how could I (if I were) beta test the specification improvements the dev. team are supposedly mulling over?
It would be more reasonable to ask whether ANY bugs reported in the beta of 1.1.0.30 were fixed.
Or perhaps whether fixing them is among the "enhancements</sarcasm>" the dev team are considering?

[Trucks]

Hi,

i think they have fired the old beta testers, like the old dev team.

Regards

Trucks

[Denis de Gannes]

Hi,

i think they have fired the old beta testers, like the old dev team.

Regards

Trucks

Quite!

[lundbech]

Hi,

i think they have fired the old beta testers, like the old dev team.

Regards

Trucks

So they are starting over with a new dev team, new beta testers.

Do we have any knowledge of anything actually going on?

Do we have any definite proof that nothing is happening?

[afx]

No, we have nothing but words. The same as always from Corel.

cheers
afx

[Hobgoblin]

In response to my post on Facebook about the non-working links to ASP Plugins.
Corel responded ...

Corel 3 April 19:11
Hello Richard,

We got in touch with the AfterShot team, and they are still looking for what exactly brought the site down, to prevent it from happening again in the future! We will keep on them for progress updates, and will let you know as soon as the site is restored!

Adam, Corel Support

Hmm, we'll see what happens then. Not expecting anything but would be nice to be proved wrong.
R.

[lundbech]

In response to my post on Facebook about the non-working links to ASP Plugins.
Corel responded ...

Corel 3 April 19:11
Hello Richard,

We got in touch with the AfterShot team, and they are still looking for what exactly brought the site down, to prevent it from happening again in the future! We will keep on them for progress updates, and will let you know as soon as the site is restored!

Adam, Corel Support

Hmm, we'll see what happens then. Not expecting anything but would be nice to be proved wrong.
R.

This is exactly the kind of answer that tells me something is wrong. It's the same guy (Adam) who answered me on monday "As for the plugin site and the in-program update issue, thank you for the heads up! We will certainly look into what is happening to those!"

Adam is just some poor support guy who hasn't got a clue and has no idea what ASP is and if there is an "AfterShot team" at all. How diffucult can it be to resolve those two proplems?

[df]

In response to my post on Facebook about the non-working links to ASP Plugins.
Corel responded ...

Corel 3 April 19:11
Hello Richard,

We got in touch with the AfterShot team, and they are still looking for what exactly brought the site down, to prevent it from happening again in the future! We will keep on them for progress updates, and will let you know as soon as the site is restored!

Adam, Corel Support

Hmm, we'll see what happens then. Not expecting anything but would be nice to be proved wrong.
R.

This is exactly the kind of answer that tells me something is wrong. It's the same guy (Adam) who answered me on monday "As for the plugin site and the in-program update issue, thank you for the heads up! We will certainly look into what is happening to those!"

Adam is just some poor support guy who hasn't got a clue and has no idea what ASP is and if there is an "AfterShot team" at all. How diffucult can it be to resolve those two proplems?

Would it make you feel any better if you knew they had multiple people monitoring facebook? If so then go ahead and post on the VideoStudio, Paintshop Pro, Painter, and Draw facebook pages, then for grins post on Corel's general fb page too, just to see how many people they have "monitoring" social media (and that doesn't even cover twitter, google+, or whatever other media they monitor). Frankly I'd be fine with one guy for the media outlets so long as there's more people in development and support.

[lundbech]

Asked Corel again on their facebook page:

A week ago a supporter wrote in here about the AfterShot plugin page (which has been down for two weeks:
"As for the plugin site and the in-program update issue, thank you for the heads up! We will certainly look into what is happening to those!"
Well, what's happening?

And received this answer today:

We do not currently have any updates on the missing plugin site at this end so far; it is being looked into by members of our web team, and we will be posting with more information as it is found!
Adam, Corel Support

... with more information when the missing site i found?

But also today on same facebook page the same supporter wrote this in answer to the question whether Corel really stopped development of AfterShot Pro:

"Nope! AfterShot is still a supported product, and is still under development - is there a particular suggestion or feature you were looking to suggest? We would be happy to pass it along to the product team for you!"

As the naïve fool I am I asked this:

@Adam (Corel Support)
You wrote that "AfterShot is still a supported product, and is still under development" and that you would pass along suggestions to the development team.

Then please tell them this: A lot of plugin authors and a lot of users are finding alternatives to AfterShot, because the general opinion in the user forum (that would be the one hosted by Corel!) is that AfterShot is indeed dead and discontinued.

The reason for this solely due to lack of communication from Corel! Show us something!

I really don't know why I bother with this ... oh yes I forgot, that would be mainly due to the fact that the best ASP alternative under Linux is the Darktable-nightmare and that I cant figure out a way to get Lightroom running under WINE.

[brucet]

My understanding is that Corel is still 'serious' about ASP. As they are with PSPx5. I'm also of the understanding that they are currently working on a 'communications' policy that may see these forums play a key part in the future.
I can't reveal my source due to a 'confidentiality' understanding. But I have a few emails and a phone call from a key Corel person. Given that I was reassured that 'things' are happening behind the scenes to improve communications I will give them the benefit of the doubt for the time being. I was asked for, and gave, an opinion. Hopefully some of which was taken on board.

However I, like many others, need to move on. If it's not with Corel it will be with someone else.

I look forward to Corel making an announcement in the near future. Otherwise I will be asking why.

regards

[afx]

Well, improved communication will not fix the issue of missing camera support....

cheers
afx

[madsec]

I really don't know why I bother with this ... oh yes I forgot, that would be mainly due to the fact that the best ASP alternative under Linux is the Darktable-nightmare and that I cant figure out a way to get Lightroom running under WINE.

I have opened a new thread about Lightroom under WINE here: http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=50428

[brucet]

afx that is true. But it will, if it happens, help them to hear what we have to say! Yes? No?

[afx]

afx that is true. But it will, if it happens, help them to hear what we have to say! Yes? No?

From what we could read her from old time Corel users form other products combined with what we experience with AS, me thinks the general attitude of Corel is so much broken, tat no amount of communication will fix that.

cheers
afx

[john7]

As someone who used graphics programs many years ago I would agree with this. Corel then had a growth policy of producing a new version every year, no matter how bugged. They drove much better programs out of business by this tactic, the one we used, Professional Draw, was years ahead of Draw (and with some technical drawing abilities still still was when we stoped using Draw). It came on floppy discs while Corel draw needed a box of CD’s. But the new version a year fooled so many users into adopting. The computer press were, as I think now, very poor in how they reviwed programs. Issues that any installers could find as soon as running a program can escape there notice (indeed some might think many reviews are no more detailed then reading and repeating the press stamen for the product) Draw it became the dominant if not only graphics program. But it was appallingly bugged, many years two or three patches before it was stable and others not at all through its currency. So the refusal of Corel to deal with bugs is not a new thing, it’s how they grew and remained profitable, It’s a model many other software firms have fallowed, a well-known disc imaging program springs to mind! I haven’t used Corel products for years until getting ASP and it looks all to familiar as where I left off befor!