exxos items which are not for sale

[exxos]

So one guy recently wanted to buy a V4 Falcon clock patch. He was very adamant he wanted one but despite me telling him multiple times I do not have any..the project is not finished / not tested enough yet etc.Then he claims I am being unhelpful!. The guy has seriously irritated me and I will illustrate this "problem". Which undoubtedly main developers here already know how it is!

The example is the Falcon V4 clock patch. Yes it is on my website because it was in development and I did a lot of research towards it. It is not in the web store because it is not for sale. I cannot sell you things I do not have! There is probably a reason why it is not yet in the store! But some people don't "get it".

I only got a small number of prototypes made and I gave up asking for testers and just basically abandoned the project. More so, because it is not tested by enough people, I am not going to release something into the store unless more people have tested it. This was also explained and fell on deaf ears. Early versions of things I always mark as BETA and people either accept that and buy them and support the project, or don't . If nobody supports the project then it will likely be abandoned. If nobody is interested in something then neither am I.

I also wanted to do some other slight tweaks but this would also involve another rerun of the boards. Plus all the time and expense in doing so. And I'm certainly not going to do a batch of boards and do several weeks or even several months of work just because one person is in the grump because they cannot get what they want. I mean sure, if the guy wants to pay me for all the time and all costs relating to just building ONE board personally just for him, then give me a few thousand I will indeed give you what you want. But it is totally unrealistic and frankly stupid to expect me to sell items which are not completed and not tested!!

I am working on a lot of projects all the time as people know. And while I may write about such projects and development on the forum or on my website, it does not necessarily mean they will be for public sale, or ever will be. After all, this is my hobby and people should not make themselves feel entitled for me to produce batches just because they want it.

A lot of items I sell very few of. So why would I spend all my time and effort in building boards which will never sell. If it was big business and I had a team of 20 people than I could probably produce everything people want. Then the prices would really have to be hijacked to cover all the costs. I don't even get paid for my time. Neither do I have the money to pay other people! But I am one person and I am already around 100k in the hole with all this stuff and basically the best part of 30 years of my time all given for free! So if you are one of those people then, then don't let the door hit you on your way out! You will quickly find yourself with a permanent ban with that sort of attitude towards any developer on this forum, not just myself!

There are of course past projects where they generally end up in the PCB section when they are discontinued or I am not planning for the foreseeable future producing them again. Stuff I have given away for FREE already. There are exceptions, where small boards have become extremely cheap to produce these days. So some projects are given away and still for sale in my store. While I dud projects like the original IDE board, people should not expect this to be on sale indefinitely and should not expect me to freely give away all my work is because people think I should. Some people think they are entitled to other people's work, all for free. The world does not function like that I'm afraid.

I already spend endless thousands of hours maintaining this forum doing projects keeping stock in my store, writing articles, dealing with suppliers looking for the best deals etc etc It is all a humongous amount of work! I do all this work for free already. People expecting me to give more is frankly an insult in my book. If people really want something that badly then pay me my wages for the time and also the costs of building small volume runs and all related costs then you can have what you want. But you also must have deep pockets because I would have to turn down other work to able to do the work YOU want me to do. Just a reference professional PCB designers can literally charge £2,000+ per day!

So it's the usual thing. But one thing that they cannot have, they then blame the creator being unhelpful. People do not realise the sheer amount of time involved in going from a idea through all the time and development and costs to a final product in the store. Again all this work is done freely and as others have discussed before, people feel entitled to other people's work often for free! This seriously irritates me, because basically people think "you're not being helpful" or "you are not doing enough" when I literally spend every single minute of my free time working on Atari -related projects. Often for people who really do not appreciate the time and effort which goes into such things. People should be incredibly thankful that there is anyone at all doing work on these old machines these days!

So the bottom line is, if people want something so badly, stop complaining and start paying my wages at £2,000 a day and be prepared to spend several months at this rate to do what YOU want me to do. If you do not want to do that then I'm afraid you will have to wait until the items are ready for general sale in the store where I will foot all the costs myself. You will of course have to wait, maybe indefinitely. If you do not want to wait, then start paying me for my time! Simple!

TL;DR.
If items are not in my store then you can probably assume you're simply not for sale and they may never be. If you feel strongly that you want something, then you pay me wages and I will do what you personally want.

[Darklord]

Boy, oh boy, oh boy! Just wait 'till I win the lottery! :lol:

Seriously, I can't understand why anyone would keep pushing once
they've been informed that something is unavailable or can't be
done. I ask really dumb questions all the time but once I'm told
(corrected would probably be more accurate), I move along...

The people on this forum are exceptionally talented and I respect
their opinions. They are pushing the Atari line in directions few
ever thought was possible (To Boldly Go Where No Atari Has Gone
Before!). :)

[exxos]

Seriously, I can't understand why anyone would keep pushing once
they've been informed that something is unavailable or can't be
done.

I think they don't want to understand which is the problem. They want it, even though it is not finished and not in the store for sale then complain because I'm being unhelpful because I cannot give them what they want. Also not understanding my reasoning that it has not been tested sufficiently yet and nothing exists apart from I think 5 prototypes which are not finished. But people who have that mentality, I really don't think they should be trying to modify their Falcon if they cannot understand or follow basic instructions IMHO.

I ask really dumb questions all the time but once I'm told
(corrected would probably be more accurate), I move along...

It's one thing to ask "dumb questions". But not understanding something does not necessarily make anyone "dumb". I ask "dumb" questions all the time about Linux stuff and other stuff. Everyone is or isn't "dumb" depending how you look at it. But that isn't my issue. It is the guy was told in many different ways why it isn't available and he completely ignored every point. Said I did not want to sell him stuff, when I even sent him the direct store link for the V2. There is only so much I can do for people. But to be honest I really have no idea idea what this guy wanted from me. Other than a V4 which doesn't exist past development currently. I think some people just have totally unrealistic expectations.

[ube]

Reminds me of some people that keeps, more or less, demanding support for their own built ubeswitches. I made it open source just because I 1. Really didn’t want to mass produce them (ended up doing so anyways) and 2. Thought it was a nice thing to do. Turns out being nice isn’t enough.

/endrant

[exxos]

Reminds me of some people that keeps, more or less, demanding support for their own built ubeswitches.

Yeah it's one thing to help people. Though demanding support for something which they didn't even pay for simply isn't your problem. A lot of the time its peoples bodged soldering which is to blame. If they cannot do the job than they will have to go on courses etc or pay someone else to do it for them.

I made it open source...

That's a epic load of drama by itself. More often than not, people take more than they give. Which basically goes against the whole point of open source.

Thought it was a nice thing to do. Turns out being nice isn’t enough.

Yeah its a shame when the few spoil it for everyone. It's really amazing when you give something away and they demand support like they gave you £1,000 for it. I've been down that road many times. People start taking advantage then get insulted and angry when you stop helping them. If people want premium support then they have to be prepared to pay premium prices, simple as that.

I've dealt with people where I do something for them, then they start putting their own terms and conditions on it, of basically giving them more stuff for free ... And such people even have the mentality to make it sound like I'm doing THEM the favour. Basically Narcissistic Personality Traits.

In fact Louis Rossmann recently ranted about a guy which came into his shop for the best part of the year asking for technical support and never once said thanks or gave him any tips etc and he then went and recommended someone else to repair laptops.