New direction for Exxos...?

[stween]

Hobbies are supposed to be something to do for fun, something to enjoy and unwind. But it just isn't. Its just more stress and endless thousands of unpaid work hours. The whole thing is a uphill battle these days regardless of how I look at things.

Yes, hobbies are supposed to be fun. Also, it probably took me until I was well into my 30s to realise that hobbies don't need to be a grind, don't need to be released with fanfare on the internet and -- more recently -- definitely don't need the grind of youtube videos or twitch feeds. It's cool if people have the energy to do these things but, for me, the grind is tedium.

The other part is that one my interests (networks) has been my full-time job for 20 years. So that's absolutely not a fun hobby any more; spare time networking is like adding extra time on top of my day job. So, I steer into other hobbies, and that's where occasionally tinkering with old hardware or archiving floppies comes in for me. They're interesting to me because I have this connection to these old machines, but they're far enough away from the day job that it's refreshing.

Which is only to say: don't knock yourself out for wanting to enjoy your hobbies. Labour and parts and shipping is definitely work. Dealing with people on the internet is definitely work. I think it's all fair to accept that, and make choices accordingly.

[mrbombermillzy]

I still think about all this often. Not just the direction of the forum but me personally.

I totally get it. We all get to a certain time/age where we take a good look at our lives and wonder if we are going in the direction we want to be.

Overall while some people help with various things, there just isn't enough active people to help with a lot if things anymore. Just look at the chaos with GB7 in there is no real help or information on how to do anything. Again , there is just no fun anymore in fighting endless battles .

I'm sure some people are fed up with me repeating this, but for me, personally, it's due to children/severe time limitations. I have tried to help with this previously, but you must remember the slow turnaround. Therefore I cannot commit too much at the present time I'm afraid. Sorry.

It's like a lot of time went into the H4/H5. Years of bug fixes and upgrades. It should be big news all over the internet. But its like the project doesn't exist . One of the main issues people had was lack of easy expansion. H5 has lots! Fixes all common bugs on original machines and improvements. Some said it was to expensive. But all the work was done for free. I can't giveaway the hardware for free as well. Really the H5 should be more like £20,000 per board.

I'm well aware and whilst I cannot provide any HW help for the project, I hope that the Cyber Legends event at least raised awareness for the platform a little bit. :)

Hobbies are supposed to be something to do for fun, something to enjoy and unwind. But it just isn't. Its just more stress and endless thousands of unpaid work hours. The whole thing is a uphill battle these days regardless of how I look at things.

So I keep thinking maybe its just time to think about retiring. This doesn't mean I will close the forum or leave totally or close my store. But indeed I don't think there is much point in continuing on the path which things are on for me personally. I keep asking myself what do I get out of all this personally and I cannot even think of one single thing which is enjoyable about all this stuff. So maybe it is just time to move on and look for something which is actually enjoyable to do in whatever form that will be.

I've always said to you that you are spread too thinly...i.e. you are doing too many things.

Perhaps a re-focus is needed before the point where you are thinking of throwing the towel in (hopefully that time is not quite upon us). Maybe completely cut dead-end or 'high stress/work for minimal result' tasks.

FWIW, at some point I was going to PM you with a form of promotion of the Phoenix platform.

However, I appear to be more mouth than action ATM (see second answer above!), so will elaborate once my time problem has eased (hopefully by the end of the year).

Anyway, hang in there. You are doing something great for the Atari community. Don't give up! :2k2:

[Steve]

@exxos In regards to nobody talking about the H5, it might be worth donating one board to a popular Atari Youtuber (I'd recommend ctrl-alt-rees) which would garner attention, as long as he does a build video of course.

And in regards to pricing to re-coup costs, the smartest business model would be to have the motherboard at a lower cost, then charge a premium for the add-ons. IMO. People *will* spend big money on retro stuff, but the trade off is usually meaning it works out of the box.

You have to look at it from a customers point of view. They don't necessarily know all the work that went into the H5. All they know is they can buy a full Re-Amiga motherboard for £40, someone had to route all of that too, they probably don't understand the fact that the H5 is fully custom. It's a challenge to get that point across.

[sporniket]

@exxos In regards to nobody talking about the H5, it might be worth donating one board to a popular Atari Youtuber (I'd recommend ctrl-alt-rees) which would garner attention, as long as he does a build video of course.

And in regards to pricing to re-coup costs, the smartest business model would be to have the motherboard at a lower cost, then charge a premium for the add-ons. IMO. People *will* spend big money on retro stuff, but the trade off is usually meaning it works out of the box.

You have to look at it from a customers point of view. They don't necessarily know all the work that went into the H5. All they know is they can buy a full Re-Amiga motherboard for £40, someone had to route all of that too, they probably don't understand the fact that the H5 is fully custom. It's a challenge to get that point across.

40pounds is for a naked PCB if I remember correctly. I bought the H5B1, that was a bare PCB, at around that price tag (maybe about 70 ? don't remember). Now the actual version has lot of things already mounted (IC sockets) so the price is higher.

I *would* love to spend lot of money, problem is I do NOT have that lot of money (and this year I stopped playing euromillions, so gone my hope to become crazy rich by crazy chance... :( )

[Steve]

It's like a lot of time went into the H4/H5. Years of bug fixes and upgrades. It should be big news all over the internet. But its like the project doesn't exist . One of the main issues people had was lack of easy expansion. H5 has lots! Fixes all common bugs on original machines and improvements. Some said it was to expensive. But all the work was done for free. I can't giveaway the hardware for free as well. Really the H5 should be more like £20,000 per board.

I've tried to help with this by adding a thread on Atari-forum:
https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=42588

I have also informed ctrl-alt-rees:

Untitled.jpg

[Darklord]

I took the liberty of adding a link to your post here, over at
Atari Age as well.

I will also post it at my BBS. I already have the Exxos Shop
listed in our "Atari Vendor's" section...

[Steve]

Thanks @Darklord :D

[Darklord]

Hey, anything to help Exxos and our community, right?

Let me know if there's anything else I can do...