Does The Openpandora Team Need To Communicate More?

[ashdjones]

The question is based on comments in this thread.

 

[Mithrildor]

Blog entries with vids of a completed Pandora s'il vous plaît.

 

[jhoff80]

The more time spent writing blog entries is less time that can be spent oh, I don't know, finishing the device.

 

[craigix]

I spend at least 2 hours on here every day trying to answer everything I can, what do you want to know and I'll try and answer it tonight?

I cannot put in to words how busy we are at the moment. Ed is working on a new blog vid right now.

 

[Squidge]

The next question will be "Why did the Pandora miss its target date?" to which the answer will be "Because we spend more time on the forum than doing actual work"

 

[JerryG20]

I spend at least 2 hours on here every day trying to answer everything I can, what do you want to know and I'll try and answer it tonight?

I cannot put in to words how busy we are at the moment. Ed is working on a new blog vid right now.

Can we get pictures/videos of the controls/buttons? We only have renders of these key components, which is disappointing for a device for which gaming is a high priority and we'll be paying for it in a few days. Pictures/Videos of the D-Pad in action? Action buttons? Shoulder buttons? Thumboard keys? New placement/integration of the new analogue nubs? Maybe take pictures of everything you have and just throw them up here?

 

[leebf]

I think they do a good job. You have to remember that the Pandora team is only a couple of people. I'm sure they are very busy and probably also have other commitments outside of the Pandora project.

 

[ashdjones]

We seem to have a paradox forming here.

The more work they do, the lower the perception of work being done. The more perception is raised of work being done, less work is done...

 

[Tom`]

I think the communication is fine. Software is under heavy development, I don't know about hardware, but it seems there won't be a completely finished prototype made soon due to expenses, and we've seen all the hardware anyway.

I guess I'd like to see a finished, working Pandora as much as anyone, but not if it's too expensive/time-consuming to do.

 

[jellmoo]

Honestly, I can't think of anything else that *I* need communicated to me.

- Pre-order date: Check
- Approximate delivery date: Check
- Finalized design mock up: Check
- Payment Methods: Check
- Where to buy: Check
- Videos of Pandora at work: Check

I really can't think of anything I'm missing that would make a great deal of difference for *me*. I would much rather than the craigix and his gang of ruffians keep on trucking with the actual development, rather than do a bunch of Q&A sessions.

 

[anexanhume]

LOL, face to face communication?

Me: Hi Craig, great project.... ohhh, is this a finished pandora you have there?

Craig: Why yes, isn't it nice, and look at the... *ooooofff*

Me: After punching in gut and stealing pandora, disappears into night h34r:

 

[Mithrildor]

I spend at least 2 hours on here every day trying to answer everything I can, what do you want to know and I'll try and answer it tonight?

I cannot put in to words how busy we are at the moment. Ed is working on a new blog vid right now.

Did I you guys werent busy on it? You guys are doing an awesome , really really awesome job.

And thx for telling us about the new blog video , thas really awesome. Again you guys are doing an awesome job. And you guys are getting us really alot for that low price (DS is 150 euros and its way less). You guys are really awesome!!!!!! You guys can be proud on yourselves , for doing this for us!

 

[Squidge]

Can we get pictures/videos of the controls/buttons? We only have renders of these key components, which is disappointing for a device for which gaming is a high priority and we'll be paying for it in a few days.
I'm sure that will happen as soon as Craig has a properly prototyped Pandora case. At the moment, he only has rough rapid-proto type cases which are not good enough.

 

[b._.o._.b]

I spend at least 2 hours on here every day trying to answer everything I can, what do you want to know and I'll try and answer it tonight?

I cannot put in to words how busy we are at the moment. Ed is working on a new blog vid right now.

It might be better to avoid the forums and let someone (Squidge?) inform you about the most important questions. It is ridiculous to spend 2 hours a day here when you are busy like that.

My questions:

- what will be accepted as paying method for pre-ordering
- are you still on track for a November launch?
- is pre-ordering necessary for financing the project?
- are there possible issues ahead that might delay the project. I'm not talking about future telling, I mean something like suppliers that are known to be unreliable and you are waiting for vital parts.

 

[ashdjones]

It might be better to avoid the forums and let someone (Squidge?) inform you about the most important questions. It is ridiculous to spend 2 hours a day here when you are busy like that.

Sounds like what Tony Blair did - he got one his aids (aides?) to read all the newspapers and give him their digest.

At the moment it's more like the Thatcher years, sleeping for two hours a night.

 

[Babrios]

WOW, some of those choices for communications in the poll really are rich.

face to face communication? Yes please!!! I want ED reporting to me in person, every morning right after I had my breakfast. ... and I recon an update by phone from Craig in the afternoon would be in order.

No really, just let them do their work.

 

[Sphinxter]

We'll be just laying there talking.

 

[aliking]

It might be better to avoid the forums and let someone (Squidge?) inform you about the most important questions. It is ridiculous to spend 2 hours a day here when you are busy like that.

Agreed, it's a given that noone on the dev team has bags of time to keep everyone updated, blog, post, whatever. So here is the easy solution again:

Get someone else to do it.

Chip has an encyclopedic knowledge already; he could do it. ashdjones has volunteered. Get one of the people blogging about it anyway - they'd love exclusive access. Hell, get Chad to do it even.

Have them sign an NDA if necessary. Keep final veto rights if necessary. But if it is not clear that people want more information, it should be. A 2 minute chat every other day could be aggregated into a great blog post 10 times more often than we have seen.

I know that some people are happy with the amount of updates. I'm one of them; I've been happy with the team's judgement on all of the design descision thus far and I will preorder without hesitation, but it should be plain that a large proportion of people on the forums are very concerned about the lack of updates.

This forum is the most sympathetic and understanding group of consumers the Pandora will ever have, and I think it would be a huge mistake to alienate any of them when this is so easily fixed. As an eager future owner of this niche product, I have a selfish interest in seeing it be successful and see the community be as large and productive as possible.

a

 

[sebt3]

The next question will be "Why did the Pandora miss its target date?" to which the answer will be "Because we spend more time on the forum than doing actual work"

I love that one
Very true...

QUOTE
Hell, get Chad to do it even.

Please don't as he wont give us information back. But I WILL h34r:

I like the idea of a PR team. But it's too late to setup this

 

[TrevorBradley]

Damn, I said I'd try not to post for a while...

I spend at least 2 hours on here every day trying to answer everything I can, what do you want to know and I'll try and answer it tonight?

I think this is a serious fault. A lot of the answers that are on the forums are posted deep in comment threads, instead of up front where every one reads them first before posting. They're difficult to find even with the search function.

There's a reason why people keep asking the same questions over and over again: The system isn't working. People aren't checking some universal source for info before posting. Forums are a poor way of aggregating and communicating data. The repetitive posting has turned the tone of the forums sour; responses to questions from newbies are met with harsh sarcasm or anger.

I believe this might be because of the structure of the main page of gp32x.de: The most recent posts are listed, stickies are lost, and all people see is the general confusion and loss of information. A link to the main FAQ that answers 90% of the questions, and a link to a techie FAQ that answers the other 90% of the questions should be on the front page, in bold, obvious to be clicked on before anything remotely close to a "post here" button.

I'd prefer if craig and others didn't take 2 hours a day to answer questions here, but rather take 30 minutes to read most of the posts, and give us a daily update, and let *us* the rabid user base answer the easy questions and *grow* the fanbase, rather than keep it restricted and keep the less informed of our geekdom away with scary "search the forums, retard" toned posts

*unplugs keyboard*.