A Plea To Gp32x Posters...

[PoisonedV]

If you DON'T act mean, you are going to get criticized. i made a post encouraging someone about an MMO a while ago, and someone was taken aback, and then I got called a 'jelous fag' for it. Sometimes there are benefits for being organized, nice, and helpful, while sometimes there are benefits for giving someone a firm kick in the rear and giving them tough love.
you've got to realize that yeah, gp32x has more than its fair share of elitism, (lol @ slipzone) but take a look at other communities, especially gaming even development communities and youll see twice as much snobbishness, dislike, scapegoating, etc. as far as the internet goes, gp32x isnt too bad a place to be
ps: trevor bradley you are a shithead get off these forums you loser







kidding

 

[VRAndy]

If you DON'T act mean, you are going to get criticized. i made a post encouraging someone about an MMO a while ago, and someone was taken aback, and then I got called a 'jelous fag' for it. [Emphasis added]

This is simply because we had all assumed that someone had killed you and stolen your account.

But one thing is really bugging me. You all keep saying "Chip is moderating", "Chip is this", "Chip is that". How do we know? Where is the proof? There are no photos of Chip moderating. There are certainly no videos of Chip moderating. And we definately haven't heard the sound chip working yet. I think it's all a sham. I'm not saying I want photos today, or this week. But it would stop a lot of useless threads being opening if we could just see a video, with sound, and popcorn, of the real life Chip moderating the hell out of troll.

I'm sick of all the whining and conspiracy theories over whether or not Chip is actually moderating. If you don't have faith in Chip's existence than you shouldn't be here! These forums are not for the weak-hearted!

You don't have any right to demand photographs from GP32.com! They're extremely busy doing whatever it is they do, and the rest of us don't want them to waste time producing proof of Chip's existence everytime some newbie who can't even read the FAQ posts a thread demanding photographs.

They've already explained that Chip doesn't own a camera. It's stupid and counterproductive to keep asking someone who doesn't own a camera to produce photographs of himself.

So, stop hurting our community! Just keep your head down and stop asking questions until at least the New Year.

 

[javaJake]

So, stop hurting our community! Just keep your head down and stop asking questions until at least the New Year.

I thought there was a Camera for Chip donation, so Chip would have a camera by Christmas, not New Year!

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

Oh god, as a member who has been here since 05, I must agree that this thread irks the shit out of me. I stay out of the pandora forums for a reason; the reason is this.

Noobs don't search 99% of the time. 1% of the time they do, but are still coming up empty. Sure, we flame them almost all the time, but in reality 1% deviation isn't too bad.

Seriously, like lubidog said, you aren't the internet moderator. This place hasn't degraded yet, and it probably wont any time soon. Tensions are high with pandora on the horizon, and people are short-circuiting. These threads don't help.

Keeps your "pleas" to yourself, please. Consider that a "plea" to people who insist on making threads about the quality of these forums.

 

[benjiro]

Noobs don't search 99% of the time. 1% of the time they do, but are still coming up empty. Sure, we flame them almost all the time, but in reality 1% deviation isn't too bad.

Problem with the "search" argument, its harder then most people think.

When i first got interested in this project, is spend several days ( and several hours each! day ) just to dig up information about how, what, etc, including almost raping the search button here. And i'm a IT'er.

Now imagine somebody with no IT background, how do they find out by searching what the Pandora is capable off? How to they get a idea about what the CPU can run. How do they know that there x86 game is not going to run on a ARM cpu, when they don't even know that what a arm/x86 is.

Using the search is NOT the solution, if you don't know how to use it, or if you lack the technical knowhow. You need technical terms knowhow. And lets face it, a lot of the times, you get a answer faster just by asking, the searching for it.

I know, a lot of people who yell "search" have a technical or at leased some major PC experience, to know how the systems work. But, most "noobs" don't. Nor do they have the patients to search for this information.

