Evernote and "The Wall Street Journal"

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 30, 2014 at 04:32 AM

Discussion started this time around because of super incompetent dumming down of Evernote browser app which makes it virtually unusable.

That caused me concern about whether I should continue to trust EN as a basic container of some 10,000 articles because if the powers that be at EN did the same to the desktop and/or Android product I’d be in a mess.

So I raised question of alternatives.

Yes there was a discussion about EN positioning a year ago, and probably every year before that. But it was changes since then which prompted the current discussion.

And in the process some of us found out just how much service and support, as well as quality, has dropped at EN since that dicussion. New information Fred.

Not surprising, though, old themes came up again - but perhaps with more focus. EN positioning as a business product with cross merchandising with the likes of Moleskine (an overpriced product backed up by fictional provenance linking it to Hemingway) vs the kind of info needs writers and academics might have. I guess lifestyle factored in there someplace.

But more important was notion that Phil Libin and crew have serious issues, lease of which is one of focus. Info dump & limited info manager for business? A vehicle for profitable cross promotions and merchandising? A software for the needs of writers and scholars which, while without necessarily being a bib manager, are different from those of business.

I made my annual and predictable comment that Libin et al have always had issues understanding what an info manager does.

And I added that one reason EN does as well as it does is because of business consultant types (I refuse to dignify them with the word guru which out of the Sanskrit has some substantive meaning) who write EN manuals much of which consist of work-arounds for a product lacking in information features.

Interestingly none of this discussion on this forum, or my tweets about the issue on Twitter have elicited a response from Libin or anyone else. This is unusual. I have found Libin and EN service to be regular monitors and responders on Twitter prior to this last go-around.

I have also visited the EN forums. There has been a sea change in the last year. Even some of the usual fanboyz over there are opening critically of EN developers and service/support.

In the process of all this, a worthwhile discussion ensued with Neville Franks of Surfulater/Clibu - and a robust discussion as to where Clibu is at in its development and some of Neville’s next steps.

As for me, having lost confidence in EN I am trying to figure out what to do. Am using Workflowy for some stuff, and find Nimbus Note a much more professional, thoughtful - though far from perfect in its still early iterations - product than Evernote. And it even has elements of aesthetic appeal, which EN lost long ago, especially as it barged thoughtlessly into the bizarre world of mobile app and Windows 8 design.

I am looking with some interest at Zotero.

Anyhow, that’s the background of the current discussion - it’s not simply that we’re all addicted to having annual disingenuous discussion about whether EN is a lifestyle product or a breath mint (reference to tag line in old Certs commercial - Certs is a candy mint - Certs is a breath mint - Certs is both; cute at the time, I guess).

Cheers,

Daly

22111 wrote:
You guys had a discussion here, about 1 year ago, that EN had now been
>positioned as a “lifestyle product”, but in the meantime, you seem to
>have forgotten about this already again.
> >Fact is, thingies like Facebook, What’sApp, Evernote et al. are
>money-generating machines for their inventors, or as the Grimm tale is,
>Gold-Ayyes (sorry for the spelling error, but even for classics, some
>words are forbidden now (well, it’s AFTER 1984, so what do you
>expect?)): That’s their reasons of being.
> >Just today, welt.de says, only one-third of 13-years-olds are on
>Facebook anymore, but just one sentence later, they tell us that these
>kids are now on WA instead: Well, the good news is, WA belongs to Mr.
>Futterberg (or what was his name again?), too, now!
> >Ok, not all of them are as successful as Mr. Futterberg is with his
>“give me your data. all of them.” imperium, but at least they strive,
>and EN is one of the premier efforts in this trend.
> >Thus, whining about EN not being a traditional PIM anymore is obsolete,
>and just a little bit whimsical for grown-ups.