Firmware 4.17.13651

[Semwize]

davidfor,
I asked to justify the feasibility and necessity of this change, you could not do it. And the «customer request» is very simplified and simply unverifiable. Where those requesting it? Where are they? In topic is not see...

But this is a completely pointless and unnecessary dispute, let's finish it. I will remain in my opinion that this is just a mistake (sorry).

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Semwize

davidfor,
And the «customer request» is very simplified and simply unverifiable. Where those requesting it? Where are they? In topic is not see...

I've tried to stay out of this, but this is just too absurd to let pass: They are customer requests - requests made by customers to Kobo - OF COURSE they won't be in this this topic. To suggest, even just by implication that because they are not published in this topic they are not real is to imply that davidfor lied when he said Kobo received such requests. Not only does that impugn him without cause, it raises a big question: WHY? Why would he bother to "invent" non-existent customer complaints?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Semwize

davidfor,
I asked to justify the feasibility and necessity of this change, you could not do it. And the «customer request» is very simplified and simply unverifiable. Where those requesting it? Where are they? In topic is not see...

But this is a completely pointless and unnecessary dispute, let's finish it. I will remain in my opinion that this is just a mistake (sorry).

It looks like you have completely, and I feel deliberately, misunderstood what I have said.

At no time have I claimed that someone here wanted this changed. When this change was reported here, I asked Kobo if it was a deliberate change. They stated it was. I expressed my surprise at this. I was then told that customers had been complaining for years that the device wasn't showing books that were in these directories. I assume these report came through the official Kobo support channels. And MR is not an official support channel.

And you do realise that there are Kobo users that don't belong to MR. Hell, some of them probably don't even know that MR exists. No, make that, nearly all of them don't know that MR exists. Just because no-one here asks for something, doesn't mean there aren't others out there who have.

And the thing to remember is that the members of MR are not part of Kobo's target market. Just as we are not part of Amazon's or B&N's. There are not enough members here for us to be important to any of them.

And for the record, I don't agree with the change. But, I don't particularly care one way or the other. My use of my Kobo ereaders are as Kobo ereaders, so I have no need to hide files from the Kobo software. I disagree with the change mainly because I know that there are a lot of people that will find it inconvenient.

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by davidfor

And for the record, I don't agree with the change.

Great

If I understood correctly, they don’t want and will not roll back this change?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Semwize

Great

If I understood correctly, they don’t want and will not roll back this change?

For the nth time on this forum in general, and at least the 2nd time in this thread:

If you have an issue with some feature, or change the best way to get that addressed is to talk to Kobo directly via their various official contact methods. That is where change will be made from if it'll be made.

That is where this .dir change came from.

It has also been where bugs have been submitted about different firmware versions, in recent memory bugs with the firmware of the Forma launch.

[ps67]

Originally Posted by davidfor

It looks like you have completely, and I feel deliberately, misunderstood what I have said.

At no time have I claimed that someone here wanted this changed. When this change was reported here, I asked Kobo if it was a deliberate change. They stated it was. I expressed my surprise at this. I was then told that customers had been complaining for years that the device wasn't showing books that were in these directories. I assume these report came through the official Kobo support channels. And MR is not an official support channel.

And you do realise that there are Kobo users that don't belong to MR. Hell, some of them probably don't even know that MR exists. No, make that, nearly all of them don't know that MR exists. Just because no-one here asks for something, doesn't mean there aren't others out there who have.

And the thing to remember is that the members of MR are not part of Kobo's target market. Just as we are not part of Amazon's or B&N's. There are not enough members here for us to be important to any of them.

And for the record, I don't agree with the change. But, I don't particularly care one way or the other. My use of my Kobo ereaders are as Kobo ereaders, so I have no need to hide files from the Kobo software. I disagree with the change mainly because I know that there are a lot of people that will find it inconvenient.

Yes, I agree, I feel in a little minority of minority: most people don't read at all, the majority of readers use pbooks, the majority of device users buy their ebooks from Kobo, Amazon ecc and simply read them.

I modify my books if they are not well formatted, apply patches, install Koreader, use calibre with my Kobo to handle metadata ecc. I am far from the middle user of a Kobo device.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Semwize

davidfor,
I asked to justify the feasibility and necessity of this change, you could not do it. And the «customer request» is very simplified and simply unverifiable. Where those requesting it? Where are they? In topic is not see...

But this is a completely pointless and unnecessary dispute, let's finish it. I will remain in my opinion that this is just a mistake (sorry).

My question is, why would enough customers request such a change? Most customers don't have anything to do the directory structure and would have no need for .directory (it's not a folder) scanning.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My question is, why would enough customers request such a change? Most customers don't have anything to do the directory structure and would have no need for .directory (it's not a folder) scanning.

I think you’d all be surprised how many people using ereaders plug theirs in and add books. They might not strip the DRM themselves or even be aware of it being a thing, but they still do it.

This is probably why Amazon and BN went with reading only from a specific directory. Just make it easy to see and clear with its purpose and most customers figure it out. Kobo honestly has the messiest looking file structure upon opening the drive. Nothing there is immediately intuitive, which I’d imagine is where all the complaints they get stem from.

[Quoth]

We have no way of knowing what feedback Kobo got and how accurate any reason they give for anything. Don't shoot the messenger! (Davidfor).

Unlike a modern Smartphone, tablet or laptop an eink based ereader is certainly not a general purpose device. So this directory scanning issue isn't going to affect most users.
It's hardly going to affect anyone. So much so I wonder why Kobo bothered. I'd wonder even if the real reason was something other than what was communicated, which might have been a second hand verbal comment.

I can't see it's worth getting fussed about one way or the other. It does seem like a pointless change, but for all most everyone only using the ereader, even with Calibre or USB transfer (sideloading) direct from Gutenberg or Smashwords rather than WiFi from Kobo, it will have no effect.

I use Linux, I've used Windows and UNIX in the past. I don't have a problem either way with the way it worked before or now.

I'd say anyone using a computer to sideload (USB copy) is going to search on the web or even (SHOCK) read manual and discover where to put books in the past if they didn't appear.
The biggest advantage after all of the Kobo ereader isn't the Kobo store, but about 50,000 popular genuinely out of copyright books converted to epub.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I think you’d all be surprised how many people using ereaders plug theirs in and add books. They might not strip the DRM themselves or even be aware of it being a thing, but they still do it.

I use Calibre to manage eBooks on my H2O. I don't have any need for scanning .directories. I cannot understand how enough people have said to Kobo that they want .directory scanning.If you want other directories to put stuff in to be scanned, don't make them .directories. It's not hard really.

I don't understand why enough people wanted this change when it's not something I see needing.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I use Calibre to manage eBooks on my H2O. I don't have any need for scanning .directories. I cannot understand how enough people have said to Kobo that they want .directory scanning.If you want other directories to put stuff in to be scanned, don't make them .directories. It's not hard really.

I don't understand why enough people wanted this change when it's not something I see needing.

I imagine people don't ask for it specifically.

Instead he people affected simply plug their Kobo in, look for where to put their ebooks, and decide the .kobo directory would be a good spot. Or any of the .name directories.

I know BN made this dead simple on their ereaders, there's a directory called 'books'. I'm not sure how Amazon handles it because I've never owned a Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I imagine people don't ask for it specifically.

Instead he people affected simply plug their Kobo in, look for where to put their ebooks, and decide the .kobo directory would be a good spot. Or any of the .name directories.

I know BN made this dead simple on their ereaders, there's a directory called 'books'. I'm not sure how Amazon handles it because I've never owned a Kindle.

Kobo really needs to have a Books directory. That would solve the problem.

[Gibbo]

So were do I place the sideloaded ebooks on the root directory?

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

So were do I place the sideloaded ebooks on the root directory?

I just made a new folder called "Books". Easy-peasy.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I use Calibre to manage eBooks on my H2O. I don't have any need for scanning .directories. I cannot understand how enough people have said to Kobo that they want .directory scanning.If you want other directories to put stuff in to be scanned, don't make them .directories. It's not hard really.

I don't understand why enough people wanted this change when it's not something I see needing.

Baffling.
Deffo fodder bizarre theorising