GP2X Gp2xupdates Becoming A Danger

[EvilDragon]

Hi,

I just got the following news from Guyfawkes:

GP2Xupdates will be opening their site any time soon as they have started posting news. Ive heard they are contacting different people and asking them to post releases on their site only. I had a feeling they would start doing this as they do this with their PSP site. I should have some more information later on this.

I feel very stongly about pspupdates joining the GP2X scene, I have seen firsthand what they can and will do to be #1. They are only in it for the money and it will create a big rift in the GP2X scene if they are allowed to do what they want. I have been speaking to wraggster the past few days about this and we both agree that they need to be stopped.

You may know them from pspupdates.com, these guys (who are out for making money) basically destroyed the PSP homebrew scene, as most good devs got annoyed and stopped devving (some of them even coding a pspupdates-hate sentence into their Splashscreens.

Why I'm not against any gp2x sites, I'm against sites who make money with the scene and trying to convince devs only releasing stuff on their site.

I also don't want any devs leave because of any annoying gp2x scene wars.

Does anybody have an idea what we could do to prevent this?

(btw: well, at least they can't use http://www.gp2xupdates.com, as I registered and redirected it...

 

[Guyfawkes]

Thanks for posting this EvilDragon.

I should also say that I am all for supporting other GP2X sites, the more the merrier as anything to promote the console is good. But in the case of gp2xupdates this is very bad news and I already know alot of devs in other scenes are against pspupdates for what they have done.

I will expand a little on what they have done in the past. pspupdates was originally owned by another person and was offered a sum of money by a large company (content holdings) for the site. He was promised that it wouldnt be turned into a commercial site and at first it wasnt. Content Holdings is a company that basically buys peoples websites and make money from them, more adverts, subscriptions etc.

As the PSP homebrew scene started to get larger, pspupdates started the tactic of not linking to developers homepages, sources of news etc. This made them they only place for their visitors to get news and not link to so called 'rival' sites or developers homepages because they can go elsewhere. Once they had a large number of visitors or members they started filling their site with many banners and popups, to remove them you have to pay a monthly fee.

Alot of people were angry over this but at the end of the day there was nothing that could be done. This caused a split in the scene, and after many arguments with pspupdates and myself I decided I had enough and not be involved so much with the PSP. Wraggster who runs a PSP site has more patience and is still trying to battle with pspupdates. Unfortunately pspupdates still try the same tactics not linking to wraggsters site to credit for news, developers forum posts for feedback, bug support etc.

pspupdates are almost definately opening a gp2x site I am very sad to see this but I was expecting it to happen. Now that the psp homebrew is slowing down because of firmware updates etc they are looking to another console to try and make money from. I think their plan is to start pushing their homebrew psp members towards the gp2x, which is good, but then do the same as what they done in the psp scene which is very bad.

I know there are a few gp32/gp2x owners and developers that knows what pspupdates are like and they will be annoyed once they find out they are opening a site. Websites that make a large amount of money from homebrew development and in return give absolutely nothing back to the developers is totally wrong and should be stopped.

I tried to stop them with their PSP site but it was too late by the time we realised what was going on. Now we have the chance to somehow stop them before things get very bad.

Apologies if you feel like this is a personal crusade by a few people. The GP32/GP2X scene is very important to me and I basically dont want to see it get spoilt by a money grabbing company.

If anyone has any ideas on how things can progress or just want to help out in any way please let me know.

 

[DJWillis]

I have to say from my limited involvement with the PSP Scene PSPUpdates do seem to have pushed a lot of peoples buttons and generated bad feeling in the more knowledgeable circles and I think there tactics are far from professional.

I think with the GP2X we need to try and keep what we can of the old GP32 communities together as they are established as 'the' GP32 sites and with a bit of luck they can get the march on sites that try tactics like this. To be honest it’s going to be a rough few months for forums as people get GP2X’s and have no idea what they have got .

 

[Inopia]

Isn't there a licensing scheme that allows free use, but prohibits redistribution, of programs and code?

That way we could ask developers (and since the gp2x scene is a tight-knit community I think this shouldn't be much of a problem) to forbid redistribution of their work, with the exception of gp32x and other 'friendly' sites. I doubt it would stop those bastards but at least it would make their actions somewhat illegal.

(I think hando is hosting most of the releases as it is now anyway)

 

[PSyMastR]

Isn't there a licensing scheme that allows free use, but prohibits redistribution, of programs and code?

That way we could ask developers (and since the gp2x scene is a tight-knit community I think this shouldn't be much of a problem) to forbid redistribution of their work, with the exception of gp32x and other 'friendly' sites. I doubt it would stop those bastards but at least it would make their actions somewhat illegal.

(I think hando is hosting most of the releases as it is now anyway)

Its Ed thats hosting 99% of the releases.
Ya, for distribution with gp32x.de, gp2x.de and gp2x.co.uk only would be a good way to go. I hope they can be stopped, as I saw what they did to the psp homebrew community, for a while I was interested in the psp homebrew without owning a psp, but my friend has a psp and was heavily into the homebrew for it. I helped him out a lot with it, and pspupdates turned to utter junk. If we can get the entire community to rebel against them, then they may fail at it. Also, I know gp2x.co.uk links to the downloads archive, but maybe a tighter knit between gp32x and the major distributors could help our cause. Anyway, Im all for helping the community in any way possible.

EDIT: I dont think that regular members should have access to this section. Did hando change some permissions or something?

 

[hando]

EDIT: I dont think that regular members should have access to this section. Did hando change some permissions or something?

They shouldn't. Looks like board upgrade messed with permissions. Fixed.

 

[Rico]

Well it's been more than half a year, so I suppose nothing is coming of it. I guess the GP2X scene is far harder to take over than the PSP scene

This thread:
http://forums.qj.net/f-qjnet-gp2x-forums-1...ture-24466.html
doesn't make it look like they're that interested.