Dedicated Pandora Forums

[StealthBagel]

My topic title should be self evident so I will not overstate myself... it has become abundantly clear to me that while many people call gp32x their home due to its tradition of hosting Gp32/Gp2x material, Pandora is neither a Game Park nor GPH product. Pandora is a new product created by a new company, and this is a site made by fans unofficially for products of a completely unrelated nature. Today's numerous hours of downtime during which I count not access the forums at all, and many others when they were incredibly slow, nonfunctional or infested with viruses due to poor security practices are not conducive to a professional product and shouldn't be used in an official context. Forums for a truly professional company but also be impartial and unaffected by conflicting views, personal issues and flamewars, bannings of valid customers and developers and conflicts of interest brought on by allowing sellers to moderate candid discussion of the products they sell.

For these reasons among others I propose the developers of Pandora and its marketing/business management personnel found independent forums for the purpose of their device which will be greatly beneficial in the future.

Thanks for reading.

 

[quasist]

XGP has been seen on gp32x boards as well, so Pandora is also doomed to not survive the horrors that awaits her

 

[Hooka]

By bashing these forums though, you are basically alienating the community that is/will be doing more work on the pandora than any other site... Unfortunately, yes sometimes there are problems, and yes Hando doesn't seem to be around nearly enough, but the truth is that it's only a once every couple months issue (typically) and given the options I wouldn't want the pandora to drift to something like pspupdates...

Keep your commercial away from my homebrew!

(Note this is just my personal opinion...)

 

[craigix]

My topic title should be self evident so I will not overstate myself... it has become abundantly clear to me that while many people call gp32x their home due to its tradition of hosting Gp32/Gp2x material, Pandora is neither a Game Park nor GPH product. Pandora is a new product created by a new company, and this is a site made by fans unofficially for products of a completely unrelated nature. Today's numerous hours of downtime during which I count not access the forums at all, and many others when they were incredibly slow, nonfunctional or infested with viruses due to poor security practices are not conducive to a professional product and shouldn't be used in an official context. Forums for a truly professional company but also be impartial and unaffected by conflicting views, personal issues and flamewars, bannings of valid customers and developers and conflicts of interest brought on by allowing sellers to moderate candid discussion of the products they sell.

For these reasons among others I propose the developers of Pandora and its marketing/business management personnel found independent forums for the purpose of their device which will be greatly beneficial in the future.

Thanks for reading.

You have made it pretty clear you don't like the pandora and also that you don't like the GP2X so... why are you here at all? A post like yours is just designed to cause trouble on one of the best scene forums on the net, why do it?

 

[timofonic]

There are a few days with connection problems (like today and the past days) to the hosting and a few security problems in the past, but even professional pages are more buggy and less reliable than this site. Maybe the site needs help from some sysadmin or webmaster because the ones are busy with their real life problems and jobs.

Why not fix instead creating a new site? This is a system made for hobbyists and a small new company of people that started being hobbyists too, I see no reason of making Pandora look like a big commercial system like one by Nintendo or Sony.

GP32X seems to not show the actual meaning of the site, maybe it could be interesting to change the name but that could give visibility problems. Look at stuff like ScummVM, they still stick with the name even if their project is for a lot more adventure engines than SCUMM.

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

Pandora is a new product created by a new company, and this is a site made by fans unofficially for products of a completely unrelated nature.

I think you're wrong here...Pandora will be a kind of "spiritual" successor to the GP2X, and will run some of its games and apps, so I think there couldn't be a better place for it than gp32x.de.
QUOTE

Today's numerous hours of downtime during which I count not access the forums at all, and many others when they were incredibly slow, nonfunctional or infested with viruses due to poor security practices are not conducive to a professional product and shouldn't be used in an official context.


The people behind this site owe you nothing. I'm sure there are good reasons that could explain the slowdowns and stuff. And if I remember well I've read something from you about Linux being some piece of crap...the funny thing is that I've been using Linux for many years now and I NEVER had any problem with viruses...Don't you think that the "poor security practices" could be from your side...

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Chip]

All websites have issues from time to time. You cannot expect 100% uptime from a free forum.

There is nothing wrong with these forums that a couple active moderators with topic-locking privileges and a giant ban hammer wouldn't fix.

 

[sensible GP32]

QUOTE
All websites have issues from time to time. You cannot expect 100% uptime from a free forum.

There is nothing wrong with these forums that a couple active moderators with topic-locking privileges and a giant ban hammer wouldn't fix.


OK i'll start being a bastard from now on....

ALSO! we do have plans slowly unfolding to get a couple more mods.

 

[Sphinxter]

Anyone recommend a nice cheese to go with that.

 

[Orkie]

OK i'll start being a bastard from now on....

ALSO! we do have plans slowly unfolding to get a couple more mods.

Can you ban all the idiots while you're at it?

 

[atomicthumbs]

I think this has been discussed already; it would be a bad idea to split the community.

 

[timofonic]

QUOTE
All websites have issues from time to time. You cannot expect 100% uptime from a free forum.

There is nothing wrong with these forums that a couple active moderators with topic-locking privileges and a giant ban hammer wouldn't fix.

OK i'll start being a bastard from now on....

ALSO! we do have plans slowly unfolding to get a couple more mods.



I think it needs more a sysadmin/webmaster of different hour zone so the GP32X site can avoid hours of downtime

 

[quote]

ALSO! we do have plans slowly unfolding to get a couple more mods.

Sweet! Squidge for mod

XGP has been seen on gp32x boards as well, so Pandora is also doomed to not survive the horrors that awaits her

MMmmmm...... :blink:

 

[bourbon]

My topic title should be self evident so I will not overstate myself... it has become abundantly clear to me that while many people call gp32x their home due to its tradition of hosting Gp32/Gp2x material, Pandora is neither a Game Park nor GPH product. Pandora is a new product created by a new company, and this is a site made by fans unofficially for products of a completely unrelated nature. Today's numerous hours of downtime during which I count not access the forums at all, and many others when they were incredibly slow, nonfunctional or infested with viruses due to poor security practices are not conducive to a professional product and shouldn't be used in an official context. Forums for a truly professional company but also be impartial and unaffected by conflicting views, personal issues and flamewars, bannings of valid customers and developers and conflicts of interest brought on by allowing sellers to moderate candid discussion of the products they sell.

For these reasons among others I propose the developers of Pandora and its marketing/business management personnel found independent forums for the purpose of their device which will be greatly beneficial in the future.

Thanks for reading.

so according to you "logic" we shouldnt have the whole other stuff section also might as well just ban everyone from the forums to to stop the flame wars and personal views. and i dont know about you but the same developers that have been developing fro the gp32 have moved to the gp2x and are planing to move to the pandora. Also the gp2x runs linux and the pandora will run linux so i guess that they are not related at all .

 

[squeakypants]

My topic title should be self evident so I will not overstate myself... it has become abundantly clear to me that while many people call gp32x their home due to its tradition of hosting Gp32/Gp2x material, Pandora is neither a Game Park nor GPH product. Pandora is a new product created by a new company, and this is a site made by fans unofficially for products of a completely unrelated nature. Today's numerous hours of downtime during which I count not access the forums at all, and many others when they were incredibly slow, nonfunctional or infested with viruses due to poor security practices are not conducive to a professional product and shouldn't be used in an official context. Forums for a truly professional company but also be impartial and unaffected by conflicting views, personal issues and flamewars, bannings of valid customers and developers and conflicts of interest brought on by allowing sellers to moderate candid discussion of the products they sell.

For these reasons among others I propose the developers of Pandora and its marketing/business management personnel found independent forums for the purpose of their device which will be greatly beneficial in the future.

Thanks for reading.

You have made it pretty clear you don't like the pandora and also that you don't like the GP2X so... why are you here at all? A post like yours is just designed to cause trouble on one of the best scene forums on the net, why do it?


I understand him, and I don't think it's too ridiculous a request. Still, since they are fan forums, there's really no reason not to have Pandora on the boards besides the forum name (that is, besides the downtime). It's more of a homebrew forum than a GamePark forum, no?

I'm just saying, I think you overreacted He obviously has the best intentions, and was just frustrated that he couldn't access the forums yesterday.

 

[quasist]

I understand him, and I don't think it's too ridiculous a request. Still, since they are fan forums, there's really no reason not to have Pandora on the boards besides the forum name (that is, besides the downtime). It's more of a homebrew forum than a GamePark forum, no?

Even dead memo of XGP still written on board index.

 

[StealthBagel]

You have made it pretty clear you don't like the pandora and also that you don't like the GP2X so... why are you here at all? A post like yours is just designed to cause trouble on one of the best scene forums on the net, why do it?

How the hell did you come to that conclusion?..... Did you even read my topic? I guess not.

I DO like the current ideas proposed for the Pandora and I look forward to it being a solid product. I hope that's still the case after a reputable reviewer not associated with gp32x or your company comes forward with a comprehensive analysis of it at which time I'd be willing to gladly pay the price you're asking for it as well.

For those of you who obviously missed the entire point, Craigix included, here it is again. This time please read more carefully. The Pandora seems fine. But tying a profesional product to an unprofessional forum is a bad idea.

Why? Well, suppose I'm some random Joe who buys a Pandora without knowledge of this forum. I have some problem with it and poke around for a solution and e-mail the manufacturer only to go without a response. I find the "Pandora forum" where I can only be helped by a bunch of fans and not the real personnel at the company who made it... and if they do happen to reply it'll just be because I got lucky and they saw my thread in the mess of other ones intended for general fan discussion.

QUOTE
The people behind this site owe you nothing. I'm sure there are good reasons that could explain the slowdowns and stuff. And if I remember well I've read something from you about Linux being some piece of crap...the funny thing is that I've been using Linux for many years now and I NEVER had any problem with viruses...Don't you think that the "poor security practices" could be from your side...


If this is the 'official forum' for Pandora, then the Pandora staff owe me support, just like any customer. And if their form of support is an unprofessional public forum, that shines unfavorably on them. As for security-- I keep my systems under tight lockdown but there have been numerous occasions under which these forums were comprimised due to failure to keep the software up to date, and as a result each page was equipped with an IE exploit so users of that browser would instantly be infected with malware. If something like this occurs I expect a REAL company standing behind a REAL PRODUCT will fix their support system being infected with malicious code and not leave it up to some entirely unrelated individual who makes no profit from operating the forum and has no business related, rather a personal inclination to do so and only his free time to work on it, not being on company payroll.

You could upgrade and restructure this forum, put the admin on payroll and have him dedicate real hours to it, and it will be a big start to do so. However in its current condition this forum is a textbook example of poor product support if it lingers after Pandora's actual release with no substitute.

*Edit: upon further reflection it seems to me the issue runs a little deeper than that. There's no reason software like emulators can't be publicized and discussed on a private forum like this one, however technical support, official announcements and other dialogue with the staff of the company needs to be somewhere separate and free of interference from the aforementioned factors. This would not be difficult at all to facilitate.

 

[nubie]

We went over this last month:

No the community is not leaving,

Yes the site could use a little overhaul,

What is the rush if we don't even have anything yet that needs a site.

The forum will probably see expansion/overhaul when there is a real need.

I learned of the GP32 when I was browsing the net, then I saw the GP2X, so I joined up, the site changed a little when the GP2X was released, but it didn't change its name and the community didn't leave for a new site, even though GP and GPH aren't the same company. The Pandora is continuing the tradition, most if not all of the people interested in it are from here, and will look here for their Pandora community.

OT, is Craig's company called CPH? Craig Pandora Holding? :lol: :lol: ("Look, I made myself laugh, that's half the battle" - Craig Ferguson)

Ah Bagel, that is an entirely different matter.

To be fair the "official forum" could be hosted on the same site, with a CSS change you would never know the difference.

This forum is already better than the GP2X's "support" :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: "support" :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Anyway, I think that craigix is going to be here still, two forums isn't going to help. The people here built the console, craigix would still have to ask them about the problem, and there are plenty of people with experience here, and specific experience with the hand-held in question.

It is quite possible that any hardware/software quirks will be worked out, and there will be proper documentation in the box, written in real English too .

The best part is that there shouldn't be a need to have anyone ask the manufacturer about a real problem with the device. A FAQ page and a customer support system should be plenty.

If you are referring to a problem with software, that is not really a point to take up with the manufacturer of the device, unless it is their software at fault (and again, we will have real people working on it this time, WITH support from the chip maker TI, and the PowerVR folks have even gone so far as to release a PC based OpenGL-ES emulator for developing).

I see your point about a mfr forum, but it really is unnecessary. How can the device designed by this community suddenly be too good for this community?

 

[wraggster]

Every scene need s a central forum at least to start with, although in every scene most will go to the site that offfers more support, updates etc etc. This for me is the rightful place for pandora because most of the community will move from GP2x to pandora, i myself have my own pandora site and forums which once news comes on a regular basis will be updated as much as i can.

Im sure ED will make a Pandora File Archive and hopfully the likes of Hando could make a dedicated Pandora site within gp32x, yes its easy done, make the main site a portal site with all news and have subsites dedicated to GP32, GP2x and Pandora. Wouldnt be too much work with file archives and feeds from the forums.

 

[gaterooze]

IMHO this forum is more helpful than most "official" forums.