Answers to some questions about the erasmus Bible app.

When I sign up for email alerts, I never get emails.
When you sign up for alerts, a confirmation email is sent to you. You must click the link in that email to confirm that you want to receive emails. Until/unless this is done, you will receive no emails. This is to prevent someone else from signing you up for alerts without your permission.

When I sign up for an account, email alerts, or request a password reset, I never receive the confirmation email.
1. Verify that you used the proper email address (try again and double-check the spelling).
2. Make sure you allow up to an hour for the confirmation email to be delivered.
3. Check your spam folder in case your email client mis-identified the confirmation email as spam.
4. If you use Windows (Essentials) Live Mail, be aware that the program sometimes automatically deletes mail that it thinks is spam. Consider using a different email client or webmail.

When I switch a Bible, why does the verse number sometimes change from what it was?
Some Bibles (such as the Westminster Hebrew Codex) have different versification than other versions. That means that, although the text is there, the verse numbers associated with it may differ slightly. In this circumstance, erasmus will take you to the same verse text, even if it is a different verse number.

But when I specify a verse in the reference dialog, why does it go to the verse number I enter rather than the verse corresponding to the equivalent verse in a Bible such as the WEB version?
When you specify a version and verse, erasmus goes to the verse in that reference work. No versification compensation is done except when you cross-reference between versions.

Why does my device say that the erasmus download has a virus?
False positives from virus scanners happen regularly - and not just on erasmus. The problem with commercial virus scanners like Norton and McAfee is that they fear the bad publicity that comes from not catching an actual virus, which causes them to make their detectors overly sensitive.

"Heuristics based" virus scanners are especially bad. Rather than looking for known viruses, they look for virus-like behaviour. As you might imagine, legitimate installers do a lot of things that a virus also does, such as writing files, updating the registry, and so forth.

First of all, make sure you are downloading erasmus from our web site (or the Apple app store). We cannot vouch for any other source for the app. By downloading from our site, you are also guaranteed to get the latest version.

Second, we recommend that you verify a positive virus identification with multiple antivirus products, such as malwarebytes, Windows Security essentials, and AVG. If they all report a virus then you have reason to be suspicious. However, if one or more of them do not identify a virus, the file is almost certainly virus-free. You can also use virustotal.com website. This site can scan URLs or files against a long list of different virus scanners. If most report a virus, then there might be a problem. Otherwise, you are probably safe.

Chrome won't even let me download erasmus because it says it has a virus.
To work around this, you need to use a different internet browser to download the file, or turn off your antivirus long enough to finish the download (just be sure to turn it back on when you are done)!

Why do you have so many different library collections for erasmus?
Some devices - especially mobile phones - have limited storage space, so we offer a series of collections which are different sizes so that you can choose one that fits your device(s). Also, you may not want all of the reference works that a larger collection contains, so you have the choice to not use any more storage space than is necessary for what you want. New reference works are only added to the largest collection of the app - all other collections have a fixed set of reference works in order to keep the size of those collections consistent. Note however that additional program features and reference work corrections may cause the size to change slightly with each new version of erasmus.

If erasmus is free, why do I have to pay for add-ons?
We cannot give away content that is currently under copyright unless we've specifically been given permission to do so. For such content, we seek licensing agreements with the copyright holders which typically require us to make royalty payments to them for each sale. The small amount of money that we make off these sales goes toward subsidizing the continued development of erasmus. We make public domain material available for free and the app itself will always be free. You don't need to purchase any add-on content to make good use of erasmus, but add-ons are there if you desire a specific reference work that is not in the public domain.

What is the release schedule for erasmus?
We aim for about a six-month development cycle, meaning roughly two releases per year. However, we don't have an official schedule, nor do we announce releases ahead of time. Too many times, we've been disappointed by companies that announce a release date for a product and then miss it. We'd rather not make predictions that we might not be able to meet. Further, aiming for a specific release date results in releases that are driven by a timeline rather than by quality. We plan our releases based on improvements and new features that we feel we can complete within six months, so we release when the product is ready - it might be longer than six months, or it might be shorter.

How do you determine what to include in each release?
Our goal is for each release to include one new major reference work, and one or two smaller reference works. We also have a specific roadmap of app features, and we try to include at least one of those features with each release. We often also include minor refinements of existing features to make the app easier to use. We try to release without any serious bugs (those which prevent a feature from working at all or causing the app to abend), but sometimes things may slip through our Quality Control. In the case of a serious issue, we might release an intermediate version of the app outside of our normal release schedule, whose sole purpose is to fix that issue.

How do you determine which reference works to include?
Because erasmus is free, we can only include free content with it. Generally that is public domain works, however some authors have given us permission to distribute their material for free. Thus, we are limited to what is available. There is a huge amount of useful public domain material, but sometimes it is not available in a form that we can obtain. For some material, we scan printed material and convert it to a format compatible with erasmus. Sometimes, other people have converted the material to electronic form and released it. But regardless of how we obtain it, it always requires significant work on our part to prepare it for use with erasmus. Much of the public domain material is in rough shape and it takes a lot of effort to process it. In the case of large reference works, we spend months to get them ready. This typically limits us to only one major new work per release.

Within those constraints, our next consideration is providing works that round out what is available in erasmus. For example, one release might include a new encyclopedia, while the next may be a new commentary, and the next may be a devotional or set of sermons. That way, the app will not be skewed toward a single type of reference work - rather, a variety of helps are available. We also tend toward works which are referenced in other works that are already included in erasmus. That way, you can quickly follow the references without having to leave the app.

Finally, the reference works we include must be a good "fit" for erasmus. The purpose of erasmus is Bible study, so included works should help with that. Our target audience is lay people and teachers. However, we occasionally include works that could be considered more academic. The idea with those is to provide the ability for even lay people to dig into the scripture as deep as they desire.

We also try to avoid overly sectarian works so that erasmus is useful to as many people as possible. This is not entirely possible, of course, but we aim for works that have the broadest possible appeal, without sacrificing fidelity to the scripture. Thus, erasmus will not appeal to fringe groups, nor is it intended to. When there are legitimate differences of opinion on things, we try to include works that present different sides of the disagreement so that you have enough information to come to your own conclusions.

Even with those considerations, there is an awful lot of material that we could include, so our selection process will tend toward those works which have shown their long-term value through continued popularity over the decades. We usually have reference work releases planned out for two, or more, years in advance. However, we don't announce those choices ahead of time in case things change. We don't want to get people's hopes up and then disappoint them.