As L&L staff have said, simply describing an experience won’t get you banned. They’ve allowed very spirited discussion over the years.
I do have to ask though, why a blog on what is hopefully a one-off experience for you that extremely few people ever experience, and from what I’ve seen can mostly happen if there is any app blocking Scrivener from doing a periodic license check. (Have you checked that?). Seems that happens with some other apps that do that periodic check.
If I wrote a blog on all the micro upsets I’ve experienced with software and appliances over the decades, I’d have a humungous site.
Of course, your life, your choices and doubt anyone is going to slag you for that.
The “blacklist” message only ever appears if the specific license key appears on our internal list of voided keys. Simple inability to contact the license server won’t produce it.
I’m not going to speculate on why it has appeared in this instance. As the message states, legitimate purchasers do sometimes run into this issue.
I’m a little puzzled by the continuing activity in this thread. While I invited the OP to contact me if they are unable to reach the sales team, they have not yet done so. That, rather than announcing an offsite publication, would seem to me to be the next step if they’re unable to resolve the issue.
There’s a thread I saw where a person reported the issue resolved when they paused the app that was blocking contact. But, there’s more rubbish info on the net than not
re: any app blocking Scrivener from doing a periodic license check. (Have you checked that?).
yes
re: what is hopefully a one-off experience for you that extremely few people ever experience
i would respectfuly warn against making this assumption. unless you have internal data clearly telling you how many cases there are, there is no way to quantify the occurences. if your only source is this forum, then you may be making your conclusion/deduction based on highly incomplete data…
re: I’m a little puzzled by the continuing activity in this thread. While I invited the OP to contact me if they are unable to reach the sales team, they have not yet done so.
my intention was to see what channels/worflow/pipeline is in place on L&L’s part in case of this situation. i respect your offer.
2024 02 04, Sun: blacklisting blocks my access to scrivener
2024 02 04, Sun: e-mail to sales@literatureandlatte.com as instructed on blacklisting window
2024 02 06, Tue: contacted L&L via web form as instructed by forum moderator
2024 02 08, Thu: e-mail to windows.support@literatureandlatte.com
2024 02 12, Mon: NO REPLY from L&L to the above. still no access to scrivener (see sshot)
@kewms
since nobody from L&L has replied to my requests for solution, id like to ask you to honor your promise *) and forward my issue to the appropriate person(s), pls.
thx in advance!
k
*) btw i hope the phrase “honor your promise” does not have any negative connotation. just wanted to refer to your offer. still, it feels a bit like reminding someone to hold on to a promise they forgot or “forgot”, which is not the case here. if there is a way to put it better in english, pls, correct me.
I just checked the help desk queue. We have not received any help requests from the email you’re using here on the forum.
As my senior colleague kewms noted earlier, you should have received an auto-reply from the help desk queue confirming that your request was received and was in line for assistance.
If you didn’t receive that confirmation message, it would explain why we’re not seeing a help ticket.
You might also see if you used a different email for your request and if our reply is there. That’s come up on quite a few tickets that I’ve handled in the past.
thank you for your reply. interesting, but hardly anything i can do about it and hardly my fault.
i have received successful Mail Delivery Reports on both e-mails, so they reached your mail server and that is as far as i can see and that is all i can do on my side.
when it comes to the web form, i have no way of obtaining any kind of confirmation, only what the web form displays for me.
re: if you used a different email for your request
im not sure if i understand you right. if you mean whether i used the same email address as the one that i have registered scrivener to, then the answer is yes. i was cautious about that.
I’m making the conclusion on this forum and a search on the net.
In these days of ‘bleat first, seek a solution second’ and build a mountain out of a pimple on the net and social media, if it were a common occurrence there would surely be a pile of whining out there.
I’ve managed to find a couple only.
Incomplete data, but that data is as valid as anyone suggesting it’s an issue impacting more than one or two.
Team L&L are the only ones who would have the definitive data and they’ve not said anything.
Assuming that you checked your junk mail folder and there was nothing there either, then the possibilities are that (1) there was a typo in your email address when you filled out the form or (2) something in between here and there is blocking communications. I’ve checked our email queue and didn’t find any close matches, either, so it’s probably the second.
I did check your email address in our license database, and nothing seems amiss there.
Two things to check:
Is there a firewall or other software blocking access to our licensing server?
Is our server in your PC’s list of blocked sites? Please try using Windows File Explorer to navigate to:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Then open the hosts file in Notepad as an administrator. Look for any line that includes the word Paddle and delete it. Save the hosts file, reboot the PC, and then try opening Scrivener again.
thank you for this info, @kewms ! although i did not follow your instructions completely, the info in the folder has lead me to the solution. i will want to research it further before commenting. i will post my findings in this thread once i have them finalized, hopefully soon.
k
Update:
Although I don’t have all the bits and pieces together yet, some update might be in order.
Several issues have contributed to the problem that started this thread.
The blacklisting message was caused by an issue between Paddle software (handles license and telemetry for Scrivener) and my specific security software (FYI not a case of firewall blocking outgoing traffic). It is being currently investigated AFAIK, so I don’t want to post anything more in order to give the appropriate people space to resolve this. I will post more when I have more info.
@kewms , considering the blacklisted message (see the screenshot at the top of the thread) I’d strongly recommend rewriting it. It is one big chunk of text so whoever starts reading it is guided (by the fact that it is one paragraph) to read it all. The info in the text is aimed at two users though: a legitimate user and a pirate. I highly recommend separating the texts visibly. As a legitimate user I started reading the text with info for me and then had to go thru all the info for the pirates. At the end of the paragraph I was seeing red. Although I am basically a pacifist, I was extremely mad and offended. IMHO you don’t want to do this to your legitimate users. Also, they don’t deserve such treatment.
Another problem that contributed was my inability to communicate with Scrivener support. My e-mails to windows.support@literatureandlatte.com and sales@literatureandlatte.com did not go through. My message posted using the contact form at Contact Us | Literature and Latte also did not come through as this forum admin kewms has found out. If it were not for this forum I would have had no way to contact L&L! Not a good situation at all. Seems like some sort of location-based blacklisting on company’s servers. @kewms , should you want to do something about this, I am willing to help. Just let me know what you need.
Since this thread started, we have switched over to different internal software for managing the support queue, which appears to have fixed the issue with inconsistent email handling.
I will pass your feedback about the blacklisting message along to the development team.
Thank you for letting us know you’re back on track.