And this is a point of criticism: They way the information is handled here, is just plain fubar! Lets take the bank situation that gets everybody up in arms. The information is lacking, scattered over several topics, deep inside. Take a look at where Chip got all the posts for the summery. Its no wonder people panic, and things go overboard.

Sure, there is a wiki with specs. I almost never use it, Its not very user friendly regarding the information ( imho its a mess ). Its hard to explain, but, there is nothing to draw people to it. Btw: How many of you have read, and i mean READ the "The Pandora Information Index"? I don't mean, quick glans at your off again. 1% Of the pandora pre-order buyers? If we are lucky. Most of the time, people ignore the sticky ( from expierence, they can have useless info like "the rules". Yea, how many of use read those So, even most noobs don't bother reading them ).

But there is a clear lack of structured, up to date, information. Hell, lets look at the OpenPandora website. Interviews from the stone age ( a 2 months old interview as top news is old in my book ), blog that hardly gets used, hardly any technical information that answers most peoples questions BEFORE they come ask here...

I mean, the 256MB news, big news! Where is it? Anybody seen it on OpenPandora.org? Released as a riddle, and then confirmed after a while, yet, not even any official news. If it was me, news like that needs a PR release to the major news sites, and not just lets the users send in the news...

Technical specs ( detailed )? Scattered all over this forum, buried deep under layers. "Use the 'search' Luke". Yea, thats going to drop the amount of people asking. See the first point.

And no offense, but Chip is going a good job in this messed up situation. So cut him some slack.

A tip for Craig, ED, etc :

-Get somebody to do the openpandora website, and let them add the available news, technical info, game info etc there ( and a structured, newbie friendly faq, not some big long list ). That alone might drop the amount of people with questions, hungry for news etc.

- Get some more ( active ) moderators here ( aka, proven members with a no flame track record, every! I'm out of the look already ). Its clear that there are to few mods, for a community this big. Take it from me, as a ex-mod there is only so long that you can deal with the abuse. So Chip, one's again. Your doing a good job, keep up the hard work.

- Question already answered in the past: Close topic, add one post from the mod at the end, with a link to the answer. Do that for a while, and those topics become useful in the searches.

See that people? Criticism with a few solutions. Now that! is going to more useful then the "Use the search newbie", or other crap.

Tensions are high because people already payed for a product, and the information is sporadic, and half the time even critic. For me the bank issue is not that big, but for most, not know what is going on, why is that happening, are they in the group of people effected, will they get the mail, will the mail be lost, what then etc etc... Lets just say, this mater is not handled properly ( like several other ). So, yea, this is now being taken out on everybody, and everything.

So; calm the fuck down people before things go really out of hand ( trust me, this is nothing yet, it can get a lot more ugly, and its only going to hurt the community for the future ). And no, in case some of you think i'm using this post for the job as webmaster, or mod. No thanks, already got plenty of work here already.

 

[telegramguy]

I'd have to agree that there's a lot of animosity. Personally what bugs me more is all the speculation flying around from both ends, the concerned citizen speculates on all the things that seem "off" about this project, which harms reputation.

WHAT????? what's so "off" about this project?

 

[VRAndy]

I thought there was a Camera for Chip donation, so Chip would have a camera by Christmas, not New Year!

Delays are normal in this sort of project.

 

[TrevorBradley]

Oh my poor thread.. drifting rapidly off topic...

Chip/Mods... ya gotta do what ya gotta do, I'm cool if the thread needs to get locked in your opinion.

I hope the points I raised aren't lost and we can still all work together to improve the forums.

 

[VRAndy]

Chip/Mods... ya gotta do what ya gotta do, I'm cool if the thread needs to get locked in your opinion.

I'm sure the moderators are grateful for your kind permission.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

Noobs don't search 99% of the time. 1% of the time they do, but are still coming up empty. Sure, we flame them almost all the time, but in reality 1% deviation isn't too bad.

Problem with the "search" argument, its harder then most people think.

When i first got interested in this project, is spend several days ( and several hours each! day ) just to dig up information about how, what, etc, including almost raping the search button here. And i'm a IT'er.

