Orphalese Tarot Zone Community Forum

Dear lovely Orphalese community. How are you all?

If you've been a member of this community since before September, 2010 (which seems to be the last time I posted here) you may remember me. My name is purple_scorp - I was a volunteer forum administrator and avid Orphalese software user. I wrote two OT software reviews (that I think now have broken links on the OT home page) and I'm just writing to say hello to everyone and to let you all know that I am not dead, nor have I dropped off the face of the earth.

I can't even explain what happened and why I disappeared.....but I also stopped frequenting Aeclectic Tarot Forum too. As well as having a full-time job, I bought an accommodation business (10 units) with my then partner and it ate up all the spare time I had.

I never stopped reading cards though I've had five or so job changes and moved towns, since last posting here and now, have outsourced the property management to get some precious time back.

And, so, here I am......where's everyone else at these days?

Special hi to Richard and Webweaver. (Richard, I think I'm probably a gazillion versions behind with my software and can't wait to see all of the wonderful enhancements you've no doubt introduced in the last five years. I see in your post you've closed enhancement requests for a while.....hmm, you must have known I was coming back so I can't bother you like I used to.....<smile>). I'm also thinking, given you're like up to version 9 or something, that a fresh Software review is well overdue. Stay tuned!

with love
purple_scorp

Hi Scorp, It is good to hear from you! It sounds like you have been using your time constructively, plus it is always good to go away and come back with a fresh perspective. For a start you notice things like broken links (Oops, I wasn't even aware of them).

The Forum here is much quieter than it used to be, hopefully because the program doesn't have the bugs and obvious shortcomings that it used to have. Also I have settled into a slower routine of introducing improvements (although, yes there have been a few in the last five years!), basically it works out that I collect suggestions for improvements throughout the year and then work on implementing the best of them each summer when I have more time. If you look through the recent posts you will see that Greg (a.k.a the Yeti) has come up with several great ideas over the last year or so, some of which went into the program this summer. One thing that bothers me is that with each set of new features the help file gets more and more out of date. I reassure myself that most people don't bother to look at it but I do wake up sometimes in the night worrying about the few conscientious souls who do. So maybe next year (or the year after) I will get round to that too. Of course, in the meantime there is always this forum, so if you find yourself mystified by anything you find in the latest version of the program do please ask and hopefully I will remember why whatever it is was changed or moved and how it is supposed to work now...

Richard being away for those five years has also reminded me of how advanced Orphalese software is. You have always been so responsive to the users, which puts us in a very unique position of truly being a part of the growth of your program. You have given so much to the card reading world, particularly offering the one-deck software for free. I would really like to offer my assistance with the help files, at least the English version. You may remember, I have an IT and training background. Also, I have some great multimedia software called Captivate, and I was thinking of creating some mp4s that actually demonstrate how to use the various functions of the software. Do you have the capacity to store mp4s on your forum? The alternative would be to open a You Tube channel. Captivate can also easily generate word documents (which could be used to update your help files).

Warm regards,
purple_scorp

Hey Richard,

Re: the broken links on your home page to two Orphalese Software reviews I wrote.....I did a bit of detective work and found a working link to the one I wrote for the Association for Tarot Studies Newsletter:

http://tarot.fourhares.com/2006/03/orph ... re-review/

The other one I wrote for Aeclectic (I think) and I know that they lost a lot of posts when they were hacked. So, I don't hold much faith in finding it. But as I said, time for me to write a new review.

regards

purple_scorp

So, I found an old Aeclectic Thread where there are many great posts about Orphalese:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=23126&page=1

:)

OK, fixed the link. Thanks, Scorp!!