Hi from Slovakia/Australia

[mikro]

Miro Kropáček, also known as MiKRO / Mystic Bytes or just mikro. You may remember me from such financially successful projects like "Why nobody has ever ported a TBL demo to the Falcon", "I can't stand the look at this zView makefile anymore" or "Is everybody so blind so they don't see how easy is to make mxPlay play all the possible audio formats on the Earth?". And I had been coding Falcon/DSP demos and intros, too. Twelve years ago. I've been hoping switch to demoscene stuff since then.

Since some time (while being in Australia) I've been playing with my (de)soldering station, managed to change my Falcon's NVRAM, fix monitor, upgrade XEGS to the limits, ... stuff like that. I have to say, still hate it. Electronics is so unpredictable. Thousands of reasons why something can fail, you can have the best theoretical knowledge and yet blow up the device only with overheating something.

Frankly, I wasn't exactly thrilled to have another AF-clone to visit/check/post to but seeing how much effort and information Exxos has put into all this, perhaps I can see his point. Having so much to share, you certainly don't want to fight/convince/make compromises with other admins only because they don't share the same opinion.

I have a suggestion bulk purchases in the store; it's happened to me so many times that it makes me feel like an idiot. Basically I'm always missing stuff which becomes available. What about allowing, now you have your own store and payment, bulk/prepaid purchases? I'm totally OK to pay all upfront, wait unknown amount of time and when everything is available, just ship it. It's good for your too -- you would know how much stuff is pending and how much to order/buy/build, so a win-win situation.

Also, is it allowed to cross-reference posts from AF? For instance about HW projects announced / maintained only there.

[IngoQ]

Hi, and welcome to this forum

And yes, I totally get why you thought another forum was a bad idea. At least it is a very small scene, and we really should bundle efforts, not further spread them. But after having studied other forums for a while you really cannot ignore how heated discussions get, the lack of gratuity and respect for ones work and the usual forum arrogance (like when a user asks a question, and gets the "use the search" as an answer. I hate that.)

The idea here to exactly do this differently and hopefully make it a better platform for these who drive things forward.

What ideas do you have, how this forum could be an improvement over let's say AF?

[Anzac]

Hi Mikro,

glad to see a lot of familiar faces showing up. yes, i think most of us shared the dread of (yet) another forum to check and consult.

but really, when i receive new topic notifications from AF with a discussion on how to make a hard drive work but not by buying a program like HDDDriver which is still supported, because it´s "pricey", i can´t help to think on how software (or hardware) developers still active would react...

it´s like people want to consumate the death of the Atari scene and just use old software and used hardware (which can go for really stupid prices in some cases), as long as it´s free or cheap. Forget support, development costs, the niche user base, etc...

hopefully here we´ll have people with a higher interest in keeping the platform alive.

[exxos]

Frankly, I wasn't exactly thrilled to have another AF-clone to visit/check/post to but seeing how much effort and information Exxos has put into all this, perhaps I can see his point. Having so much to share, you certainly don't want to fight/convince/make compromises with other admins only because they don't share the same opinion.

If you remember someone a few months ago mentioned a new forum on AF, the new forum I think went active, but more 8bit I think. But overall, mixed views on another forum. I thought the same. Overall, another forum wasn't really welcome from what people said.

Though after so many emails and so many complaints and BS on AF and so many people quitting like myself due to various constant issues, the only solution was to open up a new forum. One operated by active hardware developers.

I don't plan to compete with AF, far from it, new forums don't tend to do well. But all those people needed a new home, so here it is. Here we can talk about solutions to problems and move forward, not just endless pages of nonsense by people who don't know what they are talking about.

I have a suggestion bulk purchases in the store; it's happened to me so many times that it makes me feel like an idiot. Basically I'm always missing stuff which becomes available.

Yes, I understand that, though you also have to realise, I am only one person. I have over 100 items on sale in my store now. I start at the top of the list, make kits for stock, by the time I get to the bottom of the list, the ones at the top are out of stock again. I don't build up huge volumes of stuff because it means they may not sell, higher outlay cost (which I do not have to spend) then other out of stock items become out of stock for longer.

This is also the reason why not much work on new hardware lately as all my time goes into keep stocking in my store, which I basically fail to do as there just isn't enough hours on the day.

What about allowing, now you have your own store and payment, bulk/prepaid purchases? I'm totally OK to pay all upfront, wait unknown amount of time and when everything is available, just ship it. It's good for your too -- you would know how much stuff is pending and how much to order/buy/build, so a win-win situation.

Same as above. Though I used to take pre-payments before. Though it basically forces me to build kits quicker, which just puts pressure on me, which I do not want.

I may have orders for a kit which I may later just decide to discontinue. So I would rather not take payments for items I do not have. It could be months or years before I can fulfill the orders and I just don't want endless emails of people complaining "wheres my stuff" because it is exactly what happens. It does nothing but waste my time and annoy people because they just forever waiting.

It also doubles as a problem that when I am working on a new project, I am not working on stock for my store, I can't do bother and actually mentioned all about this many many times on AF.

Unfortunately, you will just have to place multiple orders when items are in stock, its the only way sorry!

Also, is it allowed to cross-reference posts from AF? For instance about HW projects announced / maintained only there.

I would rather keep AF "away" from this forum, people here are here because of issues there and really don't want to get involved with AF anymore. I don't think its a good idea to cross post between forums either.

BUT, AFAIK we have all the hardware guys on here already ? People here are doing active work, like myself. I am not aware of anyone else doing hardware projects.

There is nothing to stop other developers joining here to post things if they wish anyway.

Of course I don't bother to post on AF with my work, just had enough like others, so anyone who wants to keep track of my work, should sign up here.

[Anzac]

What about allowing, now you have your own store and payment, bulk/prepaid purchases? I'm totally OK to pay all upfront, wait unknown amount of time and when everything is available, just ship it. It's good for your too -- you would know how much stuff is pending and how much to order/buy/build, so a win-win situation.

Same as above. Though I used to take pre-payments before. Though it basically forces me to build kits quicker, which just puts pressure on me, which I do not want.

I may have orders for a kit which I may later just decide to discontinue. So I would rather not take payments for items I do not have. It could be months or years before I can fulfill the orders and I just don't want endless emails of people complaining "wheres my stuff" because it is exactly what happens. It does nothing but waste my time and annoy people because they just forever waiting.

It also doubles as a problem that when I am working on a new project, I am not working on stock for my store, I can't do bother and actually mentioned all about this many many times on AF.

Unfortunately, you will just have to place multiple orders when items are in stock, its the only way sorry!

i join Mikro here in what could be a compromise. it would bother you to have people pre-pay for specific items, because you would feel the pressure of delivering them. i can understand that and that not all people are as patient as they say at the beginning. however, i would very much would like to have an option of making small payments that could be "stored" (though Exxos could use the funds as he wished) as a balance on my account. then when i need to buy something i might have already put a significant portion ahead and won´t have to break the bank in a specific time.... just a thought...

[exxos]

i join Mikro here in what could be a compromise. it would bother you to have people pre-pay for specific items, because you would feel the pressure of delivering them. i can understand that and that not all people are as patient as they say at the beginning. however, i would very much would like to have an option of making small payments that could be "stored" (though Exxos could use the funds as he wished) as a balance on my account. then when i need to buy something i might have already put a significant portion ahead and won´t have to break the bank in a specific time.... just a thought...

It's a thought, only I would have to take my store offline and create a more advanced payment system. Which again just creates me a lot more work for something which not many will use. I don't get to many sales each week so I don't really see it as a good investment of time.

Though overall, there is nothing wrong with people just making orders when items are in stock. The only issue there is people have to pay postage more than once. Really though, its not a huge issue, because if you order more items, it becomes heavier and cost of postage goes up anyway. The only possible saving is maybe £4 extra for the tracking option. I don't mean to sound harsh here, but I don't want to make myself huge amounts of more work just to save a couple of people £4 or so, sorry!

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the suggestions, but this has been talked about many times in the past. Overall its one reason I started to discontinue items to reduce my stock and workload. Also concentrate on smaller upgrades for new hardware mods as I am already 2+ years behind in my booster work, which is my main project.

This isn't big business, If people want me to keep stock levels high, then I will have to quit my day job and people will have to pay a lot higher price for items in my store as I have to make a living as well. I do not see any solution to said problem. People will just have to place orders for items when they are in stock.

[Anzac]

i join Mikro here in what could be a compromise. it would bother you to have people pre-pay for specific items, because you would feel the pressure of delivering them. i can understand that and that not all people are as patient as they say at the beginning. however, i would very much would like to have an option of making small payments that could be "stored" (though Exxos could use the funds as he wished) as a balance on my account. then when i need to buy something i might have already put a significant portion ahead and won´t have to break the bank in a specific time.... just a thought...

It's a thought, only I would have to take my store offline and create a more advanced payment system. Which again just creates me a lot more work for something which not many will use. I don't get to many sales each week so I don't really see it as a good investment of time.

The point Chris, is being able to make you regular small payments, to be spent at discretion on your store when deciding what hardware mod to buy.
don´t do it on the site if you don´t want to... you can just "charge" an account on your shop or here in the fórum with the corresponding credits.

maybe i´m wrong, but i think you would be pleased with the results. not everybody would work like this, people will still buy specific parts they need, when they need. but when someone like me has a wish list about half your store, it would help to be able to send regular small payments and then just choosing when i feel like it (provided there´s stock).

that "pool" could help you finance your projects before they are ready to sell and generate revenue.

[IngoQ]

Now, I can't speak for exxos, but I would surely not want this in his place.

Even if you do not bind these payments to anything, I would still be bound to deliver, be it only morally. I could never freely decide to take down everything and do something completely different, for example. I would have to keep book on payments and eventually repay, if I decided to close my shop.

It is a hobby after all and no self sustained business, best to keep it as simple as possible. Besides, I do not know about how this goes in GB, but I guess the fiscal authorities would have to say a thing or two about advance payments without legally binding contract. In Germany this would even be considered as money laundering and a criminal offence.

My suggestion for your proposal would be a piggy bank

[Anzac]

ok, point taken. thank you for listening to the idea and giving honest opinions.
won´t mention it again.

[Steve]

Yo Miro!