Now imagine somebody with no IT background, how do they find out by searching what the Pandora is capable off? How to they get a idea about what the CPU can run. How do they know that there x86 game is not going to run on a ARM cpu, when they don't even know that what a arm/x86 is.

Using the search is NOT the solution, if you don't know how to use it, or if you lack the technical knowhow. You need technical terms knowhow. And lets face it, a lot of the times, you get a answer faster just by asking, the searching for it.

I know, a lot of people who yell "search" have a technical or at leased some major PC experience, to know how the systems work. But, most "noobs" don't. Nor do they have the patients to search for this information.

And this is a point of criticism: They way the information is handled here, is just plain fubar! Lets take the bank situation that gets everybody up in arms. The information is lacking, scattered over several topics, deep inside. Take a look at where Chip got all the posts for the summery. Its no wonder people panic, and things go overboard.

Sure, there is a wiki with specs. I almost never use it, Its not very user friendly regarding the information ( imho its a mess ). Its hard to explain, but, there is nothing to draw people to it. Btw: How many of you have read, and i mean READ the "The Pandora Information Index"? I don't mean, quick glans at your off again. 1% Of the pandora pre-order buyers? If we are lucky. Most of the time, people ignore the sticky ( from expierence, they can have useless info like "the rules". Yea, how many of use read those So, even most noobs don't bother reading them ).

But there is a clear lack of structured, up to date, information. Hell, lets look at the OpenPandora website. Interviews from the stone age ( a 2 months old interview as top news is old in my book ), blog that hardly gets used, hardly any technical information that answers most peoples questions BEFORE they come ask here...

I mean, the 256MB news, big news! Where is it? Anybody seen it on OpenPandora.org? Released as a riddle, and then confirmed after a while, yet, not even any official news. If it was me, news like that needs a PR release to the major news sites, and not just lets the users send in the news...

Technical specs ( detailed )? Scattered all over this forum, buried deep under layers. "Use the 'search' Luke". Yea, thats going to drop the amount of people asking. See the first point.

And no offense, but Chip is going a good job in this messed up situation. So cut him some slack.

A tip for Craig, ED, etc :

-Get somebody to do the openpandora website, and let them add the available news, technical info, game info etc there ( and a structured, newbie friendly faq, not some big long list ). That alone might drop the amount of people with questions, hungry for news etc.

- Get some more ( active ) moderators here ( aka, proven members with a no flame track record, every! I'm out of the look already ). Its clear that there are to few mods, for a community this big. Take it from me, as a ex-mod there is only so long that you can deal with the abuse. So Chip, one's again. Your doing a good job, keep up the hard work.

- Question already answered in the past: Close topic, add one post from the mod at the end, with a link to the answer. Do that for a while, and those topics become useful in the searches.

See that people? Criticism with a few solutions. Now that! is going to more useful then the "Use the search newbie", or other crap.

Tensions are high because people already payed for a product, and the information is sporadic, and half the time even critic. For me the bank issue is not that big, but for most, not know what is going on, why is that happening, are they in the group of people effected, will they get the mail, will the mail be lost, what then etc etc... Lets just say, this mater is not handled properly ( like several other ). So, yea, this is now being taken out on everybody, and everything.

So; calm the fuck down people before things go really out of hand ( trust me, this is nothing yet, it can get a lot more ugly, and its only going to hurt the community for the future ). And no, in case some of you think i'm using this post for the job as webmaster, or mod. No thanks, already got plenty of work here already.

Uh, actually, I've caught several noobs who didn't look at the first fucking page of a sub-forum. What's the excuse? Seriously, the thread they started was like 7 threads down on the list. And people get angry at us? Come on, it's ridiculous to have to see this crap over and over on a daily basis.

 

[Chip]

There are certainly no videos of Chip moderating.
That is because this is a family friendly site, and I only mod sans-pants.

Seriously though, everybody needs to just lighten up a bit. At the end of the day, we're really just talking about a gadget here. It's not that big a deal.

As for those who think that information is not easily accessible, I agree. This is a forum, and forums are not inherently good at organizing data for easy retrieval. I do the best I can with lists and stickies, but it's already about as concise as I can make it in a forum format.

You know what is good at organizing information? A wiki.

We've got one, but it's a bit on the empty side right now. I'd love to spend a couple weeks reorganizing and filling it out with all the information I could squeeze out of the forum, but I've kinda got my hands full doing the mod thing. I spend at least a couple hours a day reading every post on this board, answering questions, organizing, and doing general mod stuff. I'm maxed out.

The great thing about a wiki is that anybody can add to it. It doesn't have to be me. You guys could be doing it. Hell, you guys should be doing it. There has been a lot of talk on this thread and others about "community", so get in to the community spirit and add something! I mean if you're going to spend half an hour obsessing about the Pandora and typing up a wall of text, you might as well make it a useful wall of text instead of a treatise about how you think people should behave on the internet.

We've clearly got a lot of people here with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. How about channeling that energy and enthusiasm into something productive? That will give you guys something to do instead of adding to threads like this, as well as give us something more substantial than a search button to point newbies towards.

It's just a though.

 

[closetwam]

Thank you, Chip!

 

[PoisonedV]

Heres the problem.

 

[riosingh]

LOL wait till its shipped then it'll be "were izelle de rom-dizzle, beichees"

then it'll be "shut up you looser, stop trolling like a noob, your going to get this site shut down, roms are highly illegal".

"but beich, were diddle you get urs???"

and then squdge will lock the thread.
it'll sink of the bottom of the page. then it'll start all over again.

 

[Duncan]

@ OP

This is the internet, haven't you got used to it yet?

If noobs ask stupid questions they deserve to be shot down. Sarcasm and well placed criticism can be a good thing.

This project is practically an amateur hardware project that got lots of buzz and attracted a bunch of whining losers.

Someone on this forum put it best (i forget who) when they used that old phrase; 'if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen'

People should just stop saying stupid things. This is a specialist forum, people who don't know anything should stop posting or do some research.

If noobs want to become part of something they should make an effort, spoon feeding them will do the community no good.

I don't get this post at all. Speaking as a 'n00b', I'm interested in this project because it seems like a fantastic step up from the GP32 that I had from years ago. I don't think that it's 'whiny' to write about issues that you have with a product that doesnt' exist yet, but that you have put down £200 down for in good faith. I'm sure everything will turn out fine, but you know, it's not normal to have to reorder something you've paid for, regardless of the circumstances, and if you can't see why people would have concerns about that, I don't know what else to say.

Still, this post is a great example of the patronising putdowns I was alluding to in the post I made in the stickied topic at the top, so for that, I thank you.

 

[EdCa22]

Okay, okay....I'm actually laughing my head off at the rediculousness of this thread and that's bad because people in the offices next door might here me... but hell, I'm going to add to it now

Noobs WILL ASK DUMB QUESTIONS

Assholes WILL SHOOT THEM DOWN

[rant]
Its really annoying. Personally, I find it annoying not being able to write what I want without filtering it and re-wording it so that I don't offend anyone and end up starting a 5 page topic that just gradually degrades into an argument about arguing...because there are some people in these forums with bloody huge chips on their shoulders (no pun intended)...in fact so big they are like bloody sky scrapers ready to drop on some unsuspecting customer noob that is worried because he cant find the answers to his questions and is paying £200 for a device that he is worried he might not see...but some people are just like that and there's not a thing you can do...some people can't be argued with or made to see anothers point of view, and some people dont know how to take the hint that they just need to STFU and stop digging a hole...but you meet these guys every other day in life so it makes sense that they are on the internet too...

And I also find the new guys annoying when I just read the answer to their question like 5 minutes before (and 15 minutes before, and an hour ago, and yesterday, and last week), but as Chip says forums are difficult and annoying to find information on, and this one is particularly bad....

But I can see both sides of the argument, and they both annoy me but also both have to be lived with, I suppose, because we are on a forum of people of all different ages and backgrounds and thats just the way it is... even on some highly technical development mailing lists I see rude replies to people who have just joined and are asking an innocent question...there's nothing that can be done.

The best thing we can do is stop arguing about it and try and quietly suggest people tone it down...
Another thing that would help everyone (cringing as I'm imagining replies to this) is, honestly IMHO, if the devs made their updates on the blog instead of in the forums (perhaps more clearly worded or more frequently or whatever), or at least put a big obvious link to the wiki on openpandora.org (before the forum link) and we all, as Chip says, write useful things on the wiki instead of arguing on here...maybe then Chip wouldn't have so much to do on here and could spend time organising our uncoordinated wiki efforts....

Anyhow. Now I'm feeling guilty because I'm just adding to the problem....I'd suggest we lock this thread to stop more people blurting out their feelings on the matter but that would also imply that I want to have the last word and I don't....maybe we need just one thread like this that we can call the rant thread, and everyone can take out their frustration on it instead of everywhere else...

I'm glad the situation is a lot better in the dev forum...
[/rant]

 

[dadioflex]

Sorry, I'm not reading the whole thread. I completely agree with TB about the tone of this forum, though I blame an influx of Digg users as much as the grizzled old veterans.

If it's already been said then I'll just endorse it - why isn't there a forum for newcomers to the Pandora where they can ask questions to their hearts content and where tolerant wiser folks can hang out and answer them? Newbies will still stumble into the general forum but at least the killjoys will have a reason to shout at them then.

 

[scarath]

the OP'er should be exiled to 4chan for this sham of a thread.

and riosingh is right, if you think it is bad now just wait ..... after release this place will be like a care home for the mentally infirm, we will have to retreat across the internets to the relatively safe distance of an irc channel.

 

[EdCa22]

+1 to both the last 2 posts

 

[parodius_uk]

I dont want to sound like an old git, but... I remember when i was a noob, (and it was long before the term noob had even been coined). The internet was still in its infancy, and there was a great feeling of possitivity and exitement about the access to information. Forums were a wonderful way of putting a question to people who just might have the answers, and for the sharing of ideas.
Of course when i was new to using internet forums i didnt know to search for topics prior to posting or check any stickies (i didnt even know what a sticky was), so quite often would start a thread on a topc which would have already been discissed. Not once was i flamed. People understood that one did not automatically know the ins and outs of forum etiquet, and would politely point me to the right posting. Forum etiquet was quickly learnt "on the job", but without any negative feedback or childish insults.
Over the year i watched many forums degrade into playground name calling and mud slinging. I suppose much of this has to do with the age of the average user, but also with the lack of any real personal contact that is so often inherent in words on a screen. I would take a particularly sad or immature individual to actively insult a novice or begginer when they asked a question in the "real" world, however it has become all too common in the virtual world where one can hide behind an avatar.
Over the years this has lead to the point where i very rarely read forums, let alone post in them. I frankly cannot be arsed reading posts by over educated, over affluent, young men (usually) who cant quite get it together to grow up and learn some manners, shouting at each other about computer games! For gods sake, we're talking about games! Arent we supposed to be having fun?
When i heard about the pandora project, my hopes were raised. This is a project by the people, for the people. It has gained huge momentum through word of mouth alone. The community and the project are indivisable. It shos what these forums are capable of (even if we're only talking about a games machine!) The OP really is correct in what he says. If the forums descend in to a flaming war, people will be driven away, and new comers will at best, be disinterested in the forum, or at worst be made to feel unwelcome. In the seemingly trivial action of abandoning common manners in an internet forum, you really do jeopardise the future of this project. Our project!
To say that this is the internet, and that's just the way things are is a total cop-out. If we want to live in a world in which we respect each other, this must transfer to our shared virtual world as well.
Anyway, thats quite enough from the old git for one day...