exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

There are several raging threads on a well known Amiga forum where some people are upset they cant get what they want yesterday. Here are my thoughts...

I’ve seen this attitude right from the start. I (we hobby hardware devs) make something that we want ourselves and release this in some form or other (free PCBs to friends, github, gerbers). The next thing is someone wants to control us. Give us money, force us to do an kickstarter, have a website answer emails etc. Once someone gives you money they control you and then they control your free time. No thanks. Pushing people to a kickstarter or the type of harassment that is going on EAB right now (negging to try and get their own way) is nothing more than bullying. Bullying because someone wants to control something they cannot do themselves. And attempting a form of cancelling because its not how they want things done. These people always say stuff is easy, well understood, all the problems are solved, why don’t people make this for me because I say so etc etc. Make it yourself if its that easy. I get controlled by a manger at work and for that i demand money. Stop trying to cancel something because you dont have one.

The way the Amiga hardware community is setup now is so that nobody is taking a large risk at any point. I don’t go more than £500 out of pocket on a project at a time. This is what I think I could lose and walk away without there being an adverse impact on my family and finances. Most other people doing this are in the same boat. They get that £500 (or whatever their level of risk is) back and recycle that for the next batch. Any profits goes into buying better gear to keep doing it. Usually there isn’t profit but not too much of a loss. This distributed over a few people means we can keep up with demand through standard channels e.g. Amibay, Facebook etc.

Its not viable to have a shiny website. I'd rather spend the money on gear or getting a my latest prototype built. We’re in the "business" (community?) of distributed delivery anyways. As for delivery in general. Amiga is dead. Dead like Latin. It died 30 years ago. Any variation, new thing, new feature that is added is not going to be accepted. Just as changes in Latin have not been accepted since the fall of the Roman Empire, changes to Amiga will not be accepted after the fall of Commodore. So what do timescales matter?

When someone has a tantrum on a forum saying is not good enough that when a product costs £500 and the seller doesnt reply to emails.. I smile. I have just filtered out someone I don’t want to sell to. Knowing when to fire customers is really important. The world is a sellers market right now with all the chip shortages and we’ve not jacked up the price like we could have done either. So any reason to put you to the bottom of the queue we will do that. Extra hassle is not welcome.

The system is working perfectly for me. It didn’t start out designed this way but has evolved into this for me over time because of the way some people behave. 95% of people who have got a TF of one form or another are no hassle at all. That last 5% I don’t want to deal with. Its not about begging etc. Its about protecting my time so that I can help the 95% from the entitled 5% who want to eat it all up. Self important attention seekers or angry people who make demands.

My interest in hardware development is entirely selfish. I make things I want for me. I am a cheapskate so I make them cheap. I am lazy so I make them easy to build. I have no illusions about what I’m doing… there isn’t anything really spectacular about it. I am making an old computer go slightly faster. WinUAE is infinitely better than almost any Amiga out there. Its really amusing that I get so much hate for it.

In summary. I don’t see what I’m doing wrong except not giving in to bullies who want to control me/us. I don’t even sell the cards myself so I really don’t care whether people buy them or not. I’ll keep making the stuff I want to in my own timescales.

It is nothing you have done. it is just people that thinks they are "entitled" nothing else.

and if the hobbyway doesn't fit them, they can design something themselves or get a commercial replacement.
simple.

You can never keep everyone happy! Your approach is correct! I am close to jacking in what I am doing tbh. Just today I get a sarcastic message from someone that is usually positive and helpful, followed by a thumb down on Patreon early access video - when I am really struggling to get videos up. Sorry I know this thread isn't about me, my point being if you can keep 95% of people happy you are doing as good as you possibly can do.

As a consumer only, as I cannot do the amazing things you guys do, I totally back your PoV and stance here.
Not because the platform is dead. It is equally dead for Vampire for instance. But because you decide yo do something that you never claimed is a commercial project, aiming to profit from it or whatever.
Your support in a platform which is a niche in the consumer computer world, which is not a top priority business-wise should not be stirring up demands or asks at all. Don't sweat it, I'd say. But do express your rant. We want happy devs :)

My 2 cents

To me, you have the perfect mindset for producing this kind of hardware. If you fell prey to the 5%, you'd probably get 5% of the work done and we would all be asking when the TF534 is coming along.

In more rude but needed terms, 'F**K them'. Stay perfect.

Think you have the right idea, the right way of doing things, for getting things done. The whingers would find something else to complain about if you gave in to their demands so stuff 'em.

Not many people with anywhere your record of actually getting working hardware out there.

I think part of it is just jelousy that we can create stuff and they can't. Plus we are in the "give it to me for free" age.when they don't get what they want, they get annoyed. IMO if people are annoyed , they want stuff badly, well go do a proper electronics course, go uni, learn stuff. Do work shadowing form a year for free. Work for a company for 10+ years to gain experience . Watching YouTube videos doesn't qualify for real word experience and proper knowledge. THEN go create what YOU want and stop expecting others to do it all for you.

I think another way to summarise it is to say that We (hardware developers) have invested our own time and money into these creations. Ergo we get to control the product, timescales etc. Thats the way we like it and its by design. And if it feels like we have contempt for people trying to muscle in and take control of our creations then you may be on to something there.

I must admit that from what I've seen the Amiga "community" does have more of these anti-social "ME ME ME" types than most, well other than gaming "communities".

It also seems to have more of its fair share of vendors with a bad attitude too, mentioning no names, well maybe one with "Kit" at the end and a group with a couple of big teeth.

Unfortunately the Internet has allowed these people to have a larger public profile than they would have previously and are able to feed off each other and also send abuse and libellous accusations. It's sad.

@terriblefire, you've definitely done nothing wrong. Just keep doing things which are fun and interesting for you.

I'll add my support for your views!

Both you & @exxos (and many others on this forum & elsewhere) spend so much time & effort (as well as money) on these projects (that we all enjoy reading about & using) that you would have to charge massively more for any development than you do.
So, some people don't like it, shame.

As long as you get what you want from your hobby, that is what matters. We're very lucky to get some of the benefits!

Thanks again for all your wonderful products!