Au revoir Bookends, bonjour Zotero

[toffy]

@JohnAtl

There is currently a bug in Bookends where it creates three entries (two empty) for each paper it imports from the folder it watches for new papers. The developer can’t reproduce the bug, and has washed his hands of it . I have put some time into trying to figure out what the problem might be, but ultimately, this is not my bug to fix. To me, this is not good support.

@ryanjamurphy

I too have been quite frustrated by a total lack of caring from Sonny Software on the issues I’ve reported.

Wow, I didn’t think I would end up right there before I even started using Bookends. I can’t believe just how non-caring Sonny Software actually is.

Just to quickly summarize my conversation with the developer, because it was via email, not on the “support”-forum. (Sorry, it became less of a summary than an annotated version of the exchange…)

I reported a bug related to importing pdfs from the watched folder:

I just tried the "watch folder” feature and suddenly the three references that I had manually added to my empty bookends database were done and it looked like this:

This looks like a bug to me but maybe I’m doing something wrong?

He replies:

I’m sorry, it’s not clear what you did. You had 3 references in the library and then did what? And can you reproduce whatever it was that resulted in this?

I confirm that I can reproduce the issue:

Yes, I can reproduce this:

1. I’m using the demo version of bookends.
2. I have three references in my database
3. I add one or more files into the Watched folder
4. I select “import from watch folder → start watching” (if it wasn’t already running)
5. Once the import starts, an error message appears telling me that I cannot import more references.(one error message per imported file)
6. The list of references looks like in the screenshot in my first email.

Does that help?

Te developer asked a few more questions:

Interesting. There’s no reason for that error message if you have only 3 messages.

Can you send me the following, please?

1. A screen snap of the error message.
2. The library file.
3. One of the PDFs.

Also, where is your watch folder located? The Desktop? I wonder if this could be due to some permissions problem that could be fixed by providing Full Disk Access in System Preferences Privacy.

He also noted that

According to the screen shot you sent, you have 2628 references in your library, not 3. What is going on?

At the time, I read this as he scratching his head asking himself “What is going on” but in retrospect, he probably wanted me to explain what was going on. But instead, I tried to clarify the issue. (I have a lot of experience with support, so I know you can never explain your issue too much):

I gave you all I know. It’s the demo version, I added three refs manually and then I tried to add some more via the watched folder. It is very weird indeed:

• Why is bookends adding all those messages as references?
• How van it add more than a thousand references when there is a limit of 50?
• Why does it suddenly start complaining at 2628?

Hope you can figure it out.

Will send you the requested files as soon as I can. But, yes, my watched folder is a folder on the desktop.

Yes, I also know that you always have to send whatever support requests, but I was away from the Mac, so I had to briefly postpone that. I am also used to support not really doing anything with the stuff you sent, but usually they somehow try to pretend (“I’ve forwarded your files to our developers”). Not so in this case:

Sorry, I have no idea. Since I can’t reproduce this, and no one else is reporting a similar problem, it’s a local issue and it’s unlikely I’ll be able to help. In this case, I suggest that you explore the other reference managers for macOS.

In fact, within less than 24 hours, he didn’t even seem much interested any more in the files he had requested. I sent them anyway, assuming that they would allow him to reproduce the issue or at least trace how it happened:

attached are the requested files:

• the database
• one of the files I was trying to import
• and here is a screenshot of the error message:
  

So the moment he has everything he wanted, he switches into PEBKAC-mode. Of course, the user is too stupid to realize that he exceeded the number of references allowed in the demo version:

this is simple. Your database has 2433 references!

You cannot add any more without a license.

He added the following:

P.S. I suggest that you trash this library file and start again. Create a fresh new library and try importing 3 references.

But in order to bring us back on track (i.e. bug-tracking), I chose to further clarify the problem:

Obviously, the number of references is the reason for the error message. But the actual bug is that

1. I didn’t add those references
2. They are not references but some kind of error messages or log-entries.

But to him the P.S. was very important:

You got my second email?

So I acknowledge that I received it while getting right back to the actual issue, this time breaking it down into smaller pieces and mentioning only one of them (first rule when communicating with evasive others: one - and only one - question at time! Don’t let them pick and choose which question to reply to!):

You mean the one where you suggest I should trash this library file and start again? Yes, this seems obvious to me since I cannot do anything with the current one except for remove 50 “references” at a time.

So, where you able to figure out what caused the library to be filled up with hundreds of strange items?

And indeed: I managed to make him answer the question, but he also pulled out a good defense: answer the question only in it’s literal sense and ignore any implicit meaning that would be obvious in a normal conversation:

I have no idea. No one has ever reported that before.

Well, strictly speaking, he wasn’t even answering the question in its literal sense, probably because that would have required him to say “No, I wasn’t able to figure it out, In fact, I haven’t even tried.” But even so, his “couldn’t care less” attitude is becoming quite apparent.

So I’m giving it one last try, by adding some humour and focusing on an a cue that he himself previously brought up (that this might be related to the location of the watched folder):

I guess if someone had reported it before, you’d already have fixed it and we wouldn’t be mailing about it… But hey, someone’s got to start…

Were you able to confirm whether the issue has something to do with the location of the watched folder as you mentioned earlier?

Now the blame is on “the system” (and ignorance):

The “imported” items are all code modules in the Bookends.app bundle. Why the system notified Bookends they were files in the watch folder I don’t know.

I advised you before to look at other reference managers, and I reiterate it now. We’re not going to figure out what went wrong in your case and unless it happens again there’s nothing to pursue. Please don’t invest any more time in Bookends.

Note the paternalistic tone and note the “we”. I would say I have done my part of the “we” figuring stuff out. If this is artisanal software development, it’s the kind that combines the bad sides of “artisanal” with the bad sides of “software development” instead of the other way around. The artist claiming unlimited authority over the art, not willing to treat it as a product that he actually has to accept responsibility for.

While writing this post, I realized that my bug is quite similar to the one @JohnAtl linked to above. So it is not even true that “No one has ever reported that before.” But that clearly is irrelevant to him.