Finally able to support authors

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by leebase

I've been here 15 years - so, yes, I have the background to say "time and again what once worked, didn't and each time it's a hassle figuring it out".

For me, it's been only 10 years, and in that time, there was exactly one time when updating Calibre caused the DRM removal plugin to stop working. There have been several times when DRM removal didn't work because of a change in the DRM, but every time that was solved by simply updating the plugin.

In that time, I have also moved my Calibre library to a new computer twice (once for the Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade), and each time I did a complete re-install of Calibre and plugins, and everything worked fine as soon as I finished the plugin config.

Not once did I have to "struggle". If a Calibre upgrade broke DRM removal, I reverted Calibre until the fix (either to Calibre or the plugin) solved the problem. If a DRM change caused it to fail, I waited until the plugin was updated and tried again.

So, yeah, things have broken at times, but including me intentionally "breaking" my install by starting over, I've probably spent a total of 4 hours getting DRM removal with Calibre to work. In 10 years, I think that's an acceptable amount of time.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Most people would not search for NoDRM. They will search for DeDRM and have trouble finding it.

That's why I don't tell people to search for DeDRM, and nobody here should, either. NoDRM won't generally show Epubor until quite a ways down the list, and the Git repository will be close to the top (usually #1).

We can fix some of the "it's hard" complaints by being better with our instructions.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

That's why I don't tell people to search for DeDRM, and nobody here should, either. NoDRM won't generally show Epubor until quite a ways down the list, and the Git repository will be close to the top (usually #1).

We can fix some of the "it's hard" complaints by being better with our instructions.

Don't tell them to search for anything. Post the link to NoDRM's repository. It's not against the rules (unlike getting more specific and detailed with "instructions"). In fact, MobileRead shouldn't be considered an instructional resource for how to remove DRM at all. We should only be posting links to places that ARE resources.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Not once did I have to "struggle".

And all we have to counter is my own personal experience and a megathread with 10s of thousands of posts.

Easy peasy

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by leebase

And all we have to counter is my own personal experience and a megathread with 10s of thousands of posts.

Easy peasy

There are always outliers.

[DNSB]

Out of curiosity, where is that megathread located? I took a look around Mobileread and could not find it. While there are threads with over 20,000 replies which is the minimum to match your "10s of thousands", they seem to be mostly found in the Lounge. Not quite certain how a thread labelled Forum Game: Last person to post here wins! has much to do with issues with removing DRM.

[ownedbycats]

I suspect that the 'megathread' may be the Amazon and DRM changes one, but a) it only covers Kindle and b) there's only ~2200 posts, not "10s of thousands."

[DNSB]

I did a search on Mobileread for any threads that mentioned DeDRM before my post. The one you mentioned had the most posts by a hair but not even close to "10s of thousands". Heck, if I combined the 3 busiest threads (DRM workaround: Kindle for Android, Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre, Amazon and DRM changes, they didn't reach 5,000 messages total.

[haertig]

...not "10s of thousands."

...not even close to "10s of thousands".

I can't believe that people here did not recognize "literal" vs. "hyperbole". I figured all 27,000,000,000,000 of the members here would know what hyperbole was.

[DNSB]

Thanks you for saying that @leebase was not being truthful when he stated "a megathread with 10s of thousands of posts"? Sadly, that would appear to mean that we can not trust any of his statements about anything anymore since he has proven himself to be willing to use dishonesty to support his arguments.

You do realize that Mobileread has several threads well over 10,000 messages? For example, the Forum Game: Last person to post here wins! thread is fast coming up on it's 150,000th message which makes the statement you want to defend fail most definitions of hyperbole which seem to involve quite obvious exaggerations.

[ownedbycats]

Also, weren't a good bunch of the "it didn't work!" posts on the Amazon DRM thread from people who didn't follow all the instructions? I dont follow the thread anymore, aside than to monitor for anything that might require an edit of the original post.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Thanks you for saying that @leebase was not being truthful when he stated...

No thanks is needed, because I didn't say that at all. Hyperbole is a literary and oratory technique to make a point, it has nothing to do with truth. Intentionally taking things too literally only works well if one is the straight man in a comedy duo. When it is used to belittle and accuse someone of being a liar, it only makes the accuser look obtuse. I have seen enough of your posts to know that you are certainly not obtuse, but yet you do something like this and belittle another member for a simple and harmless statement. Unfortunately, this is a very common tactic for several people on these forums. Masters of minutiae. I see no reason to take innocent and well intentioned comments and posts and blow them up into ... I don't even know what to call what they're being blown up into. It's not very nice. But it happens around here. A lot.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by twowheels

To be honest, I'm surprised how much the forum allows now -- years ago it feels like the topic was entirely taboo; people walk much closer to the line than they did 10+ years ago.

I agree that we do walk the line. Being able to give the URL is a big deal (IMHO). Before we were able to give the URL, the advice was to go search for apprentice alf.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by leebase

Yep. I do a lot of hard technical stuff. But nobody says "oh, that's easy". But so many here are constitutionally married to "it's easy" when I KNOW it's not.

If you know DRM can be removed but your starting from scratch, it's not easy. You have to get calibre, learn to use it, find the URL to the correct version of DeDRM, install it, install KindleForPC (or MAC), have a physical Kindle, install and register ADE, configure DeDRM, etc.

It's only easy if you've been at from the start were you've been able to learn as you go along and also learn as new features are added. I've been at it from the start with LibPRS500. So it's been easy enough. But if I was to have to start over, would it be so easy? Probably not.

[Sirtel]

I've been following any developments in deDRMing closely since 2011. Back then it was easy; now it's harder (the Amazon DRM part, that is), but if you regularly monitor the relevant threads and topics here, it's not that difficult either. And I say that as a person with no technical or IT background at all. It's only difficult if you don't keep track of various DRM threads and have to search for information every time something stops working.

I get it, people may have little time and/or energy to constantly monitor the DRM threads here, both old and new. And then they're caught off guard when their set-up stops working, again. But there's no help for it other than to keep your information as up-to-date as possible.