Full update: https://blog.dynalist.io/2021-september-update/
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Hello @Erica
Can you please tell a bit more about this upgrade on the underlying engine?
I believe it is responsible for the next item added - Lower memory usage and faster performance. But what else or what exactly should we expect from that?
Is there anything this will improve on UX/UI later on?
Thanks a lot!
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@Erica, have you essentially ceased development of the product? Is there a roadmap with a meaningful commitment to adding features? This is yet another maintenance-only update.
I left Workflowy because the product was static and not iterating, and now DL seems like itās exactly in the same boat. Iād like to understand what my Pro membership is paying for, if itās not for continuing to add the many open features weāre asking for as a userbase.
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Personally I pay for Pro for:
- Capture to inbox (via android widget, email, browser button, and Google Assistant)
- Upload files
- Google Calendar sync
- Custom hotkeys
- Version history & dropbox backups
- Move item (I think itās pro too?)
They invented dynalist, which took years of university schooling and talent, and now theyāre earning a bit of money from users, minus their monthly infrastructure costs. I think thatās ethical. I wasnāt under the impression that I was paying for future features. Do I pay monthly for Spotify with the expectation that Taylor Swift will have a new album on it next year? Not really. One can always wait for the future features, then start paying after they are released, if one doesnāt think the current ones are worth paying for. Workflowy is extremely lacking still imo, I donāt think they offer any of the features in my list. Their new features (panes, clone nodes, whatever) are neato for a day but ultimately not very useful. I can always use BetterSnapTool to āpaneā chrome windows. And the others, Logseq, Moodoo, they just arenāt as good as Dynalist imo.
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Iām very satisfied with the service āas isā. Of course we all like to see some improvements here and there once in a while, but we should never forget that keeping the cloud servers running and all services in balance is very costy.
I have two accounts, one with a Pro membership and one without it. And if depends on me, I will not stop paying for it, regardless of the major updates not being so frequent anymore. Dynalist provides a great service, well worth the cost, in my opinion.
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I donāt think the analogy between Spotify and Dynalist should be used here. I also pay for YouTube Premium, and I donāt expect them to add new features often, but I do expect millions of YouTuber to upload new content every day. But I made my peace with Dynalist and will keep paying until I find something better.
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You can always test it yourself if you really wanted to, and if you really cared
#Subscriptionsā¦
Wonder if users are like this in all the forums. Evernote, etc. They likely are honestly, complaining about something. But, so much clutter (maybe) about on this forum instead of worthwhile info.
Why should anything have feature updates? Any updates including security qualifies as updates. Does amazingly great Microsoft Sway (which I donāt use) even have any updates for an eternity? This topic is all user-choice.
Does a user get more value from using said item/product relative to a sub on Twitch to a streamer? Well, that all depends on the user ofc. This is not an interesting topic to me.
@timers:
To answer your initial question of āWhy should anything have feature updates?ā with regards to Dynalist:
Part of the answer is āBecause the developers of Dynalist have asked people what features they would like to seeā, and have forums titled
āFeatures (Suggest and talk about yet-to-be-implemented features here)ā
ā¦and they have asked in the past for features users would like to see.
Another part of the answer would be the online Dynalist Trello Roadmap of New Feature Candidates, Older Feature Candidates, Top Feature Candidates, Planned Features, In Progress Features.
Now, if someone from Dynalist was to publicly post on the product web page āWeāve decided to freeze the Dynalist code as āfeature lockedā and will only be making bug fixes, i.e. there will be no new features (for whatever reasons we deem important)ā then we wouldnāt have a leg to stand on regarding the complaints about lacking features and remove the āsuggestions for new featuresā stuff. Afterwards, if someone posts a request about a potential new feature, remind them that the product is locked and you have no intentions of adding it for the foreseeable future. Yes, Iām aware of the problems a statement like this causes for marketing and future sales, but if you donāt, the requests will continue to come in and progress on them will be expected.
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Obviously I like the service, otherwise I wouldnāt be a paying member, as indicated by my Pro badge. And being a paying customer is exactly what gives me the right to demand further features that I need and expect from a product, and not just server upkeep and basic security maintenance, which apparently several of you are fine with settling for.
As @Sam_marrocco said, a product shouldnāt be considered defunct or feature frozen without any such formal announcement. Youāre all welcome to state your preference for your product as-is, but I donāt appreciate attempts to shut down attempts to improve my product experience.
Unsurprisingly, as a former software developer and UI designer, I also have strong opinions about Spotify, and no, I would not be satisfied for them to keep the current feature set in perpetuity. In fact, they recently redesigned major parts of the UI, which regressed the experience for me. You can be sure Iām going to continue to be vocal on how much that redesign sucks and how Spotify should not forget my experience as an album listener, but those details are for another forum.
As for @timers
You can always test it yourself if you really wanted to, and if you really cared
Why did you come in to this forum just to be rude and insulting?
This is not an interesting topic to me.
Then feel free to not participate in it further?
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The topic about lack of new features was well discussed months ago here: No monthly blog update since November. Are the team ok?.
Dynalist developers took the decision to focus on Obsidian, and I took mine, not to wait any longer and move to Workflowy, and use their classy mirror functionality.
Months later I donāt regret it. I loved Dynalist and Iām still following their announcements, as much as Iām interested on outliners and productivity software.
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In my view, the lack of Dynalist development is typical of a small, small team/company. Iāve seen it time again: small team builds great product A; small team expands to Product B and no longer has time for Product A. Stick with well-established products that have been around for a long time. I happened to just check in here but stopped using Dynalist a long time ago.
What did you move to and why do you like it better?
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Iāve used both and find the thinking and features of workflowy really interesting. Iāve got to say though that when the chips are down and Iām getting busy and donāt have much brain space, trying to use those features of workflowy suddenly is another bit of friction. Dynalist really does just work, the layout, the shortcut keys which are embedded in my head, all of that. So just saying, while the geek in me thinks what workflowy is doing is great, thereās something about Dynalist that just works and that my brain is happier with when itās busy. @Erica I do hope Dynalist keeps going, itās a great tool that has stayed on my laptop and phone for years and years now.
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Iāve never been much of an outliner user, but Iām having another go. afaics Dynalist is very functional as is. Yes there are features that can be added but they seem to fall into the nice to have class rather than essential. Comparing it to Workflowy, each seems to have advantages and I find it tending more to Dynalist, mostly because it uses some markdown syntax.
My biggest observation is that thereās no obvious reason for me to pay for either of them. The important features of Dynalist are available in the free version; Workflowy has most features in the free version and Iām never going to hit itās bullet limit. Of course, it could be very different if I were a very active user, heavily into task management and productivity, but Iām not. This is perturbing. The web storage and sync isnāt free, even without considering developersā time. If the balance between paying users and free users shifts in the wrong direction , the future becomes hazer. I hope itās in a good place, but do feel Iām being offered a lot for nothing at all. otoh, a decent length free offer is important to pull me in to anything - it takes me at least a year to test things out.