21 replies to this topic

[Ed Franklin]

I am by nature "out of the loop" on just about everything.

So, first and foremost, with this question I am not trying to "start" something. I have used e-Sword for years and years, maybe from its earliest days. I have communicated many times with Rick and even sent him a few dollars now and then in support of what I consider his "ministry"

I even consider him a "neighbor" since he is located just north of the Tennessee county where I lived for 30 years (though we've never met face-to-face)

So, when my recent e-Sword problems began (detailed elsewhere), I wrote to him via the e-Sword dot net site and was surprised never to receive a response. A Facebook friend sent me here where I found help. I also see hints that Rick is no longer managing the site, others have taken over, etc.

Not looking for gossip but genuinely curious as to what's happened......It was (is) such a blessing to so many. Rick has been the instrument of a big aid in the study of the Word. I just hope he's well and that there's no big conflict going on.

(This is what you get from old people who sit around and think of stuff all day long......)

[Josh Bond]

Rick never has managed this website. We started in replacement of the previous user-run e-Sword website that ran out of people to run it.

I do hear from time to time that people say Rick did not reply to them. Others say he responded quickly to their request. So I'm not sure there, although I do think the simpler the request, the more likely you are to receive a response. I've had a few people asking for help with permissions issues and they told me they did not get a response. And that may be because permissions issues are the hardest to troubleshoot.

One thing I've had to learn myself is: I can't support everyone. There's only so much time in the day and then you get emails like, "Can you walk me through using xyz module and studying the Bible?". Or, "I promised a friend I'd make a module for him--can you make it for me?" or "I downloaded a module but can't find it anywhere, I think my dog ate it". Increasingly, I've told people, I'm sorry I just don't have the time to troubleshoot this individually with you--post it on the message boards. After the zillionth time of repetitive requests, it is temping not to reply. And I'm guilty of that myself, especially when the person has ignored the message about using the message board for support requests on whatever form their request came through (contact us form, or file review form, or copyright infringement form).

Josh

[journey]

Bible Support is a relatively new site. Before this site, there were others and various user groups that primarily took care of user help and questions. I don't think that it was ever intended for Rick to handle all of the help and questions on the estimated 2 million plus users. So, volunteers here do what they can to help and free up Brother Rick to do other things. Please don't take it personally that he didn't answer your email. I'd hate to imagine what his mailbox looks like.

[Ed Franklin]

... Please don't take it personally that he didn't answer your email. I'd hate to imagine what his mailbox looks like.

Oh no.....didn't mean to imply that at all; shouldn't have said two things in the same message. I've just seen a lot of scattered comments about "new management" etc and wondered about Rick, if he's still involved at all.

And you are correct about the volume of "mail" he must see. I had not considered that at all....not really operating with a sense of how "big" e-Sword is and that it surely is too big for one man to handle.

[Josh Bond]

I've just seen a lot of scattered comments about "new management" etc and wondered about Rick, if he's still involved at all.

The e-Sword user site itself is under new management (I started a new one and resurrected the old one to redirect to us), but not e-Sword itself. Rick is still actively involved with e-Sword. He develops e-Sword, with releases usually twice a year. And he always answers any questions I have on resource creation, and he'll listen to feature requests and implement them when he can. I've never gotten the impression at all that he is not actively engaged in e-Sword. I do know for a fact he's working on new premium resources now, one of which I really recommend.

[BaptizedBeliever]

If he's taking suggestions, the option to color-code the tabs would be neat. I don't know how easily that could be done, but it'd be nice. Saw someone else suggest that in the comments on the Tab Renamer program, and thought I'd say it here.

[jonathon]

I do hear from time to time that people say Rick did not reply to them. Others say he responded quickly to their request. So I'm not sure there,

Since at least 2006, Rick has tried steering most of the "simple" support questions to either the FAQ at e-Sword.net, or one of the various user groups, or video documentation, or written documentation.

My sense is that the more closely one follows the guidelines in http://catb.org/~esr...-questions.html, the more likely one is to recieve a response from Rick that isn't "ask at <name of email list or web support forum>".

I'd further hazard that if the question/request/whatever can't be understood within two seconds, the email gets skipped. (That is a literal two seconds. I don't know Rick's current email volume, but at one point in time he was receiving over 1K of support emails per day. )

After the zillionth time of repetitive requests, it is temping not to reply.

Back around 1995 I set up a mailbot that sent responses based on keywords in the messages I recieved. Roughly 70% of the time, the response was appropriate, and addressed all of the issues the person was writing me about. Unfortunately, my current ISP won't allow that type of setup on a home/consumer account. (Their commercial offerings are even stricter in requiring malware to be run, than their consumer offerings are.)

jonathon

[EJDJR]

I have been a great devotee of E-Sword, and when able to support E-Sword I did so. My most important usage is the Step Book as I was able to read many step Books available to me through E-Sword.

Rick has made available a wonderful tool and with the aide of biblesupport.com many other tools and data are available for E-Sword. Thank the entire group who travails in this work with very little thanks!

Allowances for redundancies I hope will not be taken as a jest  on my part, but many, many, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, from me for a God--given--Jesus praising bible study tool. At 78 years of age I am more involved with bible study because of these tools. Again, Thanks in and from our Lord Jesus allowing--causing these productions assisting in bible knowledge!

 

EJDJR

[POIMEN LUIZ NETO]

Olá, sou pastor no Brasil, em uma cidade do nordeste do país, quando tive o primeiro encontro com e--Sword, eu não era cristão, passeia a usar a eSword, e comecei a me apaixonar pela palavra de Deus. um dia Deus falou muito ao meu coração e aceitei Jesus como meu salvador. eu estava passando um grande crise familiar, foi ai que ouvi a voz de Deus lendo a eSword.

 

Deus abençoe....

 

queria saber se eu posso receber no meu endereço um CD com e-Sword.  

 

meu endereço é:

 

Avenida Fernando Torres 334

CEP 64.140-000  Centro

Nossa Senhora dos Remédios-PIAUÍ

Pastor LUIZ REGO NETO

[Roy]

FYI, here is how Google-Translate, converts the above.

 

 

Hello, I am pastor in Brazil, a city in the northeast, when I had my first encounter with and - Sword, I was not a Christian, walks to use eSword, and I began to fall in love for the word of God. one day God spoke to my heart and very accepted Jesus as my savior. I was going through a major family crisis, that's when I heard God's voice reading the eSword.

 God bless ....

 wanted to know if I can get in my address a CD with e-Sword.

 
My address is:

Avenue Fernando Torres 334
CEP 64140-000 Center
Our Lady of Remedies-PIAUÍ
 

Pastor LUIZ REGO NETO

 

Just FYI.

Roy

 

If we can get a CD together, I'll pay for it (the CD) and the postage to Brazil. (I looked at the USPS site, I'm guessing abt $9.00 to send it)

I see that (via the web site) that Rick no longer mails outside the U.S..

 

Anything we can do?

Suggestions?

Edited by Roy, 29 January 2015 - 04:31 PM.