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2024-12-31-accounts

STEP Bible Charity # 1193950

Reports from section heads Sept 2024 – Sept 2025

Programming Report

By Patrick Tang

Nathan implemented a search for the names of people and places.. This enhancement enables users who do not know original languages to perform people and places searches. Searches for Greek & Hebrew words were separated from searches for translations to make the results easier to take in.

The color code grammar configurator was implemented at the sidebar. Some users did not notice the color code grammar had been available since 2019, but it is now easier to use.

The programming team implemented multiple UI enhancements designed by Daicy.

We implemented links to the BibleProject, ICC commentaries and Bob’s commentary on the Summary pages. Luke did the heavy lifting by manually collecting over 1,000 links to these information.

Sami has provided multiple enhancements to simplify the tagging of Bibles. His most significant enhancement is a Bible tagging tool which does 70% of the work required to tag a Bible.

Sami showed this tool, explaining how it worked. More than one tag can be attached to a word and more than one word can share a single tag. Automated tagging is done first, using dStrongs to maximize the alignment with different languages. The tagging tool uses Simple Strongs which is later restored to dStrongs for making the module.

Sami has used both tools to accurately tag an Arabic Bible in just a few months. Patrick does not expect to finish the NIV as quickly as that but hopes to have it done in a year.

User Experience Report

By Daicy Hexiao

Simplifying the Search tools continued after last year.

The ‘Advanced’ search screen was removed by moving the results into the main window, and it was simplified by showing the results for Hebrew, Greek and Translation separately.

This makes it clear that there are Hebrew & Greek search capabilities without confusing people with all the results.

Better examples helped to show how to use the tool.

The interface now draws peoples’ eyes downward vertically to each next stage. The range can be picked before the search, but it can also be adjusted after the search.

The color grammar sidebar is much more visible, and the configuration is simplified. It is now easier to find with its own button, though this may be incorporated into another button.

The Genealogy app created by Jamie, with input from Daicy, is ready to go.

Currently we are working on the:

Offline Mobile App Report

By Dan Bennett

STEP Bible Charity # 1193950

We removed the iOS and Android apps from the stores to focus on our core STEPBible.org website.

It has not been possible to keep the app up to date with all the OS changes. It is no longer so important to make it possible to use STEP offline because data is now much cheaper in many countries.

User Engagement Report

By Mark Cannon

Overview:

User Feedback user inquiries and technical issues go to feedback@stepbible.org. They are dealt with by me or passed on to appropriate technical or linguistic support. User Interaction also involves administering social media platforms, and training users through documentation, video and other means.

Feedback Process:

Feedback requests are managed via email and tracked with JIRA, a support tracking tool. Feedback requests are generally answered by myself or David Instone-Brewer. Some issues are passed on to Patrick Tang, Nathan Vercaemert, or Darcy McKinnon.

Our response times in the last year continue to be poor. Sometimes they are answered rather quickly, but harder issues that require significant testing or research may not be answered for months.

Feedback Volume:

We had 354 feedback submissions come in since our AGM meeting last year. Of those, 198 are still marked Open, though many of these have already been addressed but not marked Closed. This total does not include some emails which were sent directly to feedback@stepbible.org.

In the previous year, we had 310 Feedback submissions which represents a 14% increase last year.

STEPBible Mobile Offline App Support:

In late April 2025 we regrettably decided to discontinue the Android and iOS STEPBible apps because OS changes caused a number of technical issues that were difficult to resolve.

We still get Feedback concerning the Mobile App and we respond suggesting they use www.stepbible.org, now that data is much cheaper. I regularly use STEPBible on my iPhone in that fashion superceding my prior use of the Accordance app, though sometimes I opt for the ESV.org app as it has a good notetaking tool. We’ve had 45 STEPBible App Feedback submissions since the last AGM – a drop of 47%.

FAQs:

Longer FAQ supplement the concise ones in the STEPBible side panel. There are 42 FAQs ready to go, though we do not yet have a link to to access them. They are good demonstrable answers to real user questions, some frequently asked. They cover a good number of features in STEPBible or do things not covered in the Welcome FAQs. There are more to add that I’ve saved in other locations.

Social Media and Community Interaction:

We could use a person versed in and excited about sharing STEPBible information on social media - Facebook and others, X, Instagram?

Google Groups had 8 threads in 2025.

The YouTube channel gained 4 videos explaining the use and virtues of the color code grammar. We have one in the hopper with content provided to us by Tony Watkins of

STEP Bible Charity # 1193950

Tyndale House Cambridge on studying threads in Scripture of the how passages fit in the context of book, author, genre, etc, how to use STEPBible to see related verses and ideas, a simple search and how to access Hebrew and Greek from your English search.

Module development Report

By Darcy McKinnon

Added 35 modules since the last AGM; updated 23

Currently we have:

Modules maintained by STEPBible are stored on github

Jamie has been developing a TextConverter to automate the build process

A Public version of modules is created at https://public.modules.stepbible.org/packages/ whenever this is possible, within copyright law and permissions from owners.

Data Development Report

By David Instone-Brewer

Before giving his report, David thanked Patrick for his many bug fixes and security tasks which go unnoticed but are very necessary. He also thanked Darcy for looking after the various items in Resources and trouble-shooting the Hebrew+Greek keyboards.

Genealogy has been implemented by Jamie this year. This brought to light many corrections and refinements that the data required.

Chronology is now being started by Jamie. This has necessitated considerable tidying of data.

Lexicons are gradually being aligned by Andrew O to match the Disambiguation used in STEPBible. He has now started work separating the verbs into the major stem groups so that distinct meanings will match better for searches and computer tagging.

Etymology of names has been removed because there were too many innacuracies. Benjamin will now compare traditional lists of name meanings with additional data reports to create discursive discussions of possible meanings of names.

Permissions for new Bibles have come from Russian and Indian sources in particular this year as well as a variety of Bibles from the Biblica Open Bible project.

Morphology has been added to the Verse Vocab so that every Bible now has access to this. It can now be added automatically to all tagged Bibles, though this has not yet been implemented.

Amalgamated Hebrew and Greek texts are used as the basis for tagging, but David apologised that this has still not been turned into modules. A large body of checking was highlighted during tagging of the Arabic Bible.

Meanings and Manuscripts is now second-edited for the OT, and the NT is waiting for some date to be finished by David.

Bible AI now exists in an experimental form, and David encouraged people to test it.

LXX data is almost finished. Chris is working on the morphology codes of the last 1800 words.

ExtraBiblical documents could be added within STEPBible to make it easier to look up parallels and investigate meanings of words. Work is in very initial stages.

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STEP Bible Charity # 1193950

STEP Bible Financial Report for Jan-Dec 2024

By Darcy McKinnon

STEPBible.org operates three web servers across the globe to provide reasonable response times to users and near 100% availability. In order to provide these services, we utilize Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Services for our web servers and Cloudflare for routing, fail-over capability, and web content caching.

In January we purchased a code-signing token from Sectigo to replace the old, expired token. This new token is valid for three years and enables STEPBible to digitally sign downloadable Windows .exe files, such as the standalone version of STEPBible. This digital signature provides a guarantee that the executable hasn’t been altered by a malicious third-party. The cost (US$930) was shared by four members.

In May we set up a charitable bank account with Barclays, and in June we created a PayPal account and connected it with the bank. These accounts enable us to receive donations and pay expenses or reimburse trustees for their expenses.

In July we renewed our annual grant with Microsoft for Azure Cloud Services. Of the US$2000 grant from 2023, we used less than US $700. Our AP (Asia Pacific) and EU (Europe) web servers use this service, while the US and development web servers are run under a partner’s cloud service on Azure. The partner, Entrust2Transform, also donates time to develop and maintain STEPBible’s web application.

Our income in 2024, through donations, was £2528.87, including £613 in membership donations from 25 individuals for our 2024 AGM. Receipts were sent for donations of £10 or more.

Our expenses in 2024 were for PayPal transactions (£36.28) and our use of Cloudflare services for £228.41 (US$271), which was paid January 3, 2025. This amount was down from US$575 (£466) in 2023, as we discontinued using Cloudflare’s Pro Plan.

Note: STEPBible uses a Google grant for Gmail, Google Meet, and Google Drive. Google offers this to non-profit organizations at no cost.

2024 Income/Expense summary

2024 Income/Expense summary
Opening balance (2024/06/04) £0.00
Donations
Initial and miscellaneous £1,915.87
Membership (2024) £613.00
Expenses*
PayPal £36.28
Closing balance (2024/12/31) £2,492.59

Financial activities for 2025

In July we renewed our annual Azure grant for US$2000, which should be more than adequate for our current usage requirements.

We continue to receive donations, such as for membership, and to date (August 25) we have received £930.65 from 17 members. Our total donations received in 2025 to date are £1,153.09, and our PayPal transaction fees £57.51.

Projected Expenses for 2025

The projected expenses, i.e. the Cloudflare service, for 2025 are for US$300, or £225 at the current exchange rate.

2025 Income/Expense summary to date

2025 Income/Expense summary to date
Opening balance (2025/01/01) £2,492.59
Donations
Miscellaneous £222.44
Membership (2025) £930.65
Expenses*
PayPal £57.51
Cloudflare (2024) £228.41
Current balance £3,359.76