Progam with QDA Qualitative Data Analysis features? Coding/tagging blocks of text?

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Aug 4, 2012 at 08:49 AM

Fredy wrote:
>Carrot, you say you will probably use such a program for years. Let’s suppose after
>your PhD you’ll be well paid. You think 1-2 Benjamins now and 6 others then will be too
>much money, for such “overpriced” sw, and you say many, many others think as you do.
>Some weeks ago, in the UltraRecall forum I (as schferk) explained in depth WHY sw
>developers have lost all interest in refining their babies. People who think like you
>are the culprits, I fear, for such a development to extreme poverty in functionality
>of available sw, and, as I explained there also, the cloud crowd will not be better off
>neither, all to the contrary.

Though I agree in principle that we should be willing to pay for the tools of our trade, and as a chronic CRIMPer I’ve paid quite a bit more, I have to note that the pricing of software overall seems to me extremely irrational and in many cases unjustifiable. Moreover, I have seen no positive correlation between the price of software, the support provided and its long term viability. In fact, I have seen several instances that could support the negative correlation of the above, i.e. more affordable software is often better supported and available in the longer run.

Examples:

- Notemap, by far the most expensive single pane outliner, whose development has stopped ages ago, and even basic bugs have not been resolved (as Cassius has pointed out on several occasions)

+ MyInfo, a very moderately priced two-pane outliner, continuously updated and excellently supported. There are actually several other positive examples in this category, and I believe that it is the development and support which keep users faithful to any one such program, rather than the (relatively few) differences in features.

- MindManager, the first and arguably most successful mind mapping program, significantly overpriced for what it does (especially given the many alternatives now in existence), now in its 10th incarnation, has maintained its outline mode crippled as if it were an afterthought, and has even lost useful features such as OPML support along the way. You may see here http://www.mindjet.com/pdf/us/MM2012_WinFamilyComparison.pdf and judge whether the development from one version to the other would justify the upgrade price.

+ Noteliner, a modestly promoted but very powerful and completely free program, created and maintained as a labour of love, gaining strong features along the way, several of which have been proposed by it users in this here forum. Again, there are other such examples, like the very special TreeSheets